The First Female Flamenco Guitarists, Turning Suffering Into Passion

Growing up, Lavinia Spalding believed she was destined to become a tocaora, or a female flamenco guitar player. It didn’t exactly happen, for reasons you’ll soon hear. One day, decades after giving up on her dream, something shifted. On a whim, she emailed three of the biggest tocaoras in Spain to ask for lessons. To her surprise, they said yes.  Resources Listen to this playlist, which features one of the tocaoras Lavinia met. Listen to Pilar Alonso, Antonia Jiménez, and Marta Robles. Read the original story Lavinia wrote for AFAR. Follow Lavinia on her website. Be sure to subscribe to the show and to sign up for our podcast newsletter, Behind the Mic, where we share upcoming news and behind-the-scenes details of each episode. And explore our second podcast, Unpacked, which unpacks a tricky topic in travel each week.