Esther Ponce Magazine

Esther Ponce Magazine

XANA

XANA, a true story…

…But XANA was different from her 3 sisters, since the day she was born in the Nalón estuary while her mother washed, she was already blessed to foresee the future throughout her life and save lives…

“XANA uses her powers to rescue her daughter from Buenos Aires on Christmas Eve…Elvira sings at the mythical Colón theater and her manager disappears with the money, cheats on him, steals her cache and the tragedy begins…”

Spain organizes the World Cup and Madrid is on fire! …on July 7, 1982, 60,000 people fill the Atletico de Madrid stadium to listen to the Rolling Stones and a hurricane storm begins 5m before going on stage. The public prayed that Mick Jagger would not go to the hotel, who in the end gave it all wrapped in a Spanish flag, while the stage fell apart due to the climatic circumstances.
The concert was seen on television as a suspense movie and XANA, now a grandmother, an excellent wife, an Asturian mommy, a woman who had been through the war, floods, extreme moments... when she saw herself surrounded by so many grandchildren, eating all together in the living room her exquisite fish stews, and her popular rice pudding, she was happy.
XANA kept the IX century recipe and made it with honey. An Asturian dessert. Inheritance of the Arabs who brought us cinnamon and lemon and in the 13th century cane sugar.
But Esther was different, she was her pretty girl and the last XANA. She was becoming a little woman and XANA moved to Madrid for a long time to spend more time by her side and give her the best advice while she lived, also to help Elvira with the expected arrival of the Filipina.
 One day, when they were all sitting at the table, Elvira couldn't think of anything better than announcing that Esther was already a woman. Just that day her older brother had invited his new friend for lunch, also from the same neighborhood, La Piovera. A surfer with light eyes and white skin, with long blonde hair, with a body for advertisement and skin still golden from the sun of the beaches of Peru. He carried a very long skateboard to go everywhere… Esther wanted to get under the table and not come out for a year, and for the first time in her life, she didn't know what to say.
From then on, everything was different, she didn't stop thinking about her brother's friend and he didn't stop thinking about her either. 

XANA reminded Esther that they spent the entire day of their first communion carrying gifts on their heads from one place to another in the Goxa, basket in Asturian. At the same time that she consoled her for the trauma that the little princess was going through... Angel Barco, as Director of the recording studios, was in charge of selecting the girl who would be part of the famous children's musical duo, Enrique Y Ana. As a theme for the casting and thus reduce the number of candidates, they decided that the singer would resemble Snow White, once again, Snow White appeared in Esther's short life. Esther cried with XANA asking her why her father hadn't chosen a girl who looked like Pipi Lastrum, with freckles on her face like her. XANA hugged her tightly and told her ; —My dear, you already have a written and very promising future in the dance world . You will win such an important prize that the directors of the best companies will hire you as the prima ballerina, launching your career to success...
Angel really didn't want his daughter, who was so young, to dedicate herself to show business, and for her to continue studying to be the journalist that she said she wanted to be when she grew up. But the opposite effect happened, that made Esther fight harder.

Meanwhile, Elvira continued to run a Beauty Center that she had opened on Arturo Soria street. She delighted all the clients, they didn't want to leave there and when they left they did so full of beauty, joy, they had sung, danced, toasted. Elvira was a being of light. Being next to La Voz de Naranja was a privilege, she was so good that she never saw the bad, her sense of humor kept her very young and her little son seemed like her brother.
She was in a stage of maturity where you could appreciate the pure beauty of a mother, along with the other Elvira, the artist, sometimes too naive... but her sweetness was what captivated those who were close to her. As it’s happened to an Argentine with gray hair, whom Elvira met in Portugal. When she spent a season and presented her own TV show. After many years, eating with a close friend, she met him again at "El Chalet", an Argentine restaurant with the best meat in all of Madrid. Meat that it brought fresh every week on a direct flight from Buenos Aires, her neighbor and her friend, the pilot who lived right in front of her house .
 The Argentine had gray hair and was quite attractive... two minutes later, with his studied verbiage, he was offering Elvira a tour of Argentina.
 XANA was opposed to this trip from the beginning, because her mother had already predicted the future and for sure it was that man. But Elvira was carried away by the situation, she was a restless woman and such an artist that she needed to get up on stage and share her experiences with her beautiful voice, and her passionate way of interpreting… she could never imagine what was about to happen to her. 

