Biography

Ricardo Baliardo (7 August 1921 – 5 November 2014), better known as Manitas de Plata ("little hands of silver"), was a French flamenco guitarist of Catalan Gitano descent, born in southern France. Baliardo was born in a gypsy caravan in Sète, southern France. Nicknamed Manitas de Plata ("little hands of silver" in Spanish), he agreed to play in public only ten years after the death of Romani-Belgian jazz guitarist and composer Django Reinhardt, in 1953. Baliardo attained fame in the United States after a photography exhibition in New York, organized by his friend Lucien Clergue. He had reco...