Chirigota

Chirigota is a genre of Spanish choral folksong originating in the Province of Cádiz.^[1] The songs are satirical in nature and are performed predominantly in the streets by costumed performers during the annual two week carnival.^[2][3] It has been described as a vehicle for gossip and public comment, especially of a political or moral, and sometimes prurient, nature.^[1] Suppressed during the Francoist State until 1948, along with carnival in general, there has been a massive resurgence of the art-form since his death and the re-establishment of democracy.^[1]

Politicians are often the objects and subjects of the songs. In 2012 an entire repertoire of the chirigota group "Los Gordillos" was devoted to the communist/anarchist mayor of Marinaleda, a utopian village in central Andalucia. The twelve members were dressed as the mayor, Juan Manuel Sanchez Gordillo, and offered songs^[4] about supermarket raids led by him that summer to dramatize the increasing poverty in the countryside. ^[5]

References

1. Jerome R. Mintz (1997) Carnival Song and Society: Gossip, Sexuality and Creativity in Andalusia, Berg Publishers, Oxford / New York
2. Collins Spanish Dictionary (2005) William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd
3. "Cadiz: Persistent Unemployment, Without Lingering Pain" (2/22/2010) New York Times
4. carnavalsur (2013-02-04), Chirigota Los Gordillos. Carnaval Cadiz 2013 Cuartos de final, retrieved 2016-10-19
5. Hancox, Dan (2013). The Village Against the World. London, New York: Verso. pp. 214–15. ISBN 978-1-78168-130-5.