Cadiz Carnival

The Carnival of Cádiz is one of the most famous and important carnivals in Spain, which is why it was recognized in 1980 together with the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, with the declaration of Fiesta de International Tourist Interest. Being the first carnivals in Spain with such distinction. Precisely since 2014, the Carnival of Cádiz and the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife are twinned, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the twinning of both cities that took place in 1984. It has also been declared Treasure of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Spain.

Every year and during the months of January and February, the Carnival Group Contest is held at the Gran Teatro Falla.

In 2019 it was registered in the General Catalog of Andalusian Historical Heritage (CGPHA) as an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC), by an order published in Decree 609/2019 in bulletin number 240 of 16 /12/2019 of BOJA.

History

To clarify the origin of Carnival, scholars refer us to different civilizations that, without using the same concept of the festival, have handled objects and utensils similar to those used in Carnival, and recall the remote origin that the Bacchanalia, Saturnalia (to the god Saturn) and Lupercalia (to the god Pan), celebrations that were known both in ancient Greece and in classical Rome.

However, it seems that the Cádiz Carnival is a child, albeit prodigal, of Christianity;^{[citation needed]} rather, without the idea of Lent it would not exist in the form in which it has existed since obscure dates of the European Middle Ages. It is also related to the rhythms of time, with the qualitative perception of time. Christianity establishes "a passionate order of time", in which moments of joy and sadness alternate chronologically, depending on whether it is a time of prohibitions or tolerances, assimilated by Christianity. Carnival is a consequence of the simple conception of time that Christianity adopts. A conception adjusted to the vital and harvest cycles.

Its main meaning is that it authorizes the satisfaction of all the appetites that Christian morality, through Lent, restrains immediately afterwards. But by letting them expand for a more or less long period, Christian morality also recognizes the rights of the flesh, carnality. Carnival thus finds, in addition to its social and psychological significance, its balancing function in all aspects. And all despite the fact that in 1523, Carlos I had totally prohibited masks.

But without a doubt, with the course of time, different aspects have been marked in greater depth until reaching a different party in Cádiz. In the process of its own definition, the Cadiz Carnival takes peculiarities from the Italian, explainable by the fundamentally Genoese influence that Cádiz has known since the XV, after the displacement towards the Mediterranean of the Turks, the Italian merchants moved to the West, finding in Cádiz a place of settlement perfectly communicated with the commercial objectives that the Genoese sought: North and Central Africa. The masks, the masks, the streamers, the papers (confetti) are many other elements that were assimilated from the Italian carnival.

16th century

The first documented references to the celebration of carnival that we know of up to now, are found in the work of the Cádiz historian Agustín de Horozco. Dating from the end of the XVI century, it exposes that at the time of carnival, the women of Cádiz plucked the flowers from the pots to throw them at each other. others as a joke. Other documents where there is evidence of the celebration of carnivals are the Synodal Constitutions of 1591 and the Statutes of the Seminary of Cádiz in 1596, both contain indications for the religious not to participate in the festivities in the way that the laity did. These references to Carnival confirm that, already at the end of the XVI century, the festivities must have had deep roots among the people of Cádiz.

17th century

There are also references from the 17th century century, a document from 1636 recognizing the impotence of civil power before the popular celebration and a A letter from General Mencos dated February 7, 1652 in Cádiz complains that the workers from Cádiz refused to repair their ship because it was at Carnestolendas. There is also evidence of the events that occurred in 1678, the year in which the clergyman Nicolás Aznar was accused of having adulterous relations with a certain Antonia Gil Morena, whom he had met during the carnival.

18th century

From the 18th century orders are frequently reiterated trying to banish Carnival. In 1716 masked balls were prohibited by order of the Crown, prohibitions that were repeated throughout this century. Despite everything, there are testimonies that can confirm that the contempt of the orders was quite notable. In the carnival of 1776, excesses were committed in the convent of Santa María and in that of Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria, which caused scandals in the city. This same year, the British traveler Henry Swinburne visited the city, who left testimony about the carnival celebrations of the people of Cádiz.

