Escuela de Lenguas UNLP/About Argentina/Important Argentinean Characters/The Arts

Literature

Alfonsina Storni

She was born on May 29. 1892, in Sala Capriasca (Switzerland), after four years, she moved with her parents to Argentina. She was a poet and writer, her prose is feminist. She lived in the city of San Juan. Later she lived in Santa Fe, Rosario, Buenos Aires and Mar del Plata. When she was fourteen, her father died. She worked in the factory to help at home. She worked as a school teacher. She had a son, Alexander. He was born on 29 April, 1921. She worked in the theatre. and as teacher of declamation in Children's theatre. In 1935, she was diagnosed with a tumor which was operated on but cancer continued, and she went through periods of depression. On 24 October, 1938, she traveled to Mar del Plata. She sent two letters to her son and a farewell poem to newspaper "La Nación" and on 25 October 1938 she ended her life committing suicide.

Ernesto Sábato

Ernesto Sábato was born in Rojas, Province of Buenos Aires on 24th June, 1911. He was the tenth child of one Italian immigrant family. He was an important Argentinian writer, essayist, physicist and painter. In the Secondary School, he studied in the "Colegio Nacional de La Plata" and then he studied Physics and Mathematics at University. In 1936 he married Matilde Kusminsky Richte. Two years later, in 1938, he obtained the doctorate in Physics and he had one scholarship for investigation in the Curie Laboratory in Paris. He worked in the University of La Plata. He was distinguished by the the Government of Spain with "La gran cruz al mérito civil" and then by the French Government as "Comandante de la Legión de Honor". His first book of essays was "Uno y el Universo"(1945) and his first novel was "El Tunel" (1948). He wrote other very notable essays: "Hombres y Engranajes"(1951); "Heterodoxias"(1953); "El otro rostro del Peronismo" (1956). His most important NOVEL was "Sobre héroes y tumbas"(1961). He was chosen President of the Comisión Nacional sobre Desaparición de Personas (CONADEP), which published "Nunca Más" (1984). This book was about the outrage and crimes committed by the Argentinian Military Dictatorship from 1976 to 1983. One of his famous sentences was “The search of one human life begins with education". He died on 30th April,2011, when he was 99 years old.

Horacio Quiroga

He was born in Salto by the Uruguay river on December 31st, 1878 and he died in Buenos Aires in 1937. He was a storyteller, a playwright, a photographer, a journalist and a poet. He was usually compared with Edgard Allan Poe. He was a justice of the peace, a coalman, a “yerba” producer, a candy maker, and the inventor of one device to kill ants. He loved the jungle and the climate of Misiones helped him with his asthma. He married twice. He had three children. His life was full of tragedy, accidents and suicide. His father died when he was 2 months old due to an accidental fire. Two years later his stepfather committed suicide. In 1902 his friend is challenged to a duel and while Horacio cleaned the gun he accidentally shot him. His friend died. His first wife committed suicide. But the tragedy didn’t finish with his death. His daughter Egle committed suicide after his death and his sisters Pastora and Prudence died affected by typhoid fever. Horacio Quiroga finished his life by his own decision, when he drank a glass of cyanide in a clinic at the age of 58. He was affected by prostate cancer.

Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges

Last 14th June was 30 years since the death of Jorge Luis Borges, who was born in Buenos Aires on 24th August, 1899. He is recognized as one of the most important writers of the Spanish language. You can find his poems, stories and essays in any bookstore around the world. He never wrote a novel, and some people say that is perhaps why he never won the Nobel Prize for Literature, although others say it was for his political position. He was also an important translator of works written in other languages and those who have read his translations claim that the works translated by Borges are better than the originals, because he changed words, syntax, etc. of the author’s work. He was also a very controversial person. When in an interview he was asked about democracy, he answered: “Democracy is a mistake, it’s a chaos stocked with ballot boxes” When he was asked about the concept of homeland, he said “That’s strange! I feel homeland deeply, but I can’t say what is it. Staying at home writing is somehow the only way I can express what I feel for the homeland”. At time when Diego Armando Maradona was the most famous football player in the world, Borges said in an interview:“Who is he? I don’t know him”. In 1979 when he shared the Cervantes Prize with the Spahish writer Gerardo Diego, Borges just asked him: “What’s your name? Gerardo or Diego?” There are so many other stories about his particular personality and irony… they most probably won him many detractors.

