María Estela Martínez de Perón
President of Argentina
In office 29 June 1974 - 24 March 1976 interim until 1 July 1974
Preceded by	Juan Perón
Succeeded by	Jorge Videla
Head of the Argentine Justicialist Party
In office 1974 - 1975
Preceded by	Juan Perón
28th Vice President of Argentina
In office 12 October 1973 - 1 July 1974
President	Juan Perón
Preceded by	Office Vacant; Vicente Solano Lima most recent office holder
Succeeded by	Office Vacant; Víctor Martínez next to hold office
First Lady of Argentina
In office 12 October 1973 – 1 July 1974
Personal details
Born	(1931-02-04) February 4, 1931 (age 81) La Rioja, Argentina
Nationality	Argentine
Political party	Justicialist
Spouse(s)	Juan Perón

María Estela Martínez Cartas de Perón (born February 4, 1931), better known as Isabel Martínez de Perón or Isabel Perón, is a former President of Argentina. She was also the third wife of another former President, Juan Perón. During her husband's third term as president, Isabel served as vice president and following her husband's death in office, Isabel served as president from July 1, 1974 to March 24, 1976. She was the first non-royal female head of state and head of government in the Western Hemisphere.

In 2007, an Argentine judge ordered the arrest of Isabel Perón over the forced disappearance of an activist in February 1976, on the grounds that the disappearance was authorized by her signing of decrees allowing Argentina's armed forces to take action against "subversives".^[1] She was arrested near her home in Spain on 12 January 2007.^[2] Spanish courts subsequently refused her extradition to Argentina.^[3]

Early life[link]

María Estela Martínez Cartas was born in La Rioja, Argentina, into a lower middle-class family, daughter of María Josefa Cartas Olguín and Carmelo Martínez.^[4] She dropped out of school after the fifth grade,^[5] and in the early 1950s became a nightclub dancer, adopting a variant of her patron saint, Saint Isabel, as her stage name.^[6]

Career and marriage[link]

Juan Perón[link]

She met her future husband during his exile in Panama.^[6] Juan Perón, who was 35 years her senior, was attracted by her beauty and believed she could provide him with the female companionship he had been lacking since the death of his second wife, Eva Peron.

Perón brought Isabel with him when he moved to Madrid, Spain, in 1960. Authorities in this Roman Catholic nation did not approve of Perón's living arrangements with the young woman, so on November 15, 1961, the former president reluctantly married for a third time.^[6]

Early political career[link]

Ambassador Isabel[link]

As Perón resumed an active role in Argentine politics, Isabel acted as a go-between from Spain to South America. Having been deposed in a coup in 1955, Perón was forbidden from returning to Argentina, so his new wife would travel in his stead.^[7] The CGT leader José Alonso became one of her main advisers in Perón's dispute against Steelworkers' leader Augusto Vandor's Popular Union faction during mid-term elections in 1965; Alonso and Vandor were both later assassinated in as-yet unexplained circumstances.^[7]

José López Rega[link]

Isabel met José López Rega, an occult philosopher and fortune teller, around 1965. She was interested in occult matters (and as president reportedly employed astrological divination to determine national policy),^[8] so the two quickly became friends. Under pressure from Isabel, Perón appointed López as her personal secretary; he later founded the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (Triple A), a death squad accused of 1,500 crimes in the 1970s.^[9]

Rise to power[link]

President Perón addresses a rally shortly before his death, flanked by his wife and José López Rega.

Héctor Cámpora was nominated by Perón's Justicialist Party to run in the 1973 presidential elections and won. It was, however, generally understood that Perón held the real power; a popular phrase at the time was "Cámpora al gobierno, Perón al poder" (Cámpora in government, Perón in power). Later that year, Perón returned to Argentina, and Cámpora resigned to allow Perón to run for president. Isabel had very little in the way of political experience or ambitions and she was a very different personality from Evita, who was more involved with politics and had been denied the post of Vice President in the 1951 elections. In a surprisingly uncontroversial move, he chose Isabel as his nominee for the Vice Presidency to mollify feuding Peronist factions, as these could agree on no other running mate. Perón's return from exile was marked by a growing rift between the right and left wings of the Peronist movement. Cámpora represented the left wing, while López Rega represented the right wing; under López Rega's influence, Isabel Perón also favored the right wing, and were thought of by the left as the entorno. Perón had long been inimical to the left, but had cultivated their support while in exile; this rapport ended after the assassination of CGT leader José Ignacio Rucci by the leftist Montoneros, however.^[7]

