EUROPE DAY: MEETING WITH A CHILD FROM ELCHE, MODERATED BY MIGUEL ÁLVAREZ FERNÁNDEZ (ARS SONORA, RNE)

Europe Day: A Conversation with Niño de Elche, moderated by Miguel Álvarez Fernández (Ars sonora, RNE)

Date: May 8, 2026, at 7:00 p.m.

Puerta de la Cultura Hall. 2.-1.E01. Puerta de Toledo Campus.

Europe offers connections that, through culture, bring together very diverse national realities. The European project unites countries that, despite having very different languages and economies, share values, and culture fosters a sense of belonging. In the European imagination, countries like Germany or France often take center stage, but 2026 marks the 40th anniversary of Spain and Portugal’s accession to the European Union. And in this event, we highlight a perspective of solidarity from the South.

Boy from Elche in his project “El cante rasgueado” It turns its gaze toward the border—a liminal space that separates yet connects. Specifically, this project focuses its border-related research on the line that both separates and unites southern Portugal, Huelva, and Extremadura. Sound becomes a common thread linking geographies and histories. In this permeable strip, Alentejo singing intertwines with its violas campaniças, the fandango cané of Alosno—sung by groups of men to the incessant strumming of guitars— and the Luso-Extremaduran tangos and jaleos, passed down through generations by Romani communities. It is in this porous territory that Niño de Elche explores his creative process for “El Cante Rasgueado,” the result of field research conducted in collaboration with local musicians and historians. Rather than merely compiling or documenting, the project is conceived as an act of reinvention: tracing the lines of continuity and friction between popular expressions that coexist along the Iberian border, opening space for new ways of listening, appropriation, and encounter.

In this context, singing or strumming are not merely technical or expressive acts, but collective gestures—ways of being with others. Just as in the European Union, a desire to be together. Building on this premise, Niño de Elche and Pedro G. Romero revitalize the communal potential of popular culture, moving away from folkloric or rigid interpretations, and present a unique research project featuring musicians who challenge the established forms of tradition, highlighting its tension and dialogue with the present.

Musical projects like this one highlight the spirit of European solidarity in countries that, because they are more peripheral, have sometimes been left out of the process of building Europe and shaping its image. We mark this year’s Europe Day by celebrating the bonds we share with our closest neighbors and our joint role in European culture.

⤷ Activity with credit recognition via the Activity Passport (requires prior registration and a mandatory signature upon completion of the activity).