Vanishing Traditions: The Dances of Jumilla

Abstract

N this changing world it is sometimes useful to note some of the traditions that have been kept up by the inhabitants of certain regions for hundreds of years, but that are now disappearing altogether. These ancient traditions may often help us understand our ancestors and how they have developed a particular custom or style of life, and why. Hence the following notes. In November 1978 I went to the Levant coast of Spain, on the Mediterranean, and was saddened to realise that many of the old customs that I had known in Spain during my stay there (1926-1936) were in the process of complete change, or had already disappeared. The town that I visited was Jumilla, where there is a museum of great interest whose curator, Don Jer6nimo Molina Garcia, has worked, studied, excavated, collected and saved finds from the countryside around Jumilla and Alicante, dating from some 3,000 BC and earlier, to the present day. He has also founded the 'Society of Friends of Jumilla' to try to save the town and its beautiful baroque houses with their ironwork balconies and window railings for posterity. Among the arts that have declined are the folk dances and the regional costumes of the people. These have almost vanished. When he heard, through D. Jer6nimo, that we had come 'all the way from foreign lands to see the dances of Jumilla,' the secretary of the Friends of Jumilla, D. Angel Francisco Cutillas, scoured the town to find people who remembered the dances and music, as well as the costumes of the region. We are indebted to him for organizing the dance demonstration which was performed in the sunshine, in the plaza before the church. The Dances