Pepa de Utrera dies

Text: Gonzalo Montaño Peña

Josefa Loreto Peña, “Pepa de Utrera”, was born in 1926 of José Loreto Reyes “El Feongo”, (a dancer originally from Jerez who received that nickname, “the ugly one”, as he was very handsome), and María Peña Vargas, legendary singer of soleá.  She was the sister of El Charrúa, Inés and Juana “La Feonga”, and cousin of Fernanda and Bernarda de Utrera, La Perrata and Gaspar de Utrera among many others of the best interpreters who formed a part of what today we know as cante flamenco.

photo by Estela Zatania

From early on, Pepa made clear her intention to be a performing flamenco artist (something quite normal considering her natural ability), and had to stand up to a society in which women simply did not become professional flamencos.  Nothing would hold her back when at the age of 25, she sang at the famous tablao “Guajiro”, and afterwards at the “Venta de Antequera”.  A few years later she was part of Concha Piquer’s show “Salero de España”.  In 1959 she shared second prize for bulerías and tientos with Perla de Cádiz at the prestigious Córdoba contest, and went on to Madrid where for ten years she worked in tablaos with the greatest artists of the era.  She appeared in series such as “Antología”, “Rito y Geografía del Cante Flamenco” and “El Ángel”, and made a record titled simply “Pepa de Utrera”, in addition to participating in several collective recordings of Utrera cante

Pepa belonged to the era of tablaos and backroom fiestas, and of singing a lot to earn little, the school of hard knocks.  But she was always in good spirits and ready for a fiesta, her cante was power and compas, it was sensuality, and it reflected everything she had lived through, which was a large portion of some of flamenco’s most glorious history.

The cante of Pepa de Utrera has been cited by writers and poets, as well as flamencologists such as Ricardo Molina and Anselmo González Climent, Salvador de Quinta and the illustrious Brazilian poet Joao Cabral de Melo, one of the most representative figures of Hispanic culture and literature of the twentieth century.  He immortalized her in one of his poems which refers to the cante Pepa delivered to “his” Cristo de los Gitanos one Holy Friday in Utrera.

Here we can see Pepa with the guitarists Pedro Bacán and Pitín: