Women's History Month (8): So you think you know who Charo is?

 

 

What do you think of when you hear someone mention Charo, if anyone mentions her at all?  The prototypical oversexed bimbo?  Betty Boop with a thick Spanish accent?  That is how she was presented and packaged to the American audience for decades, by taste-makers like Johnny Carson, with the full consent and encouragement of her first, much older husband.

 

So it may come as a shock to you that in much of the rest of the world, she is known not as a caricature, but as a serious musician.  How serious?  She studied with Andrés Segovia, and was twice voted by her professional peers the best Flamenco guitarist in the world. While she was a ubiquitous presence in American variety shows and sitcoms, usually typecast as a ditzy sexpot, she never stopped studying the guitar, often practicing into the early morning hours when there was no other time. Even after she began publishing recordings that won worldwide acclaim, the Carsons of the world refused to allow her to play for American audiences because it would have confused people. 

 

America has produced some of the world’s great music, including two entire categories, blues and jazz, that have influenced music the world over.  But our music industry and the listening public egregiously mistreat female musicians.  Even the most successful and powerful women in American music today are trapped in an endless cycle of exploitation.  It runs so deep that even when they are in charge, they continue to perpetuate their own objectification (see my previous posts about WAP etc.)

 

That is part of why the following clips are so wonderful: This is Charo, when it was just about her musical brilliance.

 

Excerpts from “Concierto de Aranjuez” (live):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToeKo0D1YvE

 

“Recuerdos de Alhambra” (live):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7roATcoqQjo

 

“Malaguena” (metalheads would call this shredding):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkF5ef4e-Uk