Chicho Sánchez Ferlosio
Spanish singer-songwriter and poet (1940–2003)
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José Antonio Sánchez Ferlosio (1940–2003), commonly known by his nickname Chicho Sánchez Ferlosio, was a Spanish anti-Francoist singer-songwriter and poet. Although the son of Falangist leader Rafael Sánchez Mazas, by the 1960s, Chicho Sánchez had joined the anti-Francoist opposition and began making and publishing music for the movement. Initially a communist, he later became an anarchist and continued making music through the Spanish transition to democracy.
Chicho Sánchez Ferlosio | |
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| Background information | |
| Born | José Antonio Sánchez Ferlosio 8 April 1940 |
| Died | 30 June 2003 (aged 63) |
| Genres | Spanish folk |
| Occupation | Singer-songwriter |
| Instruments | Voice, classical guitar |
| Years active | 1961–2003 |
Biography
José Antonio Sánchez Ferlosio, later known by the nickname "Chicho",[1] was born in 1940.[2] He was the third son of the Falangist leader Rafael Sánchez Mazas,[3] and the younger brother of Miguel, Rafael and Gabriela Sánchez Ferlosio.[2] After growing up in Francoist Spain, a regime which his own father had helped to establish, Sánchez turned against the regime and became a staunch anti-Francoist activist.[4]
By the 1960s, Sánchez had become a popular singer-songwriter of the anti-Francoist opposition.[5] In 1961, he met a group of Italian anti-fascist musicians known as Cantacronache, with which he travelled around Spain collecting anti-Francoist poems and songs. Two years later, in 1963, he released the album Canciones de la resistencia española (English: Songs of the Spanish Resistance), which he published clandestinely in Sweden.[6]
To evade Francoist censorship, Sánchez often presented the political content of his songs indirectly, as was the case with his 1964 song "Gallo rojo, gallo negro" (English: Red Rooster, Black Rooster).[7] Sánchez popularised the song "La Huelga" (English: The Strike), written by Chilean singer-songwriter Roberto Alarcón, among Spanish listeners.[8] He also inspired the Catalan Nova Cançó movement, which sought to rehabilitate regional cultures that were marginalised by the centralisation of the Francoist regime.[9]
In 1965, Sánchez joined the Communist Party of Spain (Marxist–Leninist) (PCE-ML), but he quickly became disillusioned with Marxism-Leninism after visiting People's Republic of Albania and observing the political repression taking place there.[10] He soon left the communist party and became an anarchist.[11] Inspired by the anarchist philosophy of Agustín García Calvo, Sánchez became intensely critical of institutions such as the state, capitalism and the Catholic Church.[12] He later joined the National Confederation of Labour (CNT), an anarchist trade union centre.[13]
His music remained popular following the Spanish transition to democracy, taking a place among the counterculture that emerged during the 1970s.[10] Later in his life, Sánchez was interviewed in a park in Madrid for the 2003 film Soldiers of Salamina, in which the protagonist investigated the unsuccessful attempt by Spanish republicans to execute his father.[14] Sánchez died that same year, in 2003.[2]
Discography
- Canciones de la resistencia española (1963)
- A contratiempo (1978)
- Mientras el cuerpo aguante (1982)
- Romancero de Durruti (1999)