Felipe Gonzalez wins the elections and becomes the new President of the Government. Spain is still adapting to his new stage. Leaving home was exciting and sometimes it was better not to go out.
At the Barajas airport with an immense fog, one of the greatest aviation tragedies occurs, due to the lack of lighting on the runways, and without even taking off, two planes collide and catch fire leaving 150 dead. Elvira and Angel lived it very closely, one of the commanders also lived in La Piovera. 
Angel hires a Filipina engineering student as an intern for his house, who traveled to Spain in order to get the job. She falsified her papers saying that she was already 21 years old, but she was 18 and they almost deported her to Manila. The lawyer of the man of one of her cousins, one of the many who already worked in houses in Madrid, helped her. She was tall and slim like a model, quite pretty, strong and very ambitious. She was perfect for taking care of children, especially Daniel, who was a 7-year-old with curly hair. She spoke the Tagalog language, which after 333 years of Spanish rule, the 7,000 islands that make up the archipelago, had a lot of Spanish vocabulary. Baptized in 1521 by Fernando Magallanes as Las Felipinas, in honor of the one who would become King of Spain, Felipe II. 
But! XANA saw something in her that she didn't quite like and didn't give her a good feeling. Even so, before returning to Valencia with the General, she taught her to stew arroz con leche, to cook salmon, fabada, torrijas, merengada milk, paella...

Elvira would become a XANA when her mother was gone, but in the meantime she should follow the advice of her XANA grandmother, Elvira, and her XANA mother, Maria del Carmen, Carminina for General Ponce and Mamaíta for her grandchildren. But she didn't listen to anyone and she began to prepare her tour of Argentina with the gray-haired man. Who asked her for a significant amount of money for travel, clothing and others, assuring her that upon her arrival in Buenos Aires he would be returned in full and that she, already with the finery, would collect the agreed fee.
Elvira was excited, she was wearing a spectacular wardrobe, the one she already had and the one she bought for Tomás. The celebrity dressmaker. He was divine, he sold you the dress, the shoes, the bag and the mink coat with the matching hat. She bought a long white lace skirt, which was made with the fabric from the wedding dress of the Faraona of Spain, Lola Flores.
XANA said goodbye to Elvira saying; —My daughter, take the Virgin of Socorro and don't separate yourself from her, put her on top of the Singer tonight. She has been forming the halo for a few days that only you can see. She will protect you, but she will not prevent the destiny your grandmother has predicted from coming true. When you return, you will never want to be separated from your children and your husband again.

1983, Buenos Aires, in the middle of the elections to elect President Raul Alfonsín and the mythical Avenida de Mayo is filled with zarzuela theaters, peñas, and cafes reminiscent of La Gran Vía in Madrid. With sophisticated art nouveau, neoclassical and eclectic style buildings, such as the oldest café in the city "Café Tortoni" where personalities such as Ortega y Gasset, Alfonsina Storni, Carlos Gardel, Albert Einstein, Federico Garcia Lorca and the poet passed by their tables. Uruguayan Juana de Ibarbourou, one of the most personal voices of Latin American poetry, who wrote the best poem of the painter D. Julio Prieto Nespereira, well known in the city.
The recently arrived La Voz de Naranja, had her first coffee there after a long trip.
Everything seemed well organized. The performances would last a month.
Elvira did not want to live in the same hotel as her manager, nor alone, so she shared a beautiful house, on the same avenue, with which she would become her best friend, Gabriela. And that it was next to the Teatro Colón, 36,408 square meters, with features of the Italian Renaissance, and German and French architecture. With a capacity of 3,000 people and a stage 48 meters high…One of the opera houses in the world with the best acoustics.
Elvira was lucky enough to sing there at a charity gala and her voice was heard as if she were an angel, brilliant, full of life and she gave everything and more.
The Director of the theater, the rock to which she went to eat every day, and everyone she met, was captivated by her beauty, her friendliness and professionalism.

The time had come to ask him for the million pesetas that had been advanced, but the shameless "manager" had lied to everyone and was ruined. He had spent everything, he didn't even have enough to pay for Elvira's plane ride back. He promised that with the money from the performances he would pay the debt and Elvira did not want to say anything to Angel so that they would not worry in Spain. Elvira had a signed contract in which she took a percentage of the caché for each charity performance of hers. But it was not like that . She never received anything. One day, he unpresentable did not appear again. He left Elvira literally on the street. How was she going to pay for the house, the food for almost a month and the trip back? Now the tragedy began for Elvira.
Gabriela called the airport, all the flights were full to travel to Madrid for the next three weeks. The only hope of being able to return to Spain was to travel to the airport every day and get on the waiting list. An anguish invaded Elvira and she couldn't stop crying. She only wanted to talk to her children, but international calls were very expensive and Elvira wanted by all means to avoid Angel and her parents finding out what they had already warned her about.

The first day at the airport to try to leave the country was horrible, at Madrid's Barajas airport the Iberia company had just canceled a trip to Buenos Aires, after 17 hours of delay and three takeoff attempts. That further complicated the situation. They would have to board 120 passengers on other flights.
The Virgen del Socorro was Elvira's only guide, and who inspired her to start recording on cassette tapes, messages for her children, and send them to Madrid through the Iberia pilots.

