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Last modified: 2019-10-06 by ivan sache
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Flag of Casasimarro - Image by Ivan Sache, 22 June 2019
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The municipality of Casasimarro (3,072 inhabitants in 2018; 4,960 ha) is located 90 km south of Cuenca.
Casasimarro appears to be a relatively recent town, being first
documented in 1598 in Philip II's Relación Topográfica; the census
relates that the hamlet established in 1470 and named Casa de los
Simarro (Simarro's House), for his founder, had grown in 1591 to a
village counting 800 inhabitants.
Casasimarro was granted in 1653 the status of villa, separating from
Villanueva de la Jara.
Casasimarro is self-styled the Guitare's Capital. The Guitare Monument,
composed of five bronze figures and designed by Agustén de la Herrán,
stands on the Plaza Mayor in front of the parish church; the erection of
the monument was pushed by Casasimarro-borne Luis F. Leal Pinar, a
writer and chronicler specialist of Spanish guitars. The monument's
upper flagstone, pierced of a guitar-shaped hole, features a guitarist
playing zamba, a South African folk music style; the stone is engraved
with the lyrics of La Nochera, a zamba composed in 1954 by the Argentine (Salta) musicians Jaime Dávalos (score) and Ernesto Cabeza (lyrics) (performances by Los Chalchaleros and Los Nocheros; by "La Maravillosa" Silvia Pérez Cruz).
[España Bizarra, 27 September 2016]
Guitar workshops were established in the middle of the 18th century in
Casasimarro; their number peaked at 20 in the late 19th century. The
tradition is still maintained by a few families.
Vicente Carillo (official video), "born with a guitar in his arms" and representing the
8th generation of manufacturers in Casasimarro since 1744, manufactures
guitars of unique sound balance, using wood left drying for 15 to 20
years. He designed guitars for the most famous Spanish flamenco
guitarists, such as Paco de Lucéa (1947-2014), Tomatito (b. 1958), El
Niño Josele (b. 1974), Vicente Amigo (b. 1967), Pepe Habichuela (b.
1944) and his brother Juan Habichuela (1933-2016), and Pablo Alborán (b.
1989).
In 2007, Keith Richards, the legendary Rolling Stones guitarist, who is
fond of Spanish guitars, ordered a Carrillo guitar. Two years later,
Richards asked him to create a special, five-corded model for him, which
was delivered to him in September 2017. Carillo is working on a third
model for Richards.
[Las Noticias de Cuenca, 13 November 2017; El Pais, 22 February 2018]
Casasimarro is also self-styled the Champignon's Capital. A monument
erected at the entrance of the town recalls that champignon cultivation
is the main source of income for the town. Some 8,000 t are produced
each year, accounting for 14% of the total national production.
[España Bizarra, 30 November 2014]
Ivan Sache, 22 June 2019
The flag of Casasimarro is prescribed by an Order issued on 16 November
2005 by the Government of Castilla-La Mancha and published on 30
November 2005 in the official gazette of Castilla-La Mancha, No. 241, p.
22,651 (text).
The flag is described as follows:
Flag: Rectangular, in proportions 2:3. Composed of two equal vertical stripes, at hoist, white with a red house [casa], at fly, red.
The coat of arms of of Casasimarro is prescribed by an Order issued on
16 November 2005 by the Government of Castilla-La Mancha and published
on 30 November 2005 in the official gazette of Castilla-La Mancha, No.
241, p. 22,651 (text).
The coat of arms is described as follows:
Coat of arms: Per pale, 1. Argent a house gules masoned sable, 2. Gules a guitar argent. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed.
The Royal Academy of History rejected a previous proposal of coat of
arms. Among other oddities, the fourth quarter is assigned a color that
does not exist in heraldry while the third quarter is charged with the
inappropriate association of a palm and a sword. Finally, the shield is
surmounted with an odd, meaningless crown.
Nowhere in the memoir is stated which of the 12 related proposals was
selected and approved by the Municipal Council.
[Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 199:1, 152. 2002]
Ivan Sache, 22 June 2019
