Political Appropriation:

Nacionalflamenquismo and Global Tourism:

To understand how Franco's regime sanitized the folklore of flamenco we must first grasp what was going on within the country after the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) as well as post World War II (1939-1945). After the brutal domestic devastation of the civil war, Franco's totalitarian state faced a huge amount of backlash internationally due to the involvement of being a fascist ally in the post WWII era of the world, leading to the country becoming isolated from the rest of world. To heal the wounds of the damage that had been done to the population during the civil war and to repair its global image, the regime was forced to reintegrate internal political power as well as attract foreign capital externally. 

The regime then realized it could leverage Spain's multi cultural assets to stimulate the post-war economy (Holguín 2019). Here is where we see the state co-opt, domesticate and weaponize flamenco folklore through the state driven-phenomenon known as Nacionalflamenquismo, which would strip the art form from its raw counter-hegemonic Gitano roots to instead present a sterilized homogenous image of Spanish National Identity for global tourism. An art-form born from the marginalized groups of society was forcefully reshaped into a compliant tool of right-wing state propaganda. 

Ballet Español, Domesticated Art:

The regime stripped down the art form, more specifically the dance, of it spontaneous, improvisational nature to lure international tourists as well to satisfy elite theaters in Spain. The mechanisms of nacionalflamenquismo adapted over decades as the regimes political and economic goals changed with the utilization of Spanish dance to facilitate the domestic control within the country as well as international relations (Goldbach 2014). 

"The bureaucratic mechanics of the nationalist regime dramatically reshaped flamenco, elevating sanitized iterations by blending traditional folk forms with classical ballet (Ballet Español) to ensure the performance was respectable and easily consumable for state theaters" (Goldbach 2014).

We can really see this in play with the concept of structural censorship seen through the replacement of more rigid, classical choreography in comparison to the traditional spontaneous emotional expressions of flamenco. On top of this flamenco was commercialized through the replacement of the authentic history of this marginalized group with a tourist-friendly myth of a romanticized Spanish past. 

La Sección Femenina:

The restriction of flamenco from the fascist party didn't just stop at the commercial stage and tourist theaters but also included a woman's branch known as the Sección Femenina which would utilize physical movement as a weapon of moral and rural conformity.  

"The regime deployed state-sanctioned song and dance troupes across the country to enforce sanitized, deeply conservative, and Catholic values, systematically cleansing local folklore of any socio-political critique or perceived deviance" (Holguín 2019).

The troupes would go to rural communities and reshape local folk dances into more rigid and synchronized routines as part of a systemic cleanse from the regime. Here we see the propaganda in play with the marketing of a non-threatening version of flamenco. The regime under the ploy of this propaganda advertised false cultural tolerance whilst actually passing systemic laws to suppress the Gitano communities of Spain. 

Next a look at how gender roles pushed by the regime pushed performers back into power: