Historia del Tango

She was born in San Telmo neighbourhood on October 11, 1904. Her parents, Ana Merello and Santiago Merello, baptized her with the name Laura Ana Merello. It was a very humble family: his father was a coachman, and her mother was an ironer. The first stroke she got from life was his father’s death, when she was only five months old. Her mother faced this disgrace very courageously, and made all the necessary efforts to give her daughter a decent life. However, in 1908, the bad economic situation and the serious disease she suffered, made her put Laura Ana in an asylum when she was only four years old. This lovable human being, that, in time, would be one of the most important symbols of Buenos Aires tango, had a very difficult childhood. The spiritual loneliness she went through, the fact of loving and not being loved back, and spending her childhood in an asylum, were experiences that left a mark on her soul forever. When Laura was ten, she went back home with her mother, but she got sick and her doctors diagnosed her tuberculosis. That was the reason why the little girl was sent to a sojourn in Magdalena, in Buenos Aires province. They told her she was being sent there in order to recover herself from her illness, but the truth was that she spent the entire time doing the cleaning, taking care of the animals, and complying with rural tasks that were not appropriate for a girl her age. When she returned to Buenos Aires, she felt quite lonely and desperate. Fortunately, she discovered the existence of the “entertainment world” and felt attracted to it. That’s how it began to grow in her soul the desire of having the chance to show herself and to perform. She started a continuous search that first gave her any results in 1920, when she happened to pass by the door of the Avenida theatre and saw a sign asking for girls to work in the vaudeville show that was on stage at that moment. When the producers of the show saw her audition and discovered her seductive personality, they offered her a job immediately. However, her debut was also her first artistic failure: the audience did not like her, and they let her know that; and so, she never came back there. But her economic situation was not good, and she really needed to work. She tried again, but this time she went to the Bataclán Theatre, where she sang and danced, and also showed her beautiful legs. The way in which she interpreted tangos, with her arrabal tone, was her ticket to the success that would be with her during her whole career. In 1923, when she already was a famous singer, businessman Roberto Cayol hired her and gave her the chance of making her debut at the Maipo Theatre, a more famous place in Buenos Aires. Her kindness and her personal charisma, with her colleagues and also with the audience, gave Tita the status of a first figure. Although there were very popular female tango singers around that time, such as Azucena Maizani, Rosita Quiroga and Mercedes Simone, Tita was a sure candidate to be nominated for the “Queen of Tango” award, for having recorded “Trago amargo” (“Bitter drink”) in her first record, in 1931. As an actress and a singer, she worked in a very successful play called “El conventillo de la paloma”. She also worked with Luis Arata in “La mala ley” (“The bad law”). Cinematographic director Luis Moglia Barth invited her to be part of the cast of “Tango”, which script belonged to journalist Carlos Raúl Muñóz y Pérez. By the beginning of the 30s, Argentina was going through a deep economic crisis, and Tita popularised two “rancheras” songs about this situation: “Los amores con la crisis” (“Love with crisis”) and “¿Dónde hay un mango?” (“Where is the money?”), which she sang in the film “Ídolos de la radio” (“Radio idols”) and were immediately accepted by people. In 1947 she filmed “Morir en su ley” (“To die in his own law”) and the following year she presented for the first time a theatre play by Eduardo de Filippo, “Filomena Marturano”, which was on stage for two years. This play was so successful that director Luis Mottura took it to the big screen, and the success it had had as a theatre play, repeated itself at the cinemas. Tita began to film many pictures, all of them being essential works in the history of national cinematography, such as: “Arrabalera” (“Woman from the arrabal”), in 1950; “Pasó en mi barrio” (“It happened in my neighbourhood”), probably her most popular work, and “Los isleros” (“The islanders”) in 1951; “Guacho” (“Orphan”) in 1953; and “Para vestir santos” (“To dress up saints”) in 1955. During this stage of her career, Tita puts aside the singer in her to began to be seen as the Argentine Ana Magnani (an Italian cinema actress who was very popular in the postwar period) because of her way of acting: sober, expressive and with an unusual handling of gestures. In 1955, the military government takes over, and Tita, who had always been a symbol of popular movements, was erased from all artistic activities, together with Nelly Omar and Hugo del Carril, just because they were popular idols and everybody loved them. Tita, the same as Hugo and Nelly, worked at circuses, clubs or attraction parks from time to time, in order to earn some money. In 1957, partly for this situation, and partly because of her economic reality, she decided to accept a proposal she had received from Mexico, where she was very popular because of her films, and travelled to Mexico D. F., where she lived for three years. Her return to Argentina had a massive effect, since she was hired to work on TV and sang a renewed repertory. Tita’s popularity was not originated by her talent for singing, since she had a reduced register, but by the humorous of dramatic touches she added to the songs when interpreting them. She was like a female version of Discépolo: she always had a smile which was not entirely sceptical nor entirely mocking, but a part of each, and when anyone would talk to her about the past, nostalgia could be heard in her voice. Tita uniquely interpreted the suffering of women in all the situations in which they are subjected: happiness, sadness, bitterness and disappointments, and that was the key that allowed her to open the heart of our people and that made her be called “Tita of Buenos Aires”. Nowadays, by suggestion of who was her friend dr. René Favaloro, she lives in the clinic that is named after the prestigious cardiac surgeon, where she gets the love, protection and attention of the medical and administrative staff. This living Buenos Aires icon, which had all of the people love because of her personality, will live forever in our hearts.



