A Tree Grows in Albuquerque

BY APRIL GOLTZ

The dynamic art form sinks deep roots in the Duke City, securing its place on the global stage

Inside a converted shipping container lined with mirrors in northeast Albuquerque, Fabian Sisneros is teaching his first-period flamenco class to a group of middle school students—including two of his own children. It’s his 14th year as a flamenco dance and English teacher at the Public Academy for the Performing Arts (PAPA). A native of Albuquerque with a poetic reverence for New Mexico, Sisneros is passionate about teaching his students to love where they’re from through the dual lenses of flamenco and literature. He highlights works relevant to the local landscape and authors who embody New Mexico’s unique mestizo culture. Whether he’s immersing kids in local literature or teaching flamenco footwork, Sisneros sees his work as two sides of the same coin—both nurture a connection to home.
Backstage at Tablao Flamenco Albuquerque, the city’s premier, dedicated flamenco venue, Vicente Griego is shining his shoes. Among the most celebrated cantaores (flamenco singers) in the country, Griego is an invaluable pillar of New Mexico’s flamenco scene. He is sharing the stage this evening with familia he grew up with in Dixon, New Mexico—guitarist Gabriel Osuna and dancer Elena Osuna. Griego remembers discovering flamenco for the first time when he and Gabriel were on break from band practice. Their drummer happened to be the son of “El Pelete,” a Gitano flamenco singer from Extremadura, Spain, and his wife “Betty Jo” Lujan, a dancer from the Albuquerque’s Barelas neighborhood. Their chance encounter that day marked an awakening and a feeling of cultural kinship. “He felt at home with us, and we felt at home with him,” Griego remembers.

Due to that kinship and the hard work of pioneering artists, the art of flamenco took root in New Mexico and grew into a majestic tree. Like many migrating plant species, flamenco found a familiar and responsive environment that allowed it to thrive. Today, Albuquerque is proudly known as the epicenter of flamenco in the United States: Its unmatched artistic and educational opportunities attract students and professionals from all over the US and Spain and provides a strong sense of community for hundreds of locals. For many, flamenco is as much tied to a sense of home as cottonwood trees, chile, or piñon.

Origins

Flamenco arose from centuries of cultural convergence in Andalucia, a region in southern Spain. It is a profoundly expressive art developed by a historically persecuted ethnic group called the Gitanos, or Spanish Roma. Like many art forms developed by oppressed peoples, flamenco is dynamic and versatile; magical and medicinal. Centered on the cante or song, flamenco comprises dozens of unique forms, or palos, expressing a full range of moods and emotions. 

The flamenco cuadro—the group of singers, musicians, and dancers—
creates an intimate environment of mutual support in which musical conversation and improvisation can happen. The guitarist usually introduces the chosen palo, strumming its unique rhythm and melody. Next, one or more palmeros might provide palmas (palo-specific hand claps) to support the rhythm. The singer enters with a string of verses or letras, short stanzas which are often from a traditional canon. A flamenco singer’s artistry is revealed in their delivery of each letra in an intimate, personalized way. Depending on the palo and letra, cante can be intense and cathartic, quiet and introspective, or light and playful. The same is true for the baile (dance), as the dancer calls for and interprets the letras, giving and receiving energy from the cuadro. A dancer’s baile consists of many different types of lyrical and percussive steps that serve to mark time and feeling, punctuate or respond to the letras, or invite the cuadro in a new musical direction. 

Top Left: Clarita García de Aranda, one of Albuquerque’s first flamenco dancers and teachers, and the root of the Encinias flamenco family. Top Right: Clarita García de Aranda performs with her young grandchildren, Marisol and Joaquin Encinias, circa late 1970s. Bottom: Eva Encinias performs with family and friends in the early 1990s.

Flamenco’s Albuquerque Roots

Flamenco rose in popularity in the US in the 1940s, partially due to an influx of Spanish dance companies and a number of Hollywood film appearances. In New Mexico, where Indo-Hispano dances have a long history, flamenco was embraced as part of the family. In Albuquerque, the García family established the roots of the city’s future flamenco tree. In the 1940s, Clarita García de Aranda and her brother Antonio García performed flamenco as part of a traveling show. They were influenced in part by their cousins, dancer Cándido and pianist Nino García, who were involved with Spanish music and dance on the East and West Coasts. Back home in Albuquerque, Nino accompanied Clarita’s performances at the Blue Ribbon, a popular nightclub in the South Valley. 

By the mid-’50s, Clarita was teaching out of her home on the corner of Edith and Candelaria. A sprawling, old hacienda-style adobe structure where international artists roomed for weeks or months at a time, Clarita’s house was where Albuquerque’s homegrown flamenco scene took root. Emerging local artists like Lili del Castillo, Luis Campos, John Truitt, Pablo Rodarte, and Vivian and Pedro Cuadra were frequent guests, all of whom became important figures of their era. Amidst the all-day rehearsals and all-night flamenco parties, Clarita was also raising her children. It was in this dynamic environment that her daughter Eva Encinias, the force behind Albuquerque’s now world-renowned flamenco community, came of age. The Tree of Eva

As a young woman, Eva Encinias began touring with her own company, Ritmo Flamenco, and teaching flamenco at the University of New Mexico. She would eventually become a full professor of dance and build flamenco into a degree-granting field of study. As founder of Festival Flamenco Alburquerque (the extra R is a nod to the city’s original Spanish spelling), founding director of the National Institute of Flamenco (NIF), and teacher to the youngest and tiniest students at the Conservatory of Flamenco Arts (CFA), Encinias, now at 71, is still fueled by boundless energy and enthusiasm. Having taught thousands of students over her career, she has not only inspired and changed lives, but also embedded the practice of flamenco into countless families over multiple generations.