19th century

Carnival of 1898.

Carnivals continued into this century and were celebrated even during the French siege and the reign of Ferdinand VII. Another of the attempts to ban carnivals was the municipal proclamation of February 20, 1816, in which the celebration of carnival festivities was totally prohibited, but this measure was unsuccessful.

The first recorded group of the mother of fargas is Cuadrilla de gallegos, which dates from the year 1821. During that year the governor of Cádiz, Cayetano Valdés, gave the go-ahead for the celebration of a maximum of six public costume and mask balls. These dances were governed by strict regulations to avoid excesses. This carnival had to be one of the best of the time, because there were no riots.

The municipal side on January 30, 1833, headed by Governor José Manso, also specified the restrictions and what was allowed as a novelty. In the proclamation of February 4, 1834 by Pedro Nolasco, it is reminiscent of previous proclamations, but highlights the non-prohibition of masks.

From the middle of this century comes the Cádiz custom of asking for an invitation or coins from groups after singing their songs. In 1861, the mayor Juan Valverde ordered that a consignment of 30,000 reales of fleece be endowed in order to initiate a reform in the carnival. This guardianship by the city council continues to this day. The objective of this was to eradicate bad customs that gave a bad image of the city and the people of Cádiz. The factions continued to remind citizens, year after year, of the different rules of behavior.

In 1884, the mayor Eduardo Genovés Puig published an edict in which he would repeat the already known restrictions, and added the obligation of the groups participating in the carnivals to previously present the songs that they would sing during the festivities. The groups thus obtained a license to be able to go out on the streets and would only interpret those that were authorized, it is the first record of censorship in the carnival of Cádiz. Thanks to this decision by the council, since this year the names of the groups, the number of members and, above all, the lyrics of the songs have been preserved.

It is at this time when Cádiz greatly influences another Andalusian carnival, that of Isla Cristina, thanks to mutual commercial interests in the canning business, when island businessmen create commercial colonies on the coast of Cádiz and this gives its cultural imprint to the carnival of Isla Cristina.

Choirs reach their first maturity at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the XX, with the participation of Antonio Rodríguez Martínez, the chalk guy. His most remembered choruses are Los carnations (1896) and Los anticuarios (1905). The tango of the los duros antiguos is remembered from the latter, which is today the unofficial hymn of the Cádiz carnival.

20th century

The period between 1920 and 1936 covers a period of maturity of the groups. In this we can situate Manuel López Cañamaque, the most prolific author of the carnival together with Agustín González, El Chimenea.

The 1936 carnivals were the last to be held before the start of the Civil War, because it began on July 18.

During the war, on February 5, 1937, the official state bulletin that Governor General Luis Valdés had signed two days before was published, in which the celebration of carnival was prohibited. On January 12, a new order is published definitively upholding the ban. In Cádiz, however, the prohibition did not become such and those nostalgic for the festival continued to celebrate it in secret. The political situation of the moment, it was not the best thing to give a lot of publicity to what they were doing. This parenthesis in the Cádiz carnival would last until 1948.

Typical Cadiz festivities

Carnival Cartel 1906.

Carnival Cartel 1926.

Paradoxically, the Carnival of Cádiz was revived thanks to the suffering caused by the explosion of the San Severiano mine deposit, which occurred in 1947. It dressed Cádiz in mourning and brought sadness to the city of joy. So much so that the civil governor, Carlos María Rodríguez de Valcárcel, thought that spirits had to be raised. The old carnival-goers had shown him their desire to bring out a short song again on some summer soiree. And after listening to the tangos of the Piñata Gaditana choirs, a group made up of José Macías Retes and Los Chisperos , he found no reason not to allow the celebration of the festivities again. That was how, outside of Carnival, at the summer festivities, those choirs of veterans were allowed to sing old tangos again. There were political guarantees. Among the choristers was Joaquín Fernández Garaboa, el Quini.

