Flamenco Fandanguero: Primos de la Raza Cósmica honors the deep ancestral and cultural currents that connect flamenco and son jarocho — two traditions shaped by centuries of movement, adaptation, and exchange. The subtitle references José Vasconcelos’ influential but controversial work La Raza Cósmica; here the phrase becomes a reimagined symbol of kinship, and of the real and mythic pathways linking New Mexico to Mexico, Spain, West Africa, and beyond.

The evening begins by acknowledging the presence of our ancestors and asking permission to enter and explore their stories through myth and memory.

Rather than following a linear path, the work unfolds in four cycles where recorded history, ancestral memory, and imagination coexist. Movement 1 invokes the cosmos and the origins of creation, including La Petenera, a song form that exists in both flamenco and son jarocho, embodying the earliest musical bridges between Spain and Mexico.

Movement 2 introduces the mingling of peoples, languages, and forms that gave rise to new expressions across the Americas. Movement 3 explores the friction of colonial histories and the ongoing shaping of identity. Movement 4 concludes with celebration, reflection, and joy, creating a space where living traditions carry the past forward into an ever-evolving present and where compás and fandango become a shared, contemporary ritual.

PHOTO: THAIS COY

The presentation of Flamenco Fandanguero: Primos de la Raza Cósmica by Yjastros: The American Flamenco Repertory Company was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National