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Alabanzas — Gitano church music
A Calé sacred genre that grew when Gitano families in Spain and Portugal entered Pentecostal churches from the late 1950s–1960s.
01
Filadelfia
The Iglesia Evangélica de Filadelfia (Spain; Igreja Evangélica Filadélfia in Portugal) is the main room. Members call the songs alabanzas. Early praise used flamenco guitar, palmas, a solo voice. The church also marked flamenco as “the world,” so the music had to become something else — Gitano, but no longer the palos of the tablao.
02
Family networks
Ruy Llera Blanes: family networks transmit both the faith and the songs; church coros are often teenagers related by kin. Telethusa / flamenco research (2018): cantautores themselves name the genre alabanza; scholars have called the sound flamenco góspel gitano. No family page yet. Musicians who want one can write to the archive.
03
A Hungarian parallel, a different church
Barbara Rose Lange, Holy Brotherhood (2002) — Romani religious song in a Pentecostal church in Pécs, sharing a room with Hungarian worshippers. Related sacred practice, not Spanish alabanza.