Perón's victory in the ensuing election in September was a foregone conclusion, and he won with 62% of the vote. He began his third term on October 12, 1973, with Isabel, as Vice President. Perón, however, was in precarious health; by at least one account he was actually senile; Isabel had to take over as Acting President on several occasions during his tenure.^[5]

The presidency[link]

Juan Perón suffered a series of heart attacks on June 28, 1974. Isabel was summoned home from a European trade mission and secretly sworn in as interim president the next day.^[7] Juan Perón died on July 1, 1974, less than a year after his third election to the presidency. Isabel formally assumed the office, becoming the first non-royal female head of state and head of government in the Western Hemisphere. She was popularly known as La Presidente. Grammatically, she should have been called La Presidenta, but the constitution only referred to El Presidente.^[5]

José López Rega, officially Minister of Social Welfare, broadly vetted Perón's domestic and foreign policy until protests forced him to flee to Spain in July 1975.

Although she lacked Evita's charisma, the nation at first rallied to the grieving widow. Even extremist groups were publicly offering her support, it seemed, following their falling out with Juan Perón between May and June. Meetings with various constituent and political groups were cancelled, and the goodwill her husband's death had left her soon dissipated. Most leftists who had not been already were purged from government and university posts. Following a string of political murders, a break by the Montoneros with the government, and a wave of industrial strikes in September, 1974, she became unpopular for the first time since the public had become acquainted with her.^[10]

Another source of contention between her and the voters was the increasing appearance that José López Rega, the Minister of Social Welfare, set the agenda over a broad swath of Perón's policies. Vetting nearly all domestic and foreign policy, he became de facto prime minister, something not lost on the Argentine public, then benefiting from Latin America's highest access to newspapers, radio, television and education.^[11] Never liked by the public, and loathed by the Roman Catholic Church and the Armed Forces despite his avowed right-wing views, López Rega was a man considered by others in the halls of power as a borderline psychopath, and, worse, the sport of being the "power behind the throne," which he leveraged to secure business partnerships with Muammar Gaddafi, Zairean dictator Joseph Mobutu, and the Italian Fascist Licio Gelli (to whose P-2 lodge López Rega belonged).^[7]

More of a mystery at time was the extent of the Social Welfare Minister's involvement in the recently formed Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (Triple A), a paramilitary force that, between late 1973 and late 1974, had already carried out nearly 300 murders, including that of former President Arturo Frondizi's brother, Professor Silvio Frondizi, Congressman Rodolfo Ortega Peña, activist Father Carlos Mugica, Buenos Aires Province Assistant Police Chief Julio Troxler, former Córdoba Vice-Governor Atilio López, and former Chilean Army head Carlos Prats. Other prominent public servants, such as UCR Senator Hipólito Solari Yrigoyen and left-wing University of Buenos Aires President Rodolfo Puiggrós, narrowly escaped Triple A attacks with their lives; Puiggrós was then removed from his post.^[12]

Atrocities were also being committed by left-wing extremists. Organized in 1968, the mysterious Roman Catholic-oriented anarchist Montoneros had already carried out the murder of former de facto President Pedro Aramburu, popular CGT union Secretary General José Ignacio Rucci, construction workers' union leader Rogelio Coria, former Interior Minister Arturo Mor Roig, and U.S. Consul John Egan, among other murders and kidnappings. Throughout 1974, moreover, the appearance of a new, nearly equally violent Trotskyite group, the ERP, sped the vicious cycle of violence. Having gained notoriety after the murder of FIAT executive Oberdan Sallustro, they began the year with a violent assault on the Azul barracks and murdered, among others, criminal court Judge Jorge Quiroga, writer Jordán Bruno Genta, and the publisher of La Plata's centrist El Día, David Kraiselburd. Their kidnapping of Esso executive Victor Samuelson, freed for a ransom of US$12 million, ignited what would become a rash of such crimes.^[13]

Following the murder of Buenos Aires Police Chief Alberto Villar (one of López Rega's closest collaborators in the Triple A) and his wife, as well as amid increasing activity by the ERP in the Province of Tucumán, Perón was persuaded to declare a state of siege on November 6 (suspending, among other rights, Habeas Corpus). Censorship also increased markedly, culminating in the closure by decree of one of the leading news dailies in Latin America (Crónica) and several other publications, as well as the banning of Argentine television figures standards such as talk show host Mirtha Legrand and comedian Tato Bores.^[14]

Operation Independence was then initiated in Tucumán on February 5, 1975. This military campaign gained notoriety for the brutality it exacted on not only the violent; but also elected officials, magistrates and University of Tucumán faculty (even secondary school teachers).^[12]

The Peronists' own political mainstay (the labor movement) was also subject to the "subversive" labels and consequent reprisals. The November 1974 election of a left-wing union shop steward at a Villa Constitución steel mill and its disapproval by steelworkers' leader Lorenzo Miguel (a leading figure in the paramount CGT), resulted in a brutal March 20, 1975, police assault on the facility. The raid, executed jointly with Triple A heavies, led to the "disappearance" of many of the 300 workers arrested.^[15]

Perón swears in new Labor Minister Carlos Ruckauf. Instability and power struggles led to 28 cabinet changes in her 21 months in office.

