Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
PUBLIC MOURNING IN
BUENOS AIRES, 1936
C
arlos Gardel was born in Toulouse, France, and came as an infant
with his mother to Buenos Aires. At a young age, he gained a
reputation for a strong voice, flawless interpretation, and a charming
personality. After an early flirtation with gauchesque songs, Gardel par-
ticipated in the tango craze of the 1920s that made Argentina famous in
the world of music. Gardel and his guitar accompanists toured Madrid,
Barcelona, Paris, and New York between 1928 and 1930. His many
recordings and several movies spread his reputation to the rest of the
Spanish-speaking world.
This immigrant tango singer was beloved in his adopted city of Buenos
Aires for a number of reasons. Though of humble origins, he dressed
impeccably and flourished in the café scene and nightlife of the capital.
He was
simpático
(charming) and took a lively interest in the Creole
culture of Argentina. Moreover, Gardel sang his tangos with the plaintive
and ironic cadence that expressed the inner yearnings of a majority of
Argentines. One of his famous tangos is “Volver” (“Return”):
And although I did not wish to return,
one always returns to one's first love . . .
To return, with withered brow,
the snows of time silvering my temples,
to feel that life is but a puff of wind,
that twenty years is nothing.
Gardel died in a plane crash in June 1935, while on tour in Colombia.
The day of his funeral in Buenos Aires, in February 1936, the city came
to a halt and
porteños
filled the streets. His tango recordings of longing,
nostalgia, and unrequited love continue to appeal to Argentines today.
No artist has since replaced Gardel in the hearts of Argentines.
Source:
Quoted in Collier, Simon.
The Life and Times of Carlos Gardel
(Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1986), p. 239.
Partisans of the Yrigoyen faction of the Radical Party were excluded,
although they still represented the largest single political group in the
country, and the Radicals could not nominate candidates for about 10
years. They had one great occasion for protest, however: Yrigoyen died
