La Cana Flamenco Club

I worked next door to La Cana during the late 1970's. It was closed even then. What I remember of those times was the woman who owned La Cana. Dark haired, she epitomized the classic flamenco dancer, with her vivid red dress.

I happened by there yesterday and she was sitting out in front, reading the newspaper. She asked me what I was photographing and we struck up a conversation about the Iliad Bookstore, which is next door to La Cana, but moving a couple miles away because of "a lawyer who lives in Bakersfield".

She is old and weathered now, but lucid and engaging. When I asked to take a photo, she pointed down to the Iliad's mural and urged me to photograph the part of it where she is dancing. When I came back, she was gone.