José Hernández

He was born on 10th November, 1834 in Chacra Pueyrredón, District of San Martín, Province of Buenos Aires, Argetina. He was a poet, a politician, a journalist and a military man. He was the author of "Martín Fierro", considered the greatest work of gauchesco literature and an Argentinean classic. He wrote for a lot of newspapers and he was a representative in the Legislature of Buenos Aires between 1879 and 1886. In 1879 he published "La vuelta de Martín Fierro". his death was on 21th October, 1886, in Belgrano, Province of Buenos Aires.

Julio Florencio Cortázar

He was an Argentinean writer, translator and intellectual. Julio Cortazar is a well-known writer worldwide. He was born in Brussels, in 1914 because his father was a diplomat. When Julio was four years old, his father abandoned the family and they decided to return to Argentina where he later worked as a rural teacher for five years. In his free time, he studied literature. In 1951, he won a scholarship and travelled to Paris. He had excellent marks during his stay there. He lived in Paris for more than 30 years. His first work was as a translator for the Unesco.

Julio always admired the Argentinian writer, Jorge Luis Borges. In 1946, he wrote the first narrations of Bestiario. That book was the first of a long list of fantastic books: End of the Game, Rayuela(Hopscotch), The secrets arms, Bestiary among others. A lot of his writings were made into films due to their plasticity and descriptive qualities. For Cortazar, literature is a form of play. In addition to his work as a writer, he was also a renowned translator. He worked, among others, for Unesco.

Cortazar lived in Banfield with his mother and his sister. His wives were: Aurora Bernard, UgneKemelis and Carol Dunlop. In 1951 He traveled to France, where He lived the rest of his life. He chose the French nationality in 1981 to protest against the Argentine military Government. He is considered one of the most innovative and original writers of his time; master of the short story, the poetic prose and brief narratives in general. He wrote important novels that showed a new way of writing literature in the Hispanic world, breaking classical rules with narratives that show no temporal linearity. The content of his work is in between the real world and the fantastic one, and it is sometimes connected with magical realism and even surrealism.

He was born on August 26,1914, in Belgium. He died, of cancer, on February 12, 1984, in Paris, at the age of sixty-nine. His body rests in Montparnasse Cemetery, in Paris. He was one of Latin America' s greatest writers.

Victoria Ocampo

Victoria Ocampo was an Argentinian writer, an intellectual and a translator. She was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 7th April 1898, into a high class society family. She lived in Paris and she studied at the "College de France" and at the "Sorbonne". She married in 1912, but she wasn´t happy and in 1920 they separated. She met with Argentinian and foreign artists and intellectuals and feminist movement. She was founder of the magazine "Sur". Her most important works were "Testimonios" (ten books) and her "Autobiography"(six books). She was member of the Argentine Academy of letters, doctor Honoris Causa of Harvard University, Commander of the Order the British Empire. She received Maria Cabot Prize. Victoria Ocampo died on 27 January 1979, in Buenos Aires.

María Elena Walsh

María Elena Walsh was born in the neighbourhood of Ramos Mejía, in Buenos Aires, on February 1, 1930. She was a poet, writer, musician, singer-songwriter, dramatist and composer from Argentina. Famous for her children's literature, she created moving characters, as Manuelita la Tortuga. Her songs were played by personalities such as Mercedes Sosa and Joan Manuel Serrat and went beyond the Argentine borders. During the military dictatorship in Argentina, she was censored and persecuted, then in 1978, she decided not to continue writing or singing in public. Paradoxically, several of her songs became a fight for democracy, as La cigarra or Canción de cuna para un gobernante, among others. In 1985, she was named Illustrious Citizen of the Buenos Aires City and in 1990, Doctor Honoris Causa of the Córdoba National University and Illustrious Personality of the Buenos Aires. She died at 80 years old in Buenos Aires in 2011.