Branching Out

In arboriculture lingo, the primary branches that fork from the trunk are called leaders. If Eva is the trunk, then the leaders are her twin children, Marisol and Joaquin Encinias, both with unique trajectories supporting different parts of the tree. In 1999, Eva, Marisol, and Joaquin decided to expand flamenco education outside of the university setting. They founded the CFA, a branch of the NIF, which exemplifies the familial spirit of flamenco in Albuquerque. Open to everyone, the CFA is a busy community hub that is home to hundreds of students and two student performance companies. It also hosts three major performances per year, including La Estrella: A Flamenco Story of the Kings’ Quest, an epic, family-friendly winter holiday tradition.

 Joaquin Encinias is also the founder and artistic director of Yjastros: The American Flamenco Repertory Company. The name means “stepchildren,” signifying the company’s unique position related to, yet distinct from, Spain. Now in its 25th year, Yjastros is a living archive of choreographies by master artists and an internationally respected company. It is also a tight-knit, hardworking family that dances, sweats, laughs, and cries together. Over the years, many members have come and gone, but others, like Kayla Lyall and Elena Osuna, have been dancing in Yjastros together for 20 years, and now have young daughters learning flamenco.

Marisol Encinias is an assistant professor at UNM, where she teaches courses in flamenco and directs the department’s Visiting Professor in Flamenco line of Spanish artists in residence. Following Eva Encinias’s retirement in 2019, Marisol also took over as executive director at NIF, where she leads a small but mighty team presenting an array of education and performance programs. Some of these include the CFA; Flamenco in Your Neighborhood, a free, statewide flamenco residency in schools and community centers; and Festival Flamenco Alburquerque, the largest and most esteemed flamenco festival outside of Spain.

New Growth

PAPA isn’t the only school in Albuquerque with a fully integrated flamenco program. Tierra Adentro: The New Mexico School
of Academics, Art, and Artesanía (TANM) is a public charter school offering a robust arts-based education including flamenco dance, guitar, cante, and cajón (a box drum). For well over a decade, TANM has been graduating skilled dancers equipped for advanced study at the CFA and UNM flamenco program. Today, PAPA and TANM both contribute enormously to Albuquerque’s flamenco culture by producing dancers and musicians, but also by cultivating afición for flamenco among young, arts-minded students.

A relatively new blossom on the Albuquerque flamenco tree is Spanish Broom, an exciting collective of flamenco artists dedicated to nurturing creativity and collaboration and to making flamenco art accessible. Since its founding, the group has shared its impressive artistry, experimental spirit, and playful energy in local businesses and community spaces across the Southwest. Spanish Broom has also inspired other members of the community to form cuadros and curate informal flamenco events at breweries and other public venues.

 Two other flamenco organizations round out Albuquerque’s community of artists and educators. Flamenco Works, on Central Avenue downtown, is the project of dancers Jesús and Amalyah Muñoz, who, with their new baby son, form the heart of the Flamenco Works community. They welcome students of all ages and provide multiple performance opportunities throughout the year, including a free, outdoor community event in September called Fiesta Flamenca Burqueña, two children’s recitals, and a summer performance series featuring their resident company, Jesús Muñoz Flamenco.  

 Finally, Casa Flamenca with its polka-dotted exterior is an unmistakable sight on Rio Grande Boulevard just across from Old Town. This cozy studio and venue is directed by Carmen Montes with the help of her husband, music director and guitarist Juani de la Isla. They offer family-friendly programming throughout the year including a summer workshop and performance series in July, a tablao season (an intimate, improvisational style of flamenco), and ABQ Flamenco Off, a series of all-star performances coinciding with NIF’s Festival Flamenco Alburquerque.

Seeds and Soil

For generations in the Encinias family, sharing the beauty of flamenco with the people of Albuquerque has been their shared purpose and guiding star. Now, Clarita García de Aranda’s great-grandchildren are carrying on the tradition, each in their own unique ways. Through the dedication of so many individuals over time, flamenco has become part of the environment.

Back at PAPA, Fabian Sisneros shared an anecdote from former New Mexico Poet Laureate Levi Romero: “When the camposantos’ [burial grounds] crosses are filled with the names of your loved ones, you can say you’re from here.” Sisneros concludes. “We have flamencos [dancers, singers and musicians] that are buried here, they are in our cemeteries. For me, that is enough to say that flamenco is now New Mexican.”

Author’s note: The Spirit of Flamenco: From Spain to New Mexico (2015), by Santa Fe-based dancer and historian Nicolasa Chavez, is the most comprehensive book to date on the history of flamenco in New Mexico.

From the Spring 2025 issue