Artistic and Literature in Spanish America The tango singer Dra. Patricia Nigro

1. Artistic and Literature in Spanish AmericaThe tango singerDra. Patricia Nigro

2. The tango singer • It was published in 2004. • Martínez’ writing is of clear elegance and his novels are created to be read immediately as a whole. One can leave them till they finish. • As a journalist, his prose is precise and transparent.

3. The tango singer • Martínez chose Buenos Aires because Liz Calder, editor of Bloomsbury Publishers, wanted to do a series of books about big cities. • Martínez had a dream of a meeting with Jean Franco, a real and famous critic, where she told her to search for a mytical tango singer in Buenos Aires. • That was the idea to put together some short stories he had already written and turn them into a novel.

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5. The tango singer • The terrible economic crisis Argentina suffered in 2001 is the context for Bruno Cadogan’s story, a young student from USA who comes to Buenos Aires, because of Jean Franco’ s advice to listen to Julio Martel, a tango singer. • He is researching Borges’ essays about tango before 1910 when it was played at brothels.

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7. The tango singer • Julio Martel is the artistic name of Estéfano Caccace (1945-2001). • He is a big fan of Carlos Gardel and he never wanted to record his own voice. • He is perhaps better than Gardel’s but nobody can ever say this in a loud voice.

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10. The tango singer • The assumed name of the tango singer comes from Julián Martel, author of a novel about the 1890 economic crisis which title was La Bolsa (The stock market). His real name was José María Miró and died in 1896.

11. The tango singer • The novel is also inspired by Borges’ tale “The aleph”. • So, it is an allegory of something deeper than what he is writing. • He rebuilds the past and describes it as if it were the present moment. • Time is an issue that worries him the same way as it worried Borges.

12. The tango singer • “I just want to remember what I’ve never seen.” (Julio Martel) • That’s why Martel sings in different parts of the city, connected with criminal crimes. • We shall find in the novel the story of the house in Street Garay where the aleph was placed in Borges’ tale.

13. The tango singer • Other stories are: Felicitas Alcántara’ s murder in 1899 and its connection with the Wateworks Palace (1894).

14. The tango singer • Another one is the Violeta Miller’s in 1914 and her nurse Catalina Godel, killed in Mataderos in 1978, by the military goverment.

15. The tango singer • The third one is that of the first kidnaping of General Pedro Eugenio Aramburu in 1970 (when he was killed by the Montoneros guerrilla group) and then in 1974 when his corpse was stolen from Recoleta cemetery to demand the return of Evita Perón’s body to Argentina.

16. The tango singer • The story of the corpse kidnaping is told by Fermín Mario Andrade, (Mocho), the only friend Julio Martel had from his childhood. • Andrade was one of the kidnappers and later he became a missing person.

17. The tango singer • Buenos Aires is the soul of his novel. • Her symbol is a labyrinth as Borges would like it. • One can make a map of the different places and cafés Martínez refers to with complete precision. • The best example is Parque Chas.

18. The tango singer • Other places are Parque Lezama where we know about the romance of Borges with Estela Canto. • Hospital Fernández: the place where Julio Martel dies. • Café La Paz: there, Bruno meets with Alcira Villar.

19. The tango singer • Fuerte Apache: is an awful village near the city border, full of criminals, drug dealers, arms sellers and very poor people living in the worst conditions. • Even policemen are afraid to go into it. • Sesostris Bonorino, the librarian who saw the aleph and wanted to write the National Encyclopedia, died there.

20. The tango singer • Martínez’ novel refers to many different tango composers and singers; Gardel, Le Pera, Mores, Contursi, Goyeneche, Castillo, Salgán, Troilo. • He also mentions places where tango is sung, played or danced such as La Viruta, La Estrella, El Catedral. (They are called “milongas”.)

21. The tango singer • “El bulín de la calle Ayacucho” (Our little room on Ayacuho), • “Mano a mano” (Now we’re even), • “Tomo y obligo” (I drink and I forced you to), • “En esta tarde gris” (In this grey afternoon), • “La casita de mis viejos”, (My parents’ little house), • “Volver” (Return), • “La morocha” (The brunette), • “Caminito” (Little road)...

22. The tango singer • El matadero (The slaughterhouse), Esteban Echeverría, 1848. Adán BuenosAyres, Leopoldo Marechal, 1948. La invención de Morel, Adolfo Bioy Casares, 1940.

23. The tango singer • Hopscotch, Julio Cortázar, 1966, One hundred years of solitude, Gabriel García Márquez, 1967. A dolls’ house, Henrik Ibsen, 1879.

24. The tango singer • On heros and tombs, Ernesto Sábato, 1961. Martín Fierro, José Hernández, 1872/1879. Different poems from Fernando Pessoa (portuguese writer, died in 1935)

25. The tango singer • Chapter 1: September 2001 (1st) (“The aleph”) • Chapter 2: October 2001 (The danish tourist’ s adventure and Felicitas Alcántara’s murder) • Chapter 3: November 2001 (Violeta Miller’s story in 1914) • Chapter 4: End of Violeta Miller’ life and Catalina Godel’s story. DECEMBER 2001 • Chapter 5: December 2001 (General Aramburu’s story) • Chapter 6: December 2001 (Martel’s death) End of January 2002

26. The tango singer • Some of the facts told of Argentina history: • 2001 economic crisis, • the “tragic week” in 1919, • the prison in Las Heras Avenue and the prod, • the story of the Waterhouse Palace, • the military coup of 1976, • the murder of Comissioner Ramón Falcón, • the robbery of Evita Perón’s body, • different neigbourhoods stories: Mataderos, Parque Chas, Fuerte Apache. • The National Library: México 564 and Agüero 2502.

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28. The tango singer • Influence of Borges’ style: symbol, mirror, memory, trivial, or, I saw, solitary, monstrous, endless, evasive, illusory... • Borges’ ideas: Buenos Aires neighbourhoods, two foundations of the city, chess, labyrinths, the aleph, premonition, different versions of the same story, fiction and non fiction... • Borges’ works: Evaristo Carriego, The book of sand, different poems... • Borges’ life: his homes, the ex National Library, Fundación Internacional Jorge Luis Borges...

29. The tango singer • “Buenos Aires is the worse and the best of la Argentina”, says Martínez in an interview. • “Buenos Aires, cuando lejos me vi...”, from the first argentinian sound movie Tango (1933): “Buenos Aires, when I’m far away.”