And the choristers raised the fallen spirits of Cádiz so much with their old tangos from Los Claveles, and Rodríguez de Valcárcel liked the genre so much, that the governor managed to capture popular sentiment, support the municipal initiative and get the Madrid government to allow a resurrection of Carnival according to the dominant ideology. The spirit of the city prevailed in such a way that the Carnival itself was disguised, with the occasional type of Typical Cadiz Festivals. The choirs were allowed to go out, but little less than in the aesthetics of choirs and dances. Of course without masks on the street and without costumes in the town, only in the groups. In the cultural dirigisme of the time, they were more festivities for the City Council than for the town, which inserted them in an aesthetic between floral games and the grape harvest festival, with the queen of the festivities, who was always the daughter of a minister, and horseback riding like those that Don José León de Carranza, the great promoter, together with the councilor Vicente del Moral, had seen in Nice.

Thanks to the Typical Festivals, Carnival was saved and experienced one of its most splendor stages. Paco Alba, was the great exponent of this period surpassing the pre-war Carnival in quality. The universalization of Carnival took place, with groups that were liked by all of Spain and Latin America, above all they are remembered as The Beatles of Cádiz (Los escarabajos trillizos) by Enrique Villegas Vélez, who in Cádiz won the second prize for comparsas in 1965 after Los hombres del mar by Paco Alba.

In 1967 the festivities were moved to the month of May, organizing a real fair, with booths included.

Since 1973, the quartets have participated in the official group contest. In 1975 a historic event took place in the contest, the chirigota by Paco Alba, Los belloteros won first prize but in the comparsas category together with Los napolitanos by Pedro Romero Varus. This decision did not please the fans, but this event was what caused Paco Alba to be considered the inventor of the current troupe.

On June 6, 1976, the last Cádiz Typical Festivals were celebrated, for the following year it returned to February and to the denomination of carnivals.

Democratic carnival or carnival in freedom

February 15, 1977, is the first date of the democratic or free carnival. This year the choir Los dedócratas stands out, fundamental in the transition from typical Cadiz festivities to carnival and in the recovery of the choir.

How could it be otherwise, with the idiosyncrasy of the people of Cádiz, on February 5, 1978 at five fifteen in the afternoon the burial of the Typical Cádiz Festivals began. Act sponsored by the choir La guillotina, successor to Los dedócratas. At the head of the funeral parade, which took on the greatest seriousness on the part of its participants, was a banner with the inscription: «Burial of the Typical Festivities R.I.P. About time!”, carried by two members of the choir dressed as citizens of the French Revolution They were followed by two drums that, throughout the march, were sounding with the roll of the funeral. Also two members of the choir who carried a kind of censer, one, and another a kitchen mortar as a swab. Later, four executioners carried the coffin, on which the classic little hammer of the old festivals was placed, on the inscription R.I.P. The box had six funeral wreaths attached to both sides, with the inscriptions: «A councilor in memoriam», «Vicente does not forget you», «Pepiño with love ”, “The Macareno whip”, “From your friends the booths” and “El Quini doesn't know whether to forget you”. Four soldiers of the revolution, with bayonets to the funeral accompanied the box. The mourning was followed by women in rigorous mourning, who were crying all the way, some of them carrying candles. Immediately after, a prelate marched, the director of the choir sponsoring the act and three representatives of the authorities. The musicians of the group lined up behind them, interpreting funeral marches and sounds of Carnival with their whistles. They were followed by the rest of the choir and by a fairly large group of masks. Four soldiers closed the parade.

A large audience gathered to watch the funeral go by, applauding at times and demonstrating their acceptance of the idea of The guillotine. The spectators laughed heartily, commenting that the procession corresponds to what Carnival should be and also showing their solidarity with the reason for the march: to bury those Typical Cadiz Festivals, which were neither one nor the other.

In 1980, together with the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, it was declared a Festival of International Tourist Interest. Being the first carnivals in Spain with such distinction.