Griselda Gambaro

Griselda Gambaro was born in 1928 in Barracas, Buenos Aires. She is an Argentine writer and playwright. She said that she was born with wishes to read and she wrote letters to her friends at 10 years old. She got married in 1955 with the sculptor Juan Carlos Distéfano. In 1976 she published the novel “Ganarse la muerte” but general Rafael Videla prohibited it and she had to be exiled to Barcelona. When she came back to Argentina in 1983, she took part in the independent theatre company Open Theatre. She wrote about the human condition, the traditional relationship in the society. She lives in Buenos Aires, at present.

Music

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Painting, Sculpture, Photography

Annemarie Heinrich

She is a symbol of the Argentinean photography of the XXth century and a well-known artist in the cultural history of Argentina. She was born in Germany on January 9th, 1912 and moved to Argentina with her family in 1926, fleeing from World War I. She was a portrait expertise. She photographed the greatest stars of Argentinean movies, at the top of the golden decade of the 40's. According to the researcher Juan Travnik “Annmarie had a subtle capacity of observation. She could retrieve from every portrait a deep sparkling look, a unique gesture, magical.” He believes that her passion for different dances, scenery and plastic arts were the basis of her photographic skill. Heinrich considered portrait art as a collaboration between the photographer and the model. She wrote: "A good portrait is much more than an ordinary photo. A face must show what a human being has inside, and this takes time". Heinrich also used an exceptional, masterful and innovative technique: lighting and negative retouch. Images created by Heinrich are part of the collective Argentinean memory. Nowadays, her photographs are part of the permanent collections of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires and Museo Fotografico de Rafaela. Some of his photographs are also exhibited in several foreign museums. She died in September 2005.

Benito Quinquela Martín

If someone says Quinquela Martín there aren´t many possibilities of error: everybody knows his name and his works. He is a trademark of Argentine painting. He is a master recognized and consecrated in the world. But he has a particular feature within the elite of the art geniuses: he is a popular artist. His paintings have a strong identity: they transmit a simple, solid and bright message that creates an immediate connection with the viewer. Benito Juan Martín was abandoned by his family and lived 7 years in an orphanage. Then he was adopted by a humble couple of the neighborhood of La Boca, Manuel Chinchella and his wife, Justina Molina. Benito had a poor home and mostly worked carrying coal bags. He could only go to school for two years but soon, he started to study painting. In that world grew his talent for the art and he yielded on canvas his multicolor landscapes about the work in the port, fruit of his own and hard experience. He began to exhibit his works in 1910 but when he knew Pío Collivadino, his career was boosted. His paintings honour work. In all of them there are men in movement; however, his pictures do not contain drama, because in his rough brushstrokes and brilliant colours Quinquela expressed the nobility of work. He exhibited his work at the main art galleries and he was a renowned painter during the XXth century.

Adriana Lestido

Adriana Lestido is a great Argentinian photographer. She was born in 1955 in Buenos Aires. She studied photography at the Institute of Photographic Art and Audiovisual Techniques in Avellaneda. She worked as a photojournalist for some prominent newspapers from 1980 to 1995. The photography is her tool of expresion and allows her to understand the mystery of human relationships. She prefers to take photographs in black and white and she especially chooses to work on human issues like teenage mothers, women prisoners, mother-daughter relationships and love. She has received numerous awards and distinctions including a grant from the Hasselblad Foundation in 1991. She was the first Argentine photographer to be awarded a Guggenheim grant. In 2010 she was noted for her outstanding contribution to local culture by the legislature of the city of Buenos Aires. She is a highly committed teacher in Ezeiza women’s prison. Adriana Lestido is the author of several essays and books including Mujeres presas in 2001 and 2008, Madres e hijas in 2003, Interior in 2010, La Obra in 2011, and Lo Que Se Ve in 2012. Rodrigo Alonso, a local art critic, said about her work: "Her camera is attentive to the small gestures , involuntary movements , moments where her presence as a photographer has completely disappeared. She uses black and white photos because the events that she records do not require any cosmetic adjuncts ". I think his words are a good description of this extraordinary local photographer and her work style.

