Photos: Rafael Manjavacas & Paco Manzano
The Spanish post office launches a stamp in honor of Paco de Lucía within the series Europa 2014 that highlights musical instruments.
Today, April 29th, the last master-work of Paco de Lucía, “Canción Andaluza”, was presented to the media at the Escuela Oficial de Correos y Telecomunicaciones de Madrid, along with the postage stamp in honor of the maestro from Algeciras.
Pepe de Lucía spoke of “Canción Andaluza” as a recording Paco made for what he most loved: his mother, his town and lyrical Andalusian song. “Do you think the group will like it?” Paco asked his brother Pepe. Pepe de Lucía spoke of Paco as “a child who came to the family like an angel from heaven, the smallest, the most adored, small in stature but strong, calm, serene and pensive. Unique and irreplaceable, a world-class musician”.
The record, made last year at his house in Mallorca, includes Estrella Morente with the song “Te he de Querer Mientras Viva”, Parrita with “Señorita” and Óscar de León with “Zambra Gitana”.
As far as the postage stamp, 3.5 million were issued, at 75 eurocents apiece, allowing the image of Paco de Lucía to circulate throughout the world, as part of the Marca España of recent years, as pointed out by Mario Garcés, undersecretary of the Ministerio de Fomento. Previously, stamps in honor of flamenco artists were issued for Carmen Amaya in 1996 in the series “Famous Women”, and the stamp for Camarón de la Isla and Lola Flores in the series “Popular Figures”. Block format stamps were also issued with the image of Joaquín Cortés and Sara Baras in 2000, and José Mercé with Cristina Hoyos in 2006.