In 1981, television arrived at the contest, broadcasting part of the final. In 1982, the provincial and local categories were unified. In 1984, the Fundación Cadiz del Carnaval (FGC), an Autonomous Organization of the Cádiz City Council, received by agreement from the same, the power to organize, direct, program, channel, administer and execute the city's carnivals. In the same year, 111 groups entered the contest, surpassing for the first time the hundred participating groups, a figure that would continue to be exceeded uninterruptedly until the 2022 edition, conditioned by the Covid pandemic, in which only 80 groups registered.

In 1989 the complete final was broadcast for the first time, the following year, with the arrival of the first Andalusian regional television channel Canal Sur, it was broadcast entirely live and summaries of the semifinals were also broadcast. The summaries would be the basis of the well-known program El Ritmo del Tangai presented by the journalists Modesto Barragán and Manolo Casal.

21st century

Columela Street, one of the most central in Cadiz, crowded in Carnival.

In 2002, after various negotiations with groups of carnival authors, the Cadiz Carnival Foundation was replaced by the Board of the Official Contest of Carnival Groups and Carnival Festivals of Cádiz. The bodies of the Carnival Board, as its name is usually abbreviated, are the Governing Council, and its two executive boards: one of the COAC and another of the Fiestas.

In 2007, the complete competition for the province of Cádiz was broadcast for the first time. The preliminaries by the municipal television Onda Cádiz and the semifinals and the final by Canal Sur. In 2008 a new phase was introduced in the COAC, the quarterfinals (or first semifinal). It is also decided

In 2012 the preliminaries were broadcast live with the same signal both on Onda Cádiz TV and on the private channel Metropolitan TV by the presenters Agustín Bravo and Mayte Huguet.

In April 2018, Cádiz achieved the Ibero-American Capital of Carnival 2019-2020 at the XVIII General Assembly of the Union of Ibero-American Capital Cities (UCCI) held in San José, Costa Rica.

In August 2020, the cancellation of COAC 2021 was announced, and therefore of the Carnival of Cádiz in 2021 due to the invalidity of being able to celebrate it due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Recovering the contest in 2022, which would be held in May, with the final being on June 3.

Carnival program

In 1862 the municipality, presided over by Juan Valverde, launched the first party program with the double objective of limiting the popular carnival and attracting foreigners to the city, being the antecedent of the current programs. This program included: proclamation, tablaos, masquerade balls, cavalcade, exornos i>, grouping contest and fireworks.

In Cádiz, the carnival officially lasts eleven days, but if we add these: the days of the contest, the gastronomic acts, dress rehearsals and the “carnaval chiquito” or “carnaval de los jartibles”, add up to more than a month of carnival.

In chronological order, this would be the current program of events for the Cádiz carnival.

During the entire carnival week, illegal groups can be found in different parts of the city. There are also several contests organized by different entities, where groups participating in the COAC act. From the first Thursday to Sunday (except for the Friday of the final), a tent is set up for costume balls.

Types of groupings

• Ancient denominations of the groups.
  • Set
  • Choir on foot
  • Chorus in chariot
  • Musical choir
  • Cuadrilla
  • Dance picture
  • Duo
  • Estudiantina
  • Mascarada
  • Rondalla
  • Trupe

• Modalities of groups that may participate in COAC (Official Concourse of Carnival Groups):
  • Chirigota.
  • Comparsa.
  • Coro.
  • Quartet.

• Modalities with own contest in the carnival week:
  • Romancero.

• Modalities that do not participate in the contest (illegal or street groups):
  • Coros, chirigotas, comparsas, romanceros and quartets who decide not to participate in COAC, popularly known in Cadiz as alleys.

Couples

The old hard, tango de Antiquarians1905. Composed of Antonio Rodríguez Martínez (the uncle of the chalk). Score in pdf.

