El Albaicín loses another piece of its historical heritages. Friday evening died José Ferrer González, cantaor flamenco known as “El Niño de las Almendras”. In this way an age of flamenco ends, the flamenco of the struggle and of the poverty.
The flamenco guitarist and singer was born in Granada in the Albaicín district. When he was eight he left the school and he began to sing in the street of his district, where family reunions were usual. At twelve he won his first contest and after that he achieved fame and prestige in “La Chata”, old bullfighting street in the andalucian capital. José Ferrer lived in the Albaicín, in the Muladar de Doña Sancha Street, that slowly turned into the center of the flamenca culture. There, in this years, he worked and, according to some people, gathered the entire world.
Everyone considered him the “leader of the cante libre”, an artist with an amazing voice who delighted all the flamenco passionate. El Niño de las Almendras enchanted also the younger with his talent and his sympathy, as Curro Albayzín affirms: “He was a great artist really loved and who, despite his age, has become an idol for the young people.”