LAS MIL TONÁS

April 22, 2010


Fortunately, the frontiers, those imaginary lines created to separate or delimited cities, towns, regions or countries are really just that, imaginary and nonexistent. Although circumstantial and even administratively try to define the bounders, we have to surrender to the evidences that the customs, the languages or the cultures are not classifiable in such a drastic way. Among the people and the neighboring regions there is always a closer cultural relationship, a much greater complicity. Throughout the years 2008 and 2009, the Cantabrian journalist Maxi de la Peña held a series of 51 interviews of renowned names of the Cantabrian folk, all collected and published in his book, “La tierra de las Mil Tonás”. From the veterans as Lines Vejo, Adela Gómez, El Malvís de Tanos, etc. to younger names as Chema Puente, Begoña Lozano, Miguel Cadavieco or Alba Gutiérrez, having them all participated as witnesses of a musical reality unknown to most of the public. My friend Maxi is a curious person, filled with many inquietudes, throwing him into an unusual fervor to what he is passionate about. That’s what most captivated me of him when we met. Some time ago he mentioned his idea along with Dulce Pontes, Uxía, Luis Delgado, Ana Alcaide and Paco Díez to write a short pretext for his book. This book is a collection of testimonies over the musical human journey in which shows, as well said by Dulce Pontes “folklore is a musical array expression of the people, for excellence”. Maxi de la Peña has done a great job in favor of their traditions and their culture. I hope that this book will be an open door to future projects, to complement the musical cultural map of a region, as rich and varied as ours, in which people from Basque Country, Asturian, Galician, Castile and Cantabrian etc… sharing a common essence and understood in a thousand different ways.


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