Story sent by Oscar Mármol - 1/08/2001 Tita Merello: Tita of Buenos Aires) She was born in San Telmo neighbourhood on October 11, 1904. Her parents, Ana Merello and Santiago Merello, baptized her with the name Laura Ana Merello. It was a very humble family: his father was a coachman, and her mother was an ironer. The first stroke she got from life was his father’s death, when she was only five months old. Her mother faced this disgrace very courageously, and made all the necessary efforts to give her daughter a decent life. However, in 1908, the bad economic situation and the serious disease she suffered, made her put Laura Ana in an asylum when she was only four years old. This lovable human being, that, in time, would be one of the most important symbols of Buenos Aires tango, had a very difficult childhood. The spiritual loneliness she went through, the fact of loving and not being loved back, and spending her childhood in an asylum, were experiences that left a mark on her soul forever. When Laura was ten, she went back home with her mother, but she got sick and her doctors diagnosed her tuberculosis. That was the reason why the little girl was sent to a sojourn in Magdalena, in Buenos Aires province. They told her she was being sent there in order to recover herself from her illness, but the truth was that she spent the entire time doing the cleaning, taking care of the animals, and complying with rural tasks that were not appropriate for a girl her age. When she returned to Buenos Aires, she felt quite lonely and desperate. Fortunately, she discovered the existence of the “entertainment world” and felt attracted to it. That’s how it began to grow in her soul the desire of having the chance to show herself and to perform. She started a continuous search that first gave her any results in 1920, when she happened to pass by the door of the Avenida theatre and saw a sign asking for girls to work in the vaudeville show that was on stage at that moment. When the producers of the show saw her audition and discovered her seductive personality, they offered her a job immediately. However, her debut was also her first artistic failure: the audience did not like her, and they let her know that; and so, she never came back there. But her economic situation was not good, and she really needed to work. She tried again, but this time she went to the Bataclán Theatre, where she sang and danced, and also showed her beautiful legs. The way in which she interpreted tangos, with her arrabal tone, was her ticket to the success that would be with her during her whole career. In 1923, when she already was a famous singer, businessman Roberto Cayol hired her and gave her the chance of making her debut at the Maipo Theatre, a more famous place in Buenos Aires. Her kindness and her personal charisma, with her colleagues and also with the audience, gave Tita the status of a first figure. Although there were very popular female tango singers around that time, such as Azucena Maizani, Rosita Quiroga and Mercedes Simone, Tita was a sure candidate to be nominated for the “Queen of Tango” award, for having recorded “Trago amargo” (“Bitter drink”) in her first record, in 1931. As an actress and a singer, she worked in a very successful play called “El conventillo de la paloma”. She also worked with Luis Arata in “La mala ley” (“The bad law”). Cinematographic director Luis Moglia Barth invited her to be part of the cast of “Tango”, which script belonged to journalist Carlos Raúl Muñóz y Pérez. By the beginning of the 30s, Argentina was going through a deep economic crisis, and Tita popularised two “rancheras” songs about this situation: “Los amores con la crisis” (“Love with crisis”) and “¿Dónde hay un mango?” (“Where is the money?”), which she sang in the film “Ídolos de la radio” (“Radio idols”) and were immediately accepted by people. In 1947 she filmed “Morir en su ley” (“To die in his own law”) and the following year she presented for the first time a theatre play by Eduardo de Filippo, “Filomena Marturano”, which was on stage for two years. This play was so successful that director Luis Mottura took it to the big screen, and the success it had had as a theatre play, repeated itself at the cinemas. Tita began to film many pictures, all of them being essential works in the history of national cinematography, such as: “Arrabalera” (“Woman from the arrabal”), in 1950; “Pasó en mi barrio” (“It happened in my neighbourhood”), probably her most popular work, and “Los isleros” (“The islanders”) in 1951; “Guacho” (“Orphan”) in 1953; and “Para vestir santos” (“To dress up saints”) in 1955. During this stage of her career, Tita puts aside the singer in her to began to be seen as the Argentine Ana Magnani (an Italian cinema actress who was very popular in the postwar period) because of her way of acting: sober, expressive and with an unusual handling of gestures. In 1955, the military government takes over, and Tita, who had always been a symbol of popular movements, was erased from all artistic activities, together with Nelly Omar and Hugo del Carril, just because they were popular idols and everybody loved them. Tita, the same as Hugo and Nelly, worked at circuses, clubs or attraction parks from time to time, in order to earn some money. In 1957, partly for this situation, and partly because of her economic reality, she decided to accept a proposal she had received from Mexico, where she was very popular because of her films, and travelled to Mexico D. F., where she lived for three years. Her return to Argentina had a massive effect, since she was hired to work on TV and sang a renewed repertory. Tita’s popularity was not originated by her talent for singing, since she had a reduced register, but by the humorous of dramatic touches she added to the songs when interpreting them. She was like a female version of Discépolo: she always had a smile which was not entirely sceptical nor entirely mocking, but a part of each, and when anyone would talk to her about the past, nostalgia could be heard in her voice. Tita uniquely interpreted the suffering of women in all the situations in which they are subjected: happiness, sadness, bitterness and disappointments, and that was the key that allowed her to open the heart of our people and that made her be called “Tita of Buenos Aires”. Nowadays, by suggestion of who was her friend dr. René Favaloro, she lives in the clinic that is named after the prestigious cardiac surgeon, where she gets the love, protection and attention of the medical and administrative staff. This living Buenos Aires icon, which had all of the people love because of her personality, will live forever in our hearts. Oscar Mármol If you wish to tell us stories related to tango, send us the information to: info@elportaldeltango.com