In Madrid, Esther and her brothers received the first tape that Angel brought them and that he also listened to for the first time. The drama that was experienced in the living room of the house was exasperating. Elvira's words with a lump in her throat and almost unable to speak without crying, were of love, of a future together forever, that she would never be separated from them again in her life. How soon they would be together and take good care of each other. They all cried with fear, they needed their mother. Angel spent day and night recording and the Filipina couldn't do anything to comfort them. They were already 10, 13 and 14 years old.
The days passed, the situation did not improve and Christmas was approaching. XANA and the General traveled to Madrid to help and be with their grandchildren. That night, December 23, XANA had a premonition and told the children not to cry anymore, that her mother would come back the next day to spend Christmas Eve with her family. 
Elvira found herself at the airport when she was going to deliver the tape , to her neighbor and friend of hers, the pilot, who happened to have changed companies and that day he began to fly the Buenos Aires - Madrid flight with Iberia. Elvira felt the presence of her grandmother, she told him the whole truth and the pilot without thinking twice, put her in the flight deck and came home to have dinner and celebrate.

XANA, without saying anything to anyone, left a shoe box on the Christmas gift table. No one paid much attention to it until something inside starts paws scratching and pushing the lid. She was a month-old dog, a new member of the family. A Miniature Pinscher or Valencian Ratonero. Everyone was euphoric and living the most desired moment: the hugs to the mamma! . Elvira immediately called her a ratoneta pelonera , while she said a saying, a proverb, a custom, a joke. She always brought joy to everyone around her, family and friends; —Mother, there is only one, and I found you in the street, she told to the doggie…All black with the outline of the eyes and the tips of the brown legs, she seemed hand painted, she filled the house with fun and tenderness and they gave her the name of Nina.
The pilot not only kept Elvira's secret and Angel didn't find out the truth, but he also left the debt money to Gabriela so that she would pay everything that was owed.
Over time, Elvira confessed what had happened to the whole family. She was never separated from her children again. In Argentina she left her art and her essence and gained great friends that would last over time.

Don't miss the next chapter! Chap.8

“ XANA warns Elvira so that Esther doesn't stay to sleep alone that night … the 17-year-old son of an Iberia pilot who lived opposite, puts all the neighbors and their dogs to sleep with pills so he can enter through the window at dawn in Esther's room…”

Port of Buenos Aires. Engraving by Prieto Nespereira.

Tengo miedo del encuentro con el pasado que vuelve
A enfrentarse con mi vida
Tengo miedo de las noches que pobladas de recuerdos
Encadenen mi soñar
Pero el viajero que huye
Tarde o temprano detiene su andar
Y aunque el olvido que todo destruye
Haya matado mi vieja ilusión

Unleash Your Inner Flamenca is dedicated to all the women of the world and it does not mean that you have to be flamenco or dedicate yourself to the world of dance. It is an expression, it is a way of facing the setbacks that life gives us and because flamenco has that attitude of: Here I am!

Unleashing my inner Flamenca has helped me in many very extreme situations in my life and, not only technically speaking as a flamenco professional, but in those times that I didn't have to be dancing, or teaching, or competing, or performing on stage. I’m talking about everyday life.

That is why you too can bring out your inner Flamenca. 

A flamenca woman is confident, a flamenca woman is sure of herself, has gravitas, has bearing, has wisdom and knows how to be in command. 

In other words, unleash your inner Flamenca and join me in this adventure in which we are going to have a great time! We know how it starts and we don't know how it ends, but it is sure to be one of the most unforgettable experiences of your life.

I didn't need to be famous to sleep in Hemingway's Presidential suite at the Gritti Palace in Venice for all my birthdays. 

Have a Bellini while I wait for the gondola that will take me to the private Film Festival party on the yacht of my colleague, who was a Versace collaborator, or dine on the famous terrace of the Hotel Danieli. 

It is also true that if I had slept with all my stalkers, I would now be more famous than Sara Baras. BUT! no matter how much I took a shower, the smell of vomit would not go away from my body and the phrase of: “how did I get it” would be the soundtrack of my life, which would turn my insides with each applause. 

Nor did I need to be famous to have a bodyguard escort me to the door of the plane, in the direction of the American Embassy in Beirut or go in a Limousine and drink the best champagne. 

“Todo lo he conseguido con pasión, seguridad en mi misma , esfuerzo y dedicación”. 

Proving first to myself and then to the whole world that I don't need to sell myself to a man to succeed in my career. And that I bring out the inner Flamenca every time they cross my path. 

Do not allow any man to command you or demand what you have to do. 

Lucha por lo que quieras, viste como quieras, maquíllate como quieras , estudia lo que quieras y júntate con quien quieras.

The first time a man lays his hand on you, it will be his fault, but the second time it will be your fault for putting up with the first time. 

