Calle de Pastora Imperio

The street bears the stage name of Pastora Rojas Monje, a Sevillian from the Alfalfa quarter who entered flamenco history as Pastora Imperio. She was born in the late 1880s into a house where art ran in the blood: her mother, “La Mejorana”, was a renowned dancer from Cádiz, and her father a tailor to bullfighters. She inherited the dance and carried it to the great theatres. The way she moved her arms became a model for generations of dancers. The name “Imperio” clung to her from youth, though its origin is undocumented: the story goes that a playwright said that Pastora was worth an empire. Her deepest mark came in 1915, when Manuel de Falla composed El amor brujo with her in mind; Pastora premiered it singing and dancing. She died in Madrid in 1979, aged over ninety.