The types of couplets that the groups sing and that are included in the COAC regulations are:

• La presentation is the first composition to interpret and its music may or may not be original. At present they interpret all the forms, except the quartets, which interpret a parody.
• The StepableIt must be an original composition. It is interpreted by the chirigotas and the chambers, being in the latter the most valued piece in the COAC. Each grouping, in each contest pass, must sing two except for the choirs, quartets and youth and children's chambers, which must sing 3.
• The tangoIt must be an original composition. It is the genuine piece of the choir and the most valued of its repertoire. Only choirs and choirs interpret it in each contest pass, should sing two. Except for the children's and youth choirs to interpret 3.
• La parody is the most valued part in the quartet. It is not a musical composition, it is a representation that make the components of the quartet in mode of dialogue between them. Being humor, irony and double sense its main characteristics.
• The couplé, this piece is common for all groups. It must be an original composition. Each grouping must interpret two cuplés finished by the chorus in each pass. Except in the choirs, which is not mandatory, the cuplés are bound, that is, united. It is the most valued part of the repertoire in the chirigota. Children ' s and youths ' chirigotas must interpret 3 couplés.
• The Stribillo, serves as a couple termination and may vary from one couple to another. It is interpreted by all groups. Stribillos are oriented to the type (disfraz) of the group; those of chirigotas and quartets are usually humorous stribillos with sticky music and simple words games (sometimes very repetitive to heat the public and to arouse that the auditorium repeats with the group the last sentences of the same), while the bands sing to something related to the type of more sentimental form. The choirs are not so encased to sing humorous choruses or in a "serious" way, but it depends on the choir itself and its authors. In spite of this, the refrain is always free and can be like the authors and/or the desired grouping (it can be a chirigota stirrup and be critical; or of sharing and being humorous), as long as the letter goes to the type.

Examples of Carnival refrains:

Oh, what a coincidence there is a world war. People do not even respect that we are in Carnival. Estuary. Ria." Quartet "Three musical notes" (1991).

Oh girl, keep in mind that I am an apprentice, if it doesn't come out the first time I'll have to repeat it. A whistle of cane (to the cauldron), west wind (to the cauldron), come the walls (to the cauldron) the little arms of the bridge (to the cauldron). The moon over the Caleta, the turrets and removes and removes that this has "acabao". Little cup of my entrails you have bewitched me again. Comparsa "El brujo" (nineteen ninety five).

"The moon has told the sun in the reflections of the water to hide in a corner and make the night longer. Make the night longer for you carry in my little boat the secrets of this beach, and written in the sand leave a sign for them. when the sea rises you can read in its large mirror: I love you, I love you, I love you". Comparsa "The Beach of Secrets" (2007).

'February is a great chameleon, who makes cowards brave, turns the King into a jester and justice is sung by the people. The moon lets itself be loved, and I fell steals my heart oh, oh, oh... Open the Doors of Earth again... oh chameleon, oh chameleon, oh chameleon. Comparsa 'The cowards' (2016)

• The popurrí is a mix of music, which can or may not be original, and letters. It is a mandatory piece in all modes, except in the quartet, which is optional.
• The theme free it is the optional theme that the quartets have after the compulsory couple sludge. It can be a popurri, another parody, or a cuplés.

Musical instruments

Although many more instruments are used, especially in the street and in the interpretation of medleys, choruses and/or presentations, the most characteristic instruments are:

• La Box and pump, used by the compartments and chirigotas.
• The pito de cane or kazoo, used by the compartments, chirigotas and quartets.
• La Guitar, used by choirs, cloaks, chirigotas and quartets is optional
• La bandurriaused by choirs.
• The laúdused by choirs.
• The keysused by quartets.

Voices

Coro gaditano in Carnival.

• Lower: voice more serious, common in choirs. You don't necessarily have to do the tenor melody to a lower octave.

• Third: Serious voice that lowers a just fifth (3.5 tones) the tone of the tenor. If the tenor is my third will be a la. (It is not usually used in the groupings, although they are used mostly in mixed groupings because of the problem of the tesitura of the members)

• Second: a serious voice that goes down in "two tones of the tenor". In musical theory, the voice of the second would be a third by a low tenor that, depending on the note and scale, would be a third greater (2 tones) or third smaller (1'5 tones). For example (on a CM scale): If the note is a Do, its second voice would be one (a third smaller, since from a do there is 1 and a half tone).

