- From El Portal del Tango
the recognition to one of the main protagonist of tango.
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 Romantic and temperamental
woman
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Singer. Actress. She was born on November 17th, 1902. The first years of
her childhood were in Palermo, later on until she was a teenager she
lived with some relatives in Martín García Island. When she was 17 years
old she returned Buenos Aires and she worked as a dressmaker. In 1920
and being just 18 years old, she made his debut as a tango songwriter
seconded by Francisco Canaro’s orchestra in Pigall cabaret. Canaro, as
he didn’t remember her name, presented her as "Azabache" (black) for the
color of her hair. But this performance was just a gleam, in his
beginnings. Later on he acted for the first time in César Rattí company
in the Apolo theatre as lead figure in the in the sketch “El rey del
cabaret” (The king of cabaret). Her destination wanted her to meet
Enrique Delfino in a friend’s birthday, Delfino introduced her to
Pascual Carcavallo a manager, who was preparing the premiere of “A mí no
me hablen de penas"(Don’t talk about sorrows to me) by Alberto
Vacarezza, when he heard her, he immediately decided that she should be
the interpreter, so they wrote her the tango”Padre Nuestro" (God’s
prayer) (the second tango written to be sung by a woman) with music by
Delfino. And on June 23rd, 1923 she made her debut singing "Padre
Nuestro"(God’s prayer), accompany by Merico’s orchestra, being an
immediate success and in the same night she had to repeat 5 times,
because the audience asked her so. After her first performance, she
acted in radio programs and in 1924 she recorded his first album. She
worked in different theatre companies and her popularity was growing day
by day. In 1925 she was already the best paid artistic figure in the
Argentinean radio best paid. In that period it was known that "La Ñata
Gaucha” (nickname) conceded by her friend Libertad Lamarque, was the
number one singer and nobody could deny it and nobody felt angry for
that reason, on the contrary the other singers admired her as a
professional and as a person.
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 In1929 she begun a tour to Chile and then
it continued to Europe with a bid theatre company, and in that way she
made the
popular the tango (in female version) in the world. Several composers
offered her their tangos,
they trusted in her success.
She recorded for Víctor, Odeón and Brunswick company. In 1938 she begun
a tour to: South America and the USA (in this country she worked in the
film "Di que me quieres" “say that you love me”), with Francisco
Tróppoli, Domingo Varela Conte and Enrique Del Puerto. She is the author
of the tangos: “La Canción de Buenos Aires” (Buenos Aires song), “Pero
yo sé” (But I know), “Aguas tristes” (Sad water), “En esta soledad” (In
this loneliness), “Cállate, cállate”, (Shut up, shut up) and “Volvé
Negro” (Come back black), among others. She acted in different kind of
sketches and theatrical plays where she presented some new tangos. She
also participated in the movies “Tango" (1933) which inaugurated the
sound cinema in Argentina, "Monte Criollo" (Creole mount) (1935), "Di
que me quieres" (Tell me that you love me) (1938), "Nativa" (Native)
(1939). In the year 1962 she said goodbye to the sceneries with an
amazing farewell in the “Teatro Astral” (Astral theatre) she was
acclaimed by the audience and eulogized by the critic. In 1966 she had a
hemiplegy and she died on January 15th, 1970.
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She was
among the first feminine songwriters of tango, opening in this way the
door to other songwriters who had decided as her being “tangueras”’.
She made a
lot of presentations wearing creole clothes.
Her most popular song was the tango “Pero yo sé" (But I know), recorded
by several artists and among this it was distinguished Angel Vargas’s
versión with Ángel D’Agostino’s orchestra. She left more than
 270
recordings.
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“Pero yo sé” (But I know) (Fragmento of the tango)
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“But I know that you
keep thinking in loving,
you want to find forgetfulness
changing so many women…”
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Written by: Azucena Maizani
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Music: Azucena Maizani
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