Por una cabeza (Tango) de Carlos Gardel, Piano Solo partitura (sheet music)

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Carlos Gardel, the first Argentine famous throughout the world and the eternal controversy over his true nationality

Born on December 11, 1890, almost a century ago “El zorzal criollo” became Argentine when they gave him his identity card. The birth certificate that reveals where he was born, a brief tour of his rich history and the tributes that will be paid to him today at the Chacarita Cemetery. Because of him, today we celebrate the Tango Day on Dec. 11.

That he sings better every day is undoubted and indisputable. What is doubted and discussed, in a push and pull unprecedented in history, is the true nationality of Carlos Gardel , who came into this world to do better with his voice, on December 11, 1890 .

After research work for the book El padre del Gardel , by the Argentine Juan Carlos Esteban and the French Georges Galopa and Monique Ruffié , they removed the enigma from the shadows when they found (nothing more and nothing less) Gardel’s own birth certificate. El Zorzal: he is French, born in the city of Toulouse , specifically.

This document was published by the authors after a decade of research and interviews, thanks to which they discovered that Charles Romuald Gardes – his birth name – was recorded in the civil registry of that picturesque city.

The story that follows is a little better known: the arrival by boat in the arms of his mother, Berthe Gardes (expelled from the family for having been a single mother) when he was 2 years old . These same authors revealed that her father, Charles Romuald , had had other children and that a large part of her life was spent behind bars for different crimes that she would have committed.

Recognized throughout the world, loved to this day, Carlos is the emblematic figure of Argentina , a country that he loved and that he chose to live with his mother, from whom he bought a house in El Abasto, today converted into a minimalist museum. Nearby stands the statue, about 2 meters high, which at this moment will surely already have some floral offering, as will also happen in the Chacarita mausoleum where his remains rest.

Carlos Gardel: Argentine by choice

On November 4, 1920, already famous and acclaimed by the public, Carlitos received the Argentine identity document. But what was the country and the city, above all, like that he saw him arrive in when he was still wearing diapers?

“ To understand the development of the Gardel phenomenon we have to refer to Buenos Aires at the beginning of the 20th century and the changes caused by immigration, multiplied with such force and massiveness, that they inaugurated a social dynamic and a mixture with a flight that only tango “He was able to show and express,” Walter Santoro , president of the Carlos Gardel International Foundation, invites us to think.

At the time of his arrival, in the Federal Capital 7% of the population was of foreign origin; by 1914, the figure reached 50 percent. Furthermore, in Buenos Aires there was a large portion of migrants arriving from other provinces and barely a third were Buenos Aires by birth. “The change that the nation underwent was of an unusual magnitude: the new situation generated changes in the cultural axes on which our society pivoted and the social archetypes derived from culture varied radically,” he highlights.

Like thousands and thousands of other immigrants who came to this land, Berta surely chose Argentina because it was the promising nation of great opportunities. The real reasons are unknown, but the feelings that Gardel had for this soil are clearly demonstrated, and his tangos attest to this.

During his childhood, little Carlitos was taken care of by different friends of Berta while she worked on household chores, washing and ironing clothes in exchange for a little money, enough for plates of food. ‘s children say “ Rosa Corrado de Franchini that they shared their childhood with the little boy, who ‘ from a very young age dreamed of being a singer. He said it himself. Many times, at night, when he went to bed, we would see him in bed with a small stick, like a guitar, and he would sing the songs of the time. At the age of seven he sat on the street doors to sing , and immediately a world of little boys surrounded him and through them, many families took him to their homes, for days on end,’” Santoro, one of the greats, recalls. scholars of Gardelian life and work.

According to his own mother, when he was 12 years old he asked her for the keys to the street door because “that night he had a program.” At that age, he gave amateur recitals in family homes and wherever he was called to sing. Innate talent.

His adolescence was no different from that of other humble children and he used to spend a good part of his time scrambling to make money: he went gambling, gambled and even had some attitude that earned him a run-in with the police. “That type of life was an obsession for that little dark-haired boy, with his hair parted in the middle, quite chubby and with a casual walk,” reviews the also collector of Gardelian objects.

“Doña Berthe had already lost hope of keeping him at her side and the street became her home. On different occasions, for days and even months, she would be absent from her home. It is known that he was arrested in Florencio Varela for vagrancy or running away from home, in 1904, by the Police of the province of Buenos Aires. From what we know, these encounters with the police would have been frequent. This describes the complex socio-economic situation in which he lived; situation that he knew how to overcome due to his intelligence and tenacity, qualities that were a fundamental axis to face future challenges,” explains Santoro, who also published a book in which he compiles unknown photographs of the history of Carlos Gardel and his time, “Gardel in images ”.

