Carlos Gardel

Carlos Gardel (11 December 1887/18901 - 24 June 1935 Medell?n, Colombia) is perhaps the most prominent figure in the history of tango. Although his birthplace is disputed between Uruguay and France, he lived in Argentina from the age of two and acquired Argentine citizenship in 1923. He grew up in the Abasto neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, located near the Central Market of Fruit and Vegetables, an enormous art-deco styled building which today is a shopping mall. He attended Pio IX Industrial high-school located in the Almagro neighbourhood. He died in an airplane crash at the height of his career, becoming an archetypal tragic hero mourned throughout Latin America. For many, Gardel embodies the soul of the tango style that originated in the barrios of Buenos Aires at the end of the 19th century. He is commonly referred to as ?Carlitos?, ?The King of Tango?, ?El Mago? (The Magician) and ?El Mudo? (The Mute).

The unerring musicality of Gardel?s baritone voice and the dramatic phrasing of his lyrics made miniature masterpieces of his hundreds of three-minute tango recordings. Together with lyricist and long-time collaborator Alfredo Le Pera, Gardel wrote several classic tangos, most notably: Mi Buenos Aires querido, Cuesta abajo, Amores de estudiante, Soledad, Volver, Por una cabeza and El d?a que me quieras.

Career

A statue of Carlos Gardel outside the Abasto Market in Buenos Aires, near which he grew up.

Gardel began his singing career in bars and at private parties, and sang with Francisco Martino and later in a trio with Martino and Jos? Razzano. Gardel created the tango-canci?n in 1917 with his rendition of Pascual Contursi and Samuel Castriota?s Mi Noche Triste. The recording sold 10,000 copies and was a hit throughout Latin America. Gardel went on tour through Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Colombia, and also made appearances in Paris, New York, Barcelona and Madrid. He sold 70,000 records in the first three months of a 1928 visit to Paris. As his popularity grew, he made a number of films for Paramount in France and the U.S. While sentimental films such as El d?a que me quieras and Cuesta abajo lack lasting dramatic value, they were outstanding showcases of his tremendous singing talents and moviestar looks.

In 1915 Carlos Gardel was supposedly wounded after being shot by Che Guevara?s father, Ernesto Guevara Lynch, as a result of a bar room brawl in the belle epoque Palais de Glace in the Recoleta district of Buenos Aires, although different versions assert that he was shot in the chest or in the leg, yet another variation holds that it was not Che?s father but rather Roberto Guevara, an upper-class boy often involved in quarrels.

Death and ongoing profile

Por una cabeza
Carlos Gardel and Le Pera?s 1935 tango, Por una cabeza.

Gardel died in 1935 on an airplane crash in Medell?n, Colombia. Le Pera, two of their guitarists (Guillermo Desiderio Barbieri and ?ngel Domingo Riverol) and several business associates and friends of the group died in the crash as well. It is believed that a third guitarist, Jos? Mar?a Aguilar, died a few days after the crash. Others state that Aguilar lived until 1951, although he never regained full use of his hands and sight.

Millions of his fans throughout Latin America went into mourning. Hordes came to pay their respects as his body was taken from Colombia through New York and Rio de Janeiro. Thousands rendered homage during the two days he lay in state in Montevideo, the city in which his mother lived at the time. Gardel?s body was laid to rest in La Chacarita Cemetery in Buenos Aires. In the neighborhood of Abasto, Buenos Aires, in the house where Gardel lived with his mother, the Carlos Gardel Museum opened in 2003.

Gardel is still revered from Tokyo to Buenos Aires. A popular saying in Latin America, which serves as a testimony to his long-lived popularity, claims, ?Gardel sings better every day.? The fingers of his life-sized tuxedo-clad statue on his tomb nearly always hold a burning cigarette left by an admirer. Another commonly used phrase in Latin America, which asserts that Veinte a?os no es nada (Twenty years is nothing), comes from his song Volver. He attended Pio IX High School with his friend Ceferino Namuncur?.

Statues in Scotland

During 2009/2010 statues depicting Gardel are scheduled to be erected temporarily throughout twenty-five small villages and towns of Scotland, commemorating his tour of 1930 where the singer used funds from his well paid appearances in Glasgow and Edinburgh to subsidise small unannounced concerts in rural venues. These impromptu (and free) appearances endeared him to the working population of Scotland and his legacy of passion and art endure through regular commemorative concerts and amateur productions. However the tour is a stunt carried out by performing arts company Mischief La Bas.