Florencio Molina Campos

Florencio Molina Campos is one of the popular Argentine plastic artists. Like Quinquela Martin, his name identifies topics and styles. In fact, Molina Campos described like no one else the customs in the country. He spent long seasons at father´s farm and his paintings and drawings show a singular vision of the gauchos’ life in his landscape. He even considered himself as a gaucho. He caught the rural essence and translated it to simple and expressive paintings. The pictures of Molina Campos are scenes of respectful humor with exaggerated figures. His horses, with big eyes, are a classic of the drawing. Some critics said that Molina Campos’ style was naive but associated it with the expressionism. Molina Campos put on shows in Europe and the USA and his almanac series -in Argentina and the USA- were a world event. He also illustrated an unforgettable edition of Fausto, by Estanislao del Campo and another of Martín Fierro, by Rafael Hernández. He worked with Walt Disney in the production of movies, between them, Bambi. The artist and critic Ruy de Solanas said this about Molina Campos: “He´s is a fantastic painter and his almanacs are the gallery of the poor”.

TV, Cinema and Theatre

Alfredo Alcón

He was a very famous actor. He was born in Liniers, in the city of Buenos Aires. He was a student at the Drama Art School. At the theatre he performed different plays by Shakespeare, Federico García Lorca, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Henrik Ibsen, Abelardo Castillo, Eugene O’Neill and Samuel Beckett. He was also stage manager at the theatre. He starred in a lot of films with Leopoldo Torre Nilsson: “Un guapo del 900” (1960), “Martín Fierro” (1968), “El santo de la espada” (1970), “La Mafia” (1972), “Los siete locos” (1973) and “Boquitas Pintadas” (1974). He produced a film with Leonardo Favio called “Nazareno Cruz y el lobo”, a very successful film seen by 3.500.000 people. He was given the leading role in “El Público” by Federico García Lorca at Fossati Theatre in Milan in 1986 and María Guerrero Theatre in Madrid in 1987. He won “El Cóndor” award in several occasions. He died on 11th April 2014 in Buenos Aires. He was 84 years old. He was buried in Chacarita’s cemetery.

Alejandro Dolina

Another famous celebrity is Alejandro Dolina. He’s an author, a musician, a radio announcer and an actor. He is seventy-one years old. He’s tall and dark. He wrote some books: Hell’s Bar, Ghost’s Book, Grey angel’s chronicles and others. He has two sons: Alejandro and Martín. His sons are musicians, too. They have a band: Cabaret. They work in a radio program with their father. They sing tango, jazz and soul.

Carlos Hilbck

Carlos Hilbck was born in Piura, Peru, in 1969. When he was a child he came to Argentina. He has lived here for 39 years. He studied in La Plata, he started work very young in Public administration, and he studied to become an actor very young too in Escuela de Teatro de La Plata. He took courses with Norman Briski, Rafael Garzaniti, Omar Sanchez and Febe Chavez and dramaturgy workshops with Alejandra Varela, Gaston Marioni and Mauricio Kartun . Then he studied to be a lawyer and notary. Today he is a teacher in Universidad Catolica Argentina La Plata and Universidad Nacional de La Plata. At the end of 2014 he wrote his first book Teatro del vomito; from this book two workshops of investigation emerged. Currently, he is coordinating a set of four works where local actors work. This year (2016) he wrote his second book Teatro del vomito II.

Leonardo Favio

Fuad Jorge Jury, better known by his stage name Leonardo Favio, was a film producer and film director, writer, composer, singer and Argentinian actor. He was born on May 28th, 1938, in the district of Las Catitas, in the province of Mendoza, in a poor and difficult neighborhood where he endured his father’s abandonment . His mother, was an actress and a radio playwriter. Leonardo played small roles in low-paid jobs and then he went to Buenos Aires where he worked as an extra in many films. Later, under the patronage of a famous director (Torre Nilsson) he began his successful acting career. In 1960 he made his debut as a director with the film “Crónica de un Niño Solo”. Due to economic problems, he decided to jump into professional singing, reaching such success that he was allowed to afford the production of new films. He was the precursor of Latin American romantic ballad. He was recognized as a talented director who renewed the Argentinian cinema. From a young age he joined the peronist movement. In 1972 Favio was invited by Peron himself to accompany him on the plane that brought him back to Argentina, after 18 years in exile. Favio said ”… I’m not a peronist director, but I am a peronist who makes films,” and this was always reflected in his work. He died in Buenos Aires on November 5, 2012.

