Rarely has a song been so closely linked to the existence of the person who broadcast it. Antonio Agujetas life was hard without palliatives and his Cantaor saying contained all the pain and misfortune he had suffered, a stubborn fate that he apparently could not get rid of. His expression of primitive memories was always heartbreaking: it couldn't have been otherwise, but at the same time he was able to transform that grief into art because he came “from a generation of singers who know how to bring something to their vital.” Tragedy to live.” Supremacy of beauty as defined by poet Mauricio Gil Cano.
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Antonio de los Santos Bermúdez, as he was called, was born in 1962 into a very important dynasty that would undoubtedly shape him. As the grandson of the legendary Agujetas Viejo and son of the great Agujetas (Manuel de los Santos Pastor), he recognized himself in this heritage when he sang: “I carry in my heart / the legacy of grandfather and father / that is why my songs are.” / Branches that “They come out to the trunk.” In fact, he recorded his first songs like El Niño de Agujetas as a teenager with his grandfather and father. Everything seemed to be on the right track, but soon his life went south and he served a whopping 14 years in prison at a very young age.
From this moment on, we find that an inner strength emerges from his seemingly fragile personality, leading him to flee his fate and fight to star in a story of improvement that, yes, is always full of ups and downs will be . So he didn't throw in the towel during his years in prison, but continued to sing, winning singing competitions in the prison system and therefore took part in the album Dos Gritos de Libertad (1998) together with another singer named José Serrano. He had made another recording in prison seven years earlier. With the intervention of a compatriot, Salvador Román Pali, who was to produce the recording, he received a week's permission to go into the studio with the privileged guitar of Moraíto Chico. He has recorded 10 styles that are an expression of his cantaora greatness and show his art in its purest form. This almost unnoticed album was fortunately reissued in 2015 with two more songs.
After serving his sentence and recovering from addiction problems, Antonio opened the new century with a period of stability and a new album that promised it: “Así lo sorry” (2001) was released with the support of the Provincial Council (his deputy Juan García ) , a big fan, he chose the recovery of the singer) and that of the Peña Los Cernícalos in Jerez, where the singer found the warmth he needed. The guitarist was Alberto San Miguel, the same with whom he made his debut when he was only 12 years old, at the Jerez Chair of Flamencology and an important person in this phase of the singer since he had hosted him in his house for years.
Agujetas never lacked this kind of support. Perhaps because of his fragility and sensitivity, but above all because of the confidence he had in his art, there were always people who wanted to help him. Josema García Pelayo from Estudios La Bodega, where the album was reissued with Moraíto, produced together with Miguel Fernández, another of these supporters, For our Sake, with the guitar of Antonio Malena Jr. Eight songs with a certain twilight note: Antonio, which any style can offend, is overwhelming in its shudder. It should be noted that the work began “on December 29, 2015, four days after the death of his father, Manuel Agujetas, from four to seven in the afternoon.” “Antonio did not want to cancel the reservation he had previously made,” the same folder says. There is no doubt that this effect is present in singing, especially in seguiriya.
In the last years of his life, Antonio Agujetas repeatedly changed phases of recovery that led him to the front and repeatedly fell. The harsh past continued to take its toll with varied manifestations and progressive decay, but between these declines there was always a place for the song of his ancestors of ancient lineage, now in the hands of his sister Dolores and her son, Antonio , Agujetas Chico, as the highest representative.
Believe in mistakes
Due to an indexing error by the information agency from which the portrait comes, this obituary was for a time illustrated with a photo of Manuel Agujetas, the father of the deceased, and not of Antonio Agujetas.
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