Birthplace controversy

Portrait of Carlos Gardel in the eponymous subway station (Buenos Aires)

The place of Gardel?s birth is a matter of considerable controversy that still provokes passionate debate in Uruguay and Argentina.

Written evidence, however, tends to suggest that Gardel was born Charles Romuald Gard?s in Toulouse, France to Berthe Gard?s (1865-1943) who brought the infant Gardel with her to Venezuela. Apparently, Gardel's mother returned to France after finding little demand for the hats she handcrafted; then she left for Argentina when Gardel was 27 months old. It is not known who Gardel's father was. An original French birth certificate for Gardel is owned by the estate of Puerto Rican Gilbert Mamery, a radio personality and Gardel scholar. In addition, Gardel?s apparent holographic will asserts that he was born in Toulouse, France. Nevertheless French people generally do not know that he was born in France, assuming he was born in Argentina.

In Uruguay there is the strong belief that Gardel was born in a small town called Valle Ed?n in the Uruguayan department of Tacuaremb?. This theory is supported by his application for Argentinian citizenship, in which he claims to be Uruguayan, and the half-burnt passport recovered from his body, which gives Tacuaremb? as place of birth. There is speculation, however, that Gardel gave Tacuaremb? as his birthplace to evade military service during World War I for his native France.

When asked about his nationality, Gardel would answer, ?I was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, at the age of two years and a half...? It is thought that Gardel gave an evasive answer in order to hide the circumstances of his birth to a single mother.

In his biography about Gardel, Carlos Gardel, La Biograf?a, Argentine writer Fernando Esteves gives evidence that Gardel?s father was named Paul Jean Lasserre, a mechanical engineer who had befriended Berthe while she was employed at his mother?s hat shop. Lasserre married another woman soon after Gardel?s birth, and because of this he was only incidental in Gardel?s upbringing, although he did pay for Berthe?s travels to South America, at her request. He would later look for Gardel in Argentina, after the singer had become internationally famous, but Gardel chose not to meet him, and Lasserre died in 1921 of hepatitis.

Legacy

In literature

Gabriel Garc?a M?rquez mentions Gardel in his novel, Love in the Time of Cholera. When Florentino Ariza and doctor Juvenal Urbino meet at the former's office in the Caribbean Fluvial Company, doctor Urbino unexpectedly asks Ariza, "Do you like music?". After seriously thinking the issue, Ariza answers, "I like Gardel."

Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cort?zar, Ernesto S?bato and Jimmy Buffett also mention Gardel in their works.

In film

There are two films about Gardel, both in production as of March 2009: Gardel 2008 (July 2009), starring Antonio Sabato Jr. as Gardel, and Dare to Love Me (2010).

Dare To Love Me

In July 2003 Warner Brothers announced that they were working on a film version of Gardel's biography, The Vision of Love (the original cast included Jessica Alba, Ricardo Chavira and Halle Berry), but production was postponed in spring 2005 until early 2006, by that time both Alba and Chavira had backed out of the film. In 2007, Lindsay Lohan and Raoul Bova where cast in the lead roles of Gardel and La Ritana. It was left unknown when production would begin up until autumn 2008, when it was officially announced that production is set to begin on the film on 18 May, 2009 and it will be released in late 2010.

Popular culture

Gardel is mentioned in the song Sociedade Alternativa, by Brazilian rock artist Raul Seixas, in the lines se eu quero e voc? quer/tomar banho de chap?u/ou discutir Carlos Gardel (if we both want/to take a shower wearing hats/or to discuss Carlos Gardel).

Filmography

Flor de Durazno (1917) (silent). This was Gardel's first film and was directed by Francisco Defilippis Novoa and was made in collaboration with Celestino Petray.
Luces de Buenos Aires (1931) (filmed in Paris)
Esperame (1932)
La Casa es seria (1932)
Melod?a de Arrabal (1932)
Cuesta abajo (1934)
El Tango en Broadway (1934)
El D?a que me quieras (1935)
Cazadores de estrellas (1935)
Tango Bar (1935)