Lolita Torres

She was born on 26 March 1930 in Avellaneda, province of Buenos Aires. Her real name was Beatriz Mariana Torres Iriarte. She was the daughter of the railroad telegrapher Pedro Torres and Angelica Iriarte. She was always called Lolita at her home. She studied singing since she was a child and participated in many school festivals. In 1940 she won a competition organised by Radio Splendid. This presentation was listened by the Spanish actor Manolo Perales and he liked the way she had sung. In 1942, he could convince her parents, and they let her participate in a theatre play called Maravillas de España. At the age of fourteen she started to work in the film La danza de la fortuna with Luis Sandrini and Olinda Bozán as the main characters. In 1948 she obtained her first main character work in the film “Ritmo, sal y pimienta”. In this film she gave her first kiss to the main male character played by Ricardo Passano. It was her only kiss in movies because her father didn´t like these kinds of scenes. Then she was hired by General Belgrano Company and she made several films like “El mucamo de la niña” (1951) and “La niña de fuego” (1952). Later, she started to work with the Mentasti Brothers. With them she played in “La mejor del colegio” in 1953 and “La edad del amor” in 1954. In 1957 she married Santiago Rodolfo Burastero, and then she had her first child Santiago. During a trip the couple suffered a serious car accident and her husband died. After that she married Julio Caccia in 1961. They had four children: Angelica, Marcelo, Mariana and Diego. She was a singer and an actress. As a singer she started to sing Spanish musical songs. Throughout her career, she sang different musical compositions written by different authors like Ariel Ramirez, Eladia Blasquez, Silvio Rodriguez, Waldo de los Ríos, Charly García, Victor Heredia, etc. She also sang tango, for example “El día que me quieras”, which was written by Carlos Gardel and Alfredo Le Pera. Her last films had a modest success. In the early 90s, she retired because of a serious illness. She died on 14 Septembe 2002. A month before her death she was declared Ciudadana Ilustre de Buenos Aires.

Mirtha Legrand

The Legrand family are a family of artists with different talents. They are connected with acting and production. The grandmother is Mirtha, an actress and a TV presenter for a long time, with a strong personality. Her daughter is Marcela. She is a TV presenter and has a moderate profile. Her two grandchildren are Juana and Ignacio. Juana is an actress and Ignacio is a TV producer and director. All together they are very important TV people.

Moria Casan

Ana María Casanova is also known as Moria Casan. She is from Argentina. She is 69 years old. She has a daughter, Gala Sofía Castiglione. She is from Argentina too. Moria is an actress, a comedian and a manager. Currently she works in ShowMatch and she is considered one of the most popular divas on TVand the cinema. Sofía is an actress too.

Nini Marshall

Maria Esther Traveso, called Nini Marshall was born in 1903 in Buenos Aires. She was an actress, comedian and writer. She started writing for the “Sintonia” magazine in 1930, with the nickname “Mitzy”. She was excellent in comedy and made a duet with Juan Carlos Thorry. Between 1939 and 1940, she acted in three films: Divorce in Montevideo, Marriage in Buenos Aires and Honeymoon in Rio. She was very observant of people; this allowed her to create two emblematic characters: Cándida and Catita. She made some movies. In 1943, because of the military government, she was exiled to Mexico because the authorities considered that the language used in the films was a deformation of the language. She returned to Argentina in 1954, but she didn´t work until 1960, when she appeared in the television. In 1970, she worked in a Café concert where she made 1500 presentations and she could make all her characters. She stood out in the theater as a comedian, which is why she was called "The Golden Lady" and "Chaplin with Skirts" She retired in 1980 but she wrote her memories, she was a well-known woman. She died in 1996.

Ricardo Darín

Ricardo Darín is from Argentina. He’s married. His wife is Florencia Bas. She is from Argentina too and she is forty-eight. Ricardo is fifty-eight years old and he has two children, a boy and a girl. There are four people in the family. Ricardo is a cinema, theatre and TV actor. He is also a director and screenwriter. He is the winner of many prizes. His son is Ricardo “Chino” Darín. He’s an actor too. He’s twenty-six and single. In 2010 he debuted as an actor. He is working in films, theatre and television.