His career, although not professionally, began in the Traverso café and in the conservative committee at 600 Anchorena Street. Later, in 1927, he moved with his mother to the house at 735 Jean Jaures, the only one that was able to buy and which is currently the Carlos Gardel House Museum. Carlos Gardel performs “His eyes were closed” (Gardel/ Le Pera. January, 1935. From the film “The day you love me”)

In that first stage, he dressed in gaucho and payaba clothes. It was argued that he was not very skilled at improvising his own verses as he sang (a decisive characteristic for the success of the payadores), but his voice began to make all hearts beat and also pave the way for him in the world of song.

At the beginning of 1911, he met the Uruguayan José Razzano with whom he began his musical career, at the house of a mutual friend, on Guardia Vieja Street, near the Mercado de Abasto. Gardel was already singing a duet with Francisco Martino, and Razzano joined in and shortly after Saúl Salinas from Cuyo. He had begun one of the best-known stages of tango.

His career began to grow exponentially, and in 1931 he met Alfredo Le Pera , with whom he had already begun to have contact the previous year. By then, Gardel was already at the peak of her musical and acting career, but the duo with Le Pera skyrocketed her to the rest of the world: together they composed the most recognized tangos that catapulted them to international fame. They were together with their guitarists when on June 24, 1935 they died in the tragic accident in Medellín.

The first famous Argentine

The historian Felipe Pigna tells in his book “Gardel”, that El Zorzal was the first Argentine of the 20th century to transcend to levels uncommon in Spain, France, the United States and almost all of Latin America. In addition to being a singer, Carlitos was an excellent actor who filmed in Paris and New York, who was attentive to the scripts and who created the melodies for his films, giving his best for his audience that expanded every day.

When remembering his tragic death, in an interview with Infobae , Pigna reveals that Gardel sensed that something could happen on that flight , beyond the fear he had of flying.

“These dialogues are completely real, they come from the testimonies of the survivors José María Aguilar Porrás , guitarist, and José Plaja . There is a permanent dark question in that final trip and a refusal to travel that did not have to do with someone paranoid but with a world where commercial air aviation was beginning, and plane accidents were very frequent and Carlos had the logical prevention of not wanting to travel. by plane and, furthermore, he had sworn it to his mother; That’s why when she found out about the accident she couldn’t believe it because he had told her that she was never going to get on a plane,” she warns.

But that is not all. According to what he investigated, “a series of unfortunate events also occurred on that flight.” “Nothing happened that is said about the legend of the shooting, but a number of accumulated errors did happen, the precariousness of an airport that was not in good condition, the signage was completely human with a flag like the one in Formula 1 that marked the presence of a plane and there was a kind of discord in marking the untimely presence of the German plane on the runway. There was also a certain overload on Carlos’s plane and it was poorly distributed where there was a lot of weight in the back of the aircraft that complicated takeoff. The pilot was excellent in small planes and not one of that size; and a co-pilot who didn’t know how to pilot. “So a number of things come together in a tragic situation that resulted in the death of most of the crew, due to a series of serious human errors ,” he concludes.

Carlos Gardel’s Mausoleum awaits the visit of hundreds of fans

A cigarette that will let its ashes fall with the blow of the wind (several, actually), octogenarian singers and the new ones who, with a scarf tied around their neck and a hat on one side, will sing the tangos that Gardel immortalized and others that those Gardelians of soul.

Surely dozens of tourists will also arrive with some flowers to visit the mausoleum where the remains of Carlitos and his mother rest. The visit is the obligatory event that is repeated every December 11, to celebrate his birth, and on June 24, to remember the day he died after the fatal accident in Medellín after the collision of the aircraft in which he was traveling with another, of similar size, while taxiing.

The tribute, which will begin at 1:00 p.m. at the mausoleum (6th and 33rd streets), will include the singers Alfredo Sáez, Leonardo Pastore, Oscar Fernández with their guitarists, and Jenni Zubillaga, accompanied by the pianist Hernán Malagoli.

“The heritage that Gardel has left us is immense and the richest cultural contribution that an artist could leave. His voice has been declared a World Heritage Site and he was hailed as Argentine by the most prominent artists in the world, as well as kings, queens, princes, presidents, etc. He is the Argentine who represented us in many countries, singing not only tangos but also dozens of other musical genres, including folklore, expressing our idiosyncrasy through his lyrics,” highlights Edith Beraldi , the woman who guards the singer’s remains and her mother.

In addition, he highlights that he stood out as an actor and that his films broke records in New York, where he was laid to rest for 8 days. “Who else achieved so much? And he could go on recounting his “deeds” since, for the time in which he lived, the things he has done really were. And as if that were not enough, the greatness that he had in art was also exercised as a human being, because he cared a lot about others and helped everyone who needed it. His mercy was infinite and most of the time he sent her money in silence and discretion. Every time he left a performance, he would have his guitarists take out their guitars to play various songs to the people who were cheering him on outside and had not been able to enter, either because the seats were sold out or because they did not have the money to pay for their ticket.”

Excited, she asks: “How can we not admire and love Gardel? How can you not be tempted to be a better person and follow his example? That’s simple, now, singing like him… impossible!”