From Beyoncé to Queen Letizia: The Valencian fan seeks protection

Beyoncé , Kate Middleton , Madonna, Rosalía, Máxima of the Netherlands or Queen Letizia do not hesitate to take out their fan , the usual accessory when the heat is on , pure craftsmanship that is being lost and seeking momentum with the seal of protected geographical indication.

An accessory that is not exclusively feminine , since gentlemen such as the actor Antonio Banderas or the Portuguese footballer Samu Costa also use it to relieve the heat with it.

The Spanish fan industry, which has its origins in the Valencian town of Aldaia , which was severely affected by the storm that hit the province of Valencia last October and where some fan companies were severely affected , fears it may be facing extinction.

The president of the Valencia Fan Makers Guild , Jesús Muñoz, regrets the precarious situation of this accessory that arrived in Spain in the 16th century from the East and that during the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XV in France were garments and testimony of luxury.

" No one wants to continue with a craft that requires specialization ; there are no weavers or lace makers, and no schools that provide training," warns Muñoz.

Very close to the Valencian capital, Aldaia has been considered the birthplace of the Spanish fan for five centuries , a key point in its manufacture and the only place that houses a Fan Museum (MUPA) , a space for the dissemination of craftsmanship, tradition and history.

Precisely, weeks before the storm devastated many of these Valencian companies, the regional government proposed to the guild to promote a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) , one of the quality designations of the European Union that guarantees the origin of a product from the area where it is manufactured.

" We are living in a situation of helplessness . Institutions claim to support crafts, but the reality is very different," says Muñoz, an architect by profession who for ten years has been making hand-painted fans, an accessory whose invention is disputed between China and Japan.

Currently, the sector has the AEA (Artisan Spanish Fan) certification seal, which guarantees that a fan has been made in Spain, following artisanal processes of quality and authenticity.

During the Wimbledon final in the United Kingdom, the organizers distributed fans in the stands so that those in attendance could cool off on the hot afternoon on the tennis court. Princess Charlotte, her mother Kate Middleton, and Nicole Kidman all made use of them , which bore the tournament logo.

"They're promotional fans," says Muñoz. The rods are made in China, nothing like the Spanish system, which is increasingly used by fewer artisans and is made from banana or birch wood—the most basic—but also from African or European varieties, such as bubinga or kotibé.

"They all come from the same piece and are shaped to be the same," explains the owner of Abanicos Muñoz, who points out that some are still made from rosewood and ebony, but "fewer and fewer."

However, "Valencia is still the only place where only one artisan continues to make mother-of-pearl fans," he points out.

The Spanish-French artisan Olivier Bernoux, a fan specialist with a workshop in Madrid, agrees that hand-embroidered embroidery, including marquetry, is also being lost from this tradition .

Carlos Dulce, founder and CEO of Ràfega, a Catalan company that manufactures in its workshops in Aldaia, assures that its sales do not only remain in Spain: 17% go to Europe and 9% to the United States .