And if you feel trapped and you are afraid to stand up to your reality, look for a way as if it were the last day of your life to give a signal at the pharmacy, at the market, to a neighbor you come across, to anyone who can hear this number: 016! and it will be the first step to your salvation, to your new life, surely filled with all the good things you long for and where no one will let you back down. You will immediately be protected by the society that will protect and help you without conditions. And I, Esther Ponce, am already thinking of you. 

UNLEASH YOUR INNER FLAMENCA #SACALAFLAMENCA

I have suffered more than 10 workplace harassments from very famous people in the world of show business, and knowing what I now know, I would have denounced it. 

A I’m going to tell you how I brought out the flamenco that I have in extreme situations and that I hope and serve to help some woman to do the same as me.

For now I'm only going to use nicknames.

“If I had slept with all my stalkers, I would now be more famous than Sara Baras. "

 

With my testimony and my own experience, living in different countries of the world and interacting with all kinds of social classes, race, culture and religion, I want to turn around the drama that women experience in the world.
Ayudarlas a salir de ese callejón oscuro, animarlas y convencerlas de que nunca tiren la toalla , de que existe un mundo maravilloso esperándoles para sacar lo mejor de ellas. Su fuerza, su belleza interior y sus ganas de salir adelante. Que no dejen de luchar por los derechos de la mujer y la igualdad de género. Que griten a los cuatro vientos  y que no se callen nunca, que sonrían y que se llenen de paz con la belleza que nos brinda Lanzarote y su naturaleza.
That they are not alone... that they unleash their inner flamenca A strong and self-confident woman, the director of their own life. That she clings to the ground with temperance and ready to scratch at any moment if necessary and fight life with the best smile... 

I have experiences and anecdotes to tell all women; the neighborhood ones, the rich ones , the conflictive ones, the addicted ones, etc. And always with my motto that to run away from any situation, the best thing is to practice athletics! … My uncle used to called me Dance Athlete, he said; As long as you have strong legs and a strong heart, you can fly! . 

Esther Ponce's experimental Flamenco is ready for the Valencian Director of Tourism to meet

It is very gratifying to have an idea like the experimental Flamenco in Valencia, carry it out and have managed to attract more than 20 foreign clients to Valencia in a short time and without marketing, who have passed through the Flamenco Art Center, and who have not only They learned a lot if not they have returned to their country with a better concept of Valencia.

His experience and approach to flamenco led by Esther Ponce will make you return without hesitation to the city of Turia.

Esther Ponce not only surrounds them with her passion and charisma from the first moment, her professionalism and a very long journey through different countries of the world where she has lived for long periods, she makes them fall in love.

You just have to read the dedications of all the foreigners who write in their precious notebook created for them and that are already adding more and more.

«They also buy semi-professional shoes and a skirt to study with me.» That’s already the best! –
~ Esther Ponce

 The foreigner is used to teaching flamenco very quickly and without discipline, anything goes, any shoe, any skirt, hanging out even parodying and even ridiculing flamenco.

With me if they want to study two private hours which is the minimum, they are given the option of buying or renting the shoes and none of them have thought twice about it to this day.
 
«Being a polyglot, doors just open up to me» –
~ Esther Ponce
 
Definitely the Experimental Flamenco of Esther Ponce has an Angel!

From England, without a doubt the most special Experimental Flamenco we have had at the Flamenco Art Center in these two and a half years.

The Esther Ponce Stylized Flamenco Art Center has been open for two and a half years. El Ángel Every August 28, for Esther’s birthday, a new foreign student gives her a gift and the flamenco toast intensifies.

«The students do not want to miss the opportunity to study with me. When they start to study my technique they are hooked at the first second. Those who play sports and take care of themselves immediately identify with my stretching and feel safer for the rest of the class and those who don’t appreciate it and will surely start practicing it and taking care of themselves forever »
~ Esther Ponce

This year Esther thought that her Angel would be very busy due to the current pandemic situation and also that it would be a coincidence that another year happened.

But to Esther’s surprise it was like that and without doubt the most special flamenco toast for England.

«Discipline is my hallmark and not even the Covid has stopped us» «I have never doubted it and I will only teach classes with a mask»
~ Esther Ponce

After the experience of teaching classes with a mask? A private flamenco class for two hours without stopping, does Esther remember that when she and the student went out into the street they breathed for two seconds as if there were no tomorrow?According to Esther’s recent experience, with the mask you cannot see the total expression of the student, but the eyes also speak and flamenco is also expressed with the body.

With all the safety measures, the student disinfected her shoes, put hydroalcoholic gel on her hands, a temperature control was performed with a non-contact forehead thermometer and the student did not remove her mask during the two hours, only in the changing room that she only used to drink water. 

“Now I can present my Experimental Flamenco to the director of Tourism of Valencia and let him roll with the little ham :)”
 
~ Esther Ponce