History of

Mamacita Social Aid Pleasure Club Inc & Peña La Pepa of New Orleans

Dedicated to the art of Flamenco

Email for inquiries

info@flamenconola.com

About US

history

It would be difficult to tell about the origin of Mamacita Social Aid Pleasure Club and Peña La Pepa without explaining the origin of New Orleans. New Orleans has been in existence for over 300 years. Spain and Spanish culture have been in New Orleans since the 16th century more so in the 18th century, when Spain took over governance and conceived the idea of what would become New Orleans. Spain’s conceptualizing and continued influence has gone largely unacknowledged.

history cont...

Mamacita Social Aid Pleasure Club and its home Peña La Pepa have been established to advance awareness of the history of Spain in Louisiana by way of the art of flamenco and its connection to local cultural expressions of the state.

Notice in the Photo with the dancer: New Orleans Tricentennial Celebration April 2018.

Present: General Consul of Spain, Haiti, France, Mayor of New Orleans and Governor of Louisiana and other attaches honoring Spain as one of the most influential periods of Louisiana.

Photo by Advocate Photographer Shawn Fink

Mamacita Social Aid Pleasure Club and A Flamenco Peña ?

Its venue Peña La Pepa has been registered with the City of New Orleans since the year 2012. The idea of a Social Aid Pleasure Club with Spanish influence was organic. Through history, both cultures established organizations to survive; to make it socially acceptable; to allow the expression of ones practices and art form...thus the concept of preserving, promoting, and expressing indigenous culture and heritage is demonstrated by integrating art forms across musical and racial boundaries.

[But free people of color in New Orleans created an organization in 1783 whose name is usually rendered in English as the Perseverance Benevolent and Mutual Aid Society. Even without claiming a direct lineage to the mutual aid societies of the late nineteenth century that spawned the jazz funeral and the second line, it is clear that the idea of such societies was already well established among free people of color in Cuba and Saint-Domingue, and existed in New Orleans as well] ( Sublette, 2008)

Know More

In slide show: At the New Orleans Cabildo with Mrs. Maria Pages- Honorary Consul of Spain; La Venta Vargas in San Fernando (Cadiz)-where Camarón de la Isla started his journey; and The one and only Lady of Wales Social Aid Pleasure Club of New Orleans

What is Peña La Pepa?

Peña La Pepa is a private venue for Mamacita Social Aid Pleasure Club, Inc. dedicated to the art of Flamenco. It is a private and intimate setting where aficionados come together to enjoy the art close and personal. Peña la Pepa founder and owner María José Salmerón wanted to share the vision and the magic of what she has learned and shared in Jerez de La Frontera, Spain in the authentic Peñas Flamencas. In essence the concept of a Peña Flamenca revolves around having a space and an atmosphere of experiencing Flamenco art “up close an personal.”
A “Peña” describes the traditional setting where people of southern Spain gather to celebrate their culture of local “barrios” and “gitanos.” The art of Flamenco is the medium of dance, singing, and guitar.
Peña Flamenca La Pepa stands as a cultural association for recreation and sharing to promote an atmosphere of Flamenco in all its facets.

The location, Peña Flamenca La Pepa , has been a meeting place for one of the oldest active New Orleans Social Aid and Pleasure clubs. At the same time, it has hosted local guest artists and artists from Andalucía, Spain. It is a well-known venue for education and performing arts provided to the community at little or no cost. It also has a large space designed for groups to meet, educate, share, and perform their cultural projects. It also has a meeting place with a book collection of historic New Orleans and Spain which is in use for diverse groups to share for cultural and artist development. The mix of people that have come together to use the space and resources has been rich and diverse from all walks of life and reflects the rich cultural diversity of New Orleans that has been 300 years of continuity.