On February 25 of that year, the interview that Paco de Lucía gave to Jesús Quintero was broadcast on TVE. At one point, Quintero asked him: “What is more important when playing guitar, right or left?”Paco de Lucía did not moderate his reaction and offered a strong and direct reflection: “The left is the one that makes music, it is creative, the left is intelligent; “The right is the one that executes.” In the Spain of those years, marked by the frenetic activity of organized far-right groups and ultra-gangs, this statement was particularly dangerous. We must not forget that at that time TVE reached an audience of up to 30 million people. His words took on the magic of metaphor and many wanted to see a political statement. But it never was.
The conversation continued and Quintero asked: “What are you more afraid of: death or ridicule?”. Paco de Lucía's response was as clear and forceful as the previous one: “Man, there is something worse, and that is a ridiculous death. “Just like in a war.” It was the 1970s and post-truth was also a common phenomenon. These reflections led to an attack from the far right in December of that year. Some felt offended and others used their reflections to legitimize their struggle. What did Paco de Lucía really think about this situation? 48 years after what happened, ElPlural.com could ask his brother, Pepe de Lucía, about it during an interview about the publication of Pepito and Paquitoan album of previously unreleased recordings of the two brothers when they were just children.
This is how Pepe de Lucía explains what happened: “He said the question of the left hand and the right hand as a dazzling truth. With nobility, dignity and humility. He did not address any political party. What happened is that later they took him out into the street and they dragged him by his hair along the Gran Vía. Paco told the truth. The left hand is the one that thinks and the right hand is the one that, as they say, puts the lions in it, that executes. “People have made something ugly out of those statements.”
Next the eldest of the Lucía denies any anti-fascist symbolism in the guitar genius's statements: “No way. Paco was apolitical. Shortly before his death he said Trade from Peru, who stopped being left-wing after earning his first two million pesetas. “Paco de Lucía did not like politicians and called them all scoundrels.”