Freddie Mejia Flamenco History

Freddie and his sister Dorothy started to take Flamenco dance classes when Freddie was 9 years old. That same year also began to learn and play Flamenco guitar, which, because he was shy, he liked better than dancing. As a child and as a teenager, Freddie played guitar for Jose’s Flamenco dance classes until he joined the Air force. At some point, when they were still children, Dorothy and Freddie began to perform all over San Francisco, which they continued into adulthood.

When Freddie returned to San Francisco from his military service in 1957, he met Harry Clark, who was playing guitar with Jimmy Winkler at Bar Richie on Broadway and Stockton in North Beach, where Freddie’s sister Dorothy was dancing. 

Across the street, there was another Flamenco club where Ricky Orellana and Dolores Valencia were dancing.

At that time, Harry already had plans to build and open La Bodega, another Flamenco club. By 1957, Harry and his wife Lynn had opened La Bodega, across the street from Vesuvios, and Freddie began to play guitar there. (See photos in “I am a Lover”). Freddie worked as both the Flamenco guitarist and the dishwasher Ricky was both dancer and waiter. Dorothy and Dolores also danced there. 

Meanwhile Richard Whelan had started to take Flamenco dance lessons from Jose while Freddie was in the Service. After the military, Freddie began to play for the class again and that is how Freddie met Richard.

Richard came to watch the show at La Bodega. There he saw Freddie playing guitar with Jimmy Winkler. Richard was hooked. Richard decided that he wanted to have a Flamenco show at the Spaghetti Factory. 

So, in 1960 Richard started the Spaghetti Factory in North Beach San Francisco. He got Dorothy, Dolores and Ricky to dance there. Freddie and Jimmy Winkler played the guitar. They started in the cellar of the Factory and only later moved their show upstairs.

Then Richard took Freddie to see a play with some modern dancers in it who were friends of Richard’s. That is how Freddie met Ernesto Hernandez and Isa Mura, the modern dancers. They got into Flamenco and they all started to do the Flamenco shows at the Spaghetti Factory together.

One night Freddie saw David Jones (Serva) playing Flamenco guitar at another club. Freddie was impressed, so he told Richard to go see him. And that was how David got started playing at the Spaghetti Factory. After that, for years, many dancers, guitarists, and singers performed there. 

Richard was Freddie’s friend as well as his mentor, and Freddie says that Richard was even eccentric at that time, wearing capes and Nehru jackets as his normal costume.

Freddie played Flamenco guitar at the Spaghetti Factory as long as he lived in San Francisco, which was on and off, until the Spaghetti Factory finally closed. During that time, he played for generations of dancers and singers, some who have long passed on and others who are still alive. 

When he wasn’t living in San Francisco, Freddie spent time in New York, where he and David Jones (Serva) appeared in the pre-Broadway version of Man of La Mancha. Freddie had a guitar shop there where he both made and repaired guitars, developing a life-long love of fine, intricate woodworking. 

In 1959, Freddie made his first 6-month trip to Spain, and those influences stayed with him throughout his career.

During the late 70’s, Freddie moved to Watsonville for several years and also spent time in Hawaii, playing guitar at the Hyatt Regency hotel. 

In the early 80’s, he returned to North Beach and continued to play at the Spaghetti Factory, El Meson, and many other clubs in the area, as well as at both the Northern and Southern Renaissance Faires. 

In 1985, Freddie again returned to Spain and spent 6 months there, living and studying, immersed in the Spanish Gypsy Flamenco way of life.

Much later, starting in 1999, he began to make yearly trips to Sevilla, studying there for between 3 to 6 months each time.

In early 2006, a massive stroke ended his 60-year guitar career and for a while, his trips to Spain. The falsetas and rhythms remained in his head, and he could sing them and eventually was able to play them on the cajon.

In 2007, Freddie was able to continue his yearly trips to Spain, even studying with friends there to try to rehabilitate his hands and fingers. But the feeling never returned to the fingers on his right hand, so he has never been able to play the guitar since his stroke. At 72 years, he begun to repair and refine guitars again, still immersed in Flamenco, which has been his life since 9 years old.

Freddie has two adult children by his two first wives, and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  He lives in Santa Cruz with his third wife, Marianna, who has been his close friend since the early 70’s, when he hooked her on Flamenco.

2023