I anticipate it with open arms, and that will be one sweet day.
Yes, please keep it coming! I've been thinking about how much more intellectual (??) España is compared to the other series, so your commentary is a huge value add.
Well, here I go! This is embarrassingly long, but Lola deserves it.
Lola Flores is a legendary artist, mother of the Flores dynasty, born in Jerez de la Frontera and raised halfway between her hometown and Sevilla (mine!). She often said she grew up going to bed and imagining there were little ballerinas dancing at each corner of her bed before falling asleep. She passed away in 1995, but she continues to be referenced, adored, memed, and passed down as the mother of Spanish art. As she would best put it (I'm paraphrasing): "He conseguido llegar a ser un mito. Aparezco en la enciclopedia mundial como un ser especial español" aka "I've been able to become a myth. I am featured in the World Encyclopedia as a special Spanish being." Is that encyclopedic fact true? Probably not, but Lola was from her own planet.
In fact, one of my personal favorite niche things about her was that she would always refer to our community, Andalucía (where Jerez and Sevilla are), as a different
planet. She was also a proud Aquarian. She was, of course, a gay icon: she was one of the main divas impersonated by drag artists and local cigarettes (still is! see: Pink Chadora), belonging to a pedigree group otherwise comprised of legends such as Rocío Jurado, Rocío Dúrcal, Isabel Pantoja, Sara Montiel et al. She would befriend queer people throughout her life and keep them close to her, turning them into her personal assistants and confidants. She would also carry cash money around with her at all times, in case people in need came knocking on her door. One time, she famously took off her luxurious high heels and gave them to a barefoot Romani lady who complimented her on them during our Holy Week celebrations in Sevilla.
There was this headline written about her on an American newspaper (though I think it was never proven to have happened at all, but it stuck to the point that virtually every Spaniard knows about it to this day) that I disagree with 100%: "Ni canta ni baila, pero no se la pierdan" aka "She can't sing or dance, but don't miss out on her." And I disagree because... it's not true. She
could sing and she
could dance. I think the headline was probably born out of inexperienced critics coming across a hurricane of Lola's caliber and ethnic folklore for the first time, and I can't blame them.
She's regarded as someone who was ahead of her time in every way: from her personal life (torrid affairs, her younger sister has long been rumored to actually be her daughter, one of her iconic phrases: "¿Quién no se ha dado un pipazo con una amiga?" meaning "Who's never scissored with a girlfriend before?" dddd), to her artistic life (she included passionate spoken word pieces in her shows, she dabbled in experimental film and television work, she would often outshine and outgrow her male counterparts in her early days, etc.).
The reason Pink Chadora included the earring skit in her Snatch Game performance is because Lola was giving it her all on a TV performance one time and, when she was dancing, one of her earrings flew out into the audience. So, she decided to
stop mid-performance and start looking for it, addressing the host and going on and on about how expensive it had been to buy, and how she knew that she was loved enough to be returned the piece. Iconic.
Another iconic moment worth bringing up happened during her eldest daughter's wedding, which took place in Marbella. The day of, the church and its surroundings were ridiculously crowded with people wanting to witness the wedding and Lola, to the point that the bride could not access the altar and had to get married in a side room of the church. Mid-frenzy, Lola stepped out of the church, faced the crowd like a Roman emperor and said: "Si me queréis, ¡irse!" meaning "if you love me, leave!"
Mother.
There are honestly many more moments and fun facts I could bring up, but I think what I wrote gives you a general idea of who she was. She ended up losing a long battle to breast cancer (legend has it she refused to get a mastectomy because of artistic reasons), and her loss was felt tremendously in the public as well as in her family. Her only son, singer-songwriter Antonio Flores, ended up passing away only two weeks after she did, as he was dealing with drug addiction and was very close to her (she openly discussed this aspect of her personal life in interviews where she advised other parents who were going through the same thing, unheard of at the time).
Her legacy will continue to live on forever, even literally. Because all three of her children became professional artists (other than the aforementioned Antonio: Lolita, a singer and Goya-winning actress, and Rosario, my personal favorite),
and, if you've ever watched Netflix's Money Heist (La casa de papel), you might be surprised to learn that the actress who plays Nairobi (Alba Flores) is Antonio's daughter, making her Lola's granddaughter.
I can't help but leave this post by reminiscing on what she answered when she was asked in an interview about how she wanted to pass on and be remembered. She said she wanted an open casket on the stage of the theater where she had her first successes, and talked about how all of the mariquitas (
@Vasilios dd) would go see her and say: "poor Lola, she was so beautiful!" because we loved her so much. She was right.
Feel free to ask whatever you want because, as you can see, I could talk about her all day (I typed all of this off the top of my head ddd)!
Te queremos, Lola.