• Tenor: medium voice. Base of the other voices.

• Octavilla: sharp voice. It is a third above the tenor (although contrary to the second) which, therefore, may be greater (2 tones above the tenor) or less (1.5 above the minor). For example (in CM scale): if the tenor makes a me and the leaflet makes a sun, it will be a third minor; and if the tenor makes a do and the leaflet makes a me, it will be a third greater. The mistake is often made to believe that the leaflet is an octave above the tenor.
• Contrary: the sharpest voice. It's a fair fifth. For example (in CM scale): if the tenor makes a sun, the contract will make a re.

The groups usually play with the octaves and with the melody of the tenor; they do not always have to follow a predetermined interval pattern. For example: the end of the chirigotero pasodobles, considered "in the purest vineyard style", usually have a second that descends "to the pit".

Twinnings

Country	Carnival	Date
	Cologne	2010
	La Carolina	2013
	Santa Cruz de Tenerife	2014

Historical Carnival Members

Bust of Paco Alba in La Caleta, Cadiz.

• Francisco Abeijón Ramos, the Carapalo.
• José Rodríguez, El Sopa
• Paco Alba, The Witch.
• Juan Carlos Aragón Becerra, el Captain Veneno.
• José Luis Ballesteros Castro, Love.
• Juan Antonio Benítez Benítez, Er Benite.
• Jesus Welcome Saucedo.
• Juan Manuel Braza Benítez, the Sheriff..
• Carlos Brihuega, Carli.
• Manuel Carrion Moreno, The Cabra.
• Manuel Cornejo Aragón, Don Adolfo.
• Ramon Díaz, Fleet.
• Joaquín Fernández Garaboa, Quini.
• Angel Gago Cubelo, Gago.
• José Luis García Cossio, Selu.
• Enrique García Rosado, Kike Remolino.
• Agustín González, The Chimney.
• José Guerrero Roldán, the Yuyu.
• Emilio Gutiérrez Cruz, the Libi.
• Manuel López Cañamaque.
• José Macías Retes.
• Antonio Martín García.
• Antonio Martínez Ares, the Child of Santa Maria .
• Francisco Javier and David Márquez Mateo, the brothers Carapapa.
• Fernando Migueles Santander, Nandi Migueles.
• Manuel Jesús Morera Rioja, Morera.
• Rafael Mosquera Muñoz, Fali Mosquera.
• Julio Pardo Merelo, fat.
• Rafael Pastrana Guillén, Faly Pastrana.
• José Peña Herrera, the Peña.
• Joaquín Quiñones Madera.
• Antonio Rico Segura, Pedro the Majaras.
• José María Rioja Astorga.
• Antonio Rivas Cabañas.
• Luis Manuel Rivero Ramos, Luis Rivero.
• Juan Rivero Torrejón Juan Rivero.
• Antonio Rodríguez Martínez, The uncle of the chalk.
• Pedro Romero Baro.
• José Manuel Romero Pareja, The Petra.
• Manuel Sánchez Alba, the Noly.
• Manuel Santander Cahué.
• Antonio Pedro Serrano, the Canijo.
• Angel Subiela Gómez.
• Manolo Torres.
• José Antonio Molina Marín, Molina.
• Constantine Tovar Verdejo, Tino Tovar.
• Antonio Trujillo Ramos, the Catalan.
• José Antonio Vera Luque, the Vera.
• Juan Antonio Villar Pacheco, the Massa.
• Enrique Villegas Vélez.
• Luis Ripoll Lazaro.

Gold Mask

The Golden Mask is an award that is given to those people who have been linked to the Cadiz Carnival for at least 25 years, either as an interpreter or author.

Cryers

Alejandro Sanz, pregoner in 2005