López Rega, meanwhile, had many of the most competent policy makers Perón had inherited from her husband's brief last turn at the presidency dismissed; by May, 1975, both Economy Minister José Ber Gelbard and Central Bank President Alfredo Gómez Morales had been replaced with López Rega loyalists.^[16] Stacking the State Intelligence Secretariat (SIDE) with Fascists loyal to him, this policy led the corrupt agency to engage in unprecedented intrigue, culminating in the kidnapping of Jorge and Juan Born, prominent local executives who paid US$60 million for their release (a world record at the time). Using contacts from among the Montoneros' many double agents (allegedly including the leader, Mario Firmenich), the agency kept the Born brothers in a known SIDE safehouse for nine months until their June 1975 release without public suspicion of SIDE involvement, a successful false flag operation that led to others (albeit less ambitious ones) in the following months.^[12]

Faced with record trade and budget deficits, though with an otherwise stable economy, the new Economy Minister, Celestino Rodrigo proceeded to apply "shock therapy," ordering a surprise halving of the peso's value and, by forcing those who could to stampede towards the U.S. dollar, destroying the fragile financial balance that had been maintained to that point. Consumer prices doubled between May and August, alone, and though sharp, mandatory wage hikes had been negotiated between the government, labor and employers, the resulting shock (known as the Rodrigazo) ignited protest across Argentina, including a two-day general strike by the CGT (the first ever against a Peronist administration). Following a riot in front of his offices, the now hated José López Rega was hastily appointed Ambassador to Spain and boarded a flight into exile.^[16]

Fall from power[link]

Ítalo Lúder, whose September 1975 designation as acting president raised hopes that Perón's leave of absence might be permanent.

López Rega left the country July 19; shortly afterward, Perón dismissed his protégés in the Economy Ministry, Celestino Rodrigo, and in the Armed Forces High Command, General Alberto Numa Laplane, whom she replaced with General Jorge Videla, a quiet career officer with an uneventful military record.^[14] The president's appointment of a pragmatic economist, Peronist wheelhorse Antonio Cafiero and her September 13 announcement of a leave of absence relieved ample sectors of society, from labor unions to business. Designating Senate President Ítalo Lúder, a moderately conservative Peronist, in her stead, it was widely hoped that her leave would become permanent; but, it was not to be.^[11]

Having claimed over 800 lives, violence between Trotskyite and Fascist extremists had abated somewhat since López Rega's July exile; the Montoneros, however, began a series of audacious attacks on military installations, including August dynamiting of a nearly finished Navy destroyer near the port of La Plata and the attack on a military base in Formosa Province on October 5. To make matters worse, these groups and (in a bid to control the agenda), the Triple A themselves, both began taking to midnight lightning strikes against civilian targets (such as banks, buses, yachts, parking lots and restaurants), each blaming the other and, as it turned out, both right.^[12] This, in any case, forced society into a state of terror very much alien to Argentina's upwardly mobile majority. Anxious to placate the exasperated public, the military, hard-line labor leaders (particularly the steelworkers' Lorenzo Miguel), and most other Peronists, on October 6 she and Lúder signed new measures giving blanket immunity for the Armed Forces that they may (in her words) "annihilate the subversives." The measure won her just enough support to return from "sick leave" and on October 17, (on Peronists' historically central "Loyalty Day"), Perón appeared at the balcony of the Casa Rosada, back at her post.^[10]

Mrs. Perón greets Navy personnel. Her increasing reliance on the Armed Forces to suppress leftist violence could not ultimately prevent her overthrow.

This was, in effect, an extension nationwide of the state of emergency that had been imposed in Tucumán. That operation's military success and the president's November 17 announcement that elections (scheduled for March 1977) would be held in November 1976 instead, again brought renewed hope that an increasingly rumored coup d'état could yet be averted.^[12]

Anxiety over inflation, meanwhile, continued to dominate daily life. Monthly inflation did slow from the (then-record) 35% logged in July, but remained at 10-15% monthly between September and January 1976 (a level more familiar to the Argentine consumer). A sudden fall in business investment had by then sent the economy into a sharp recession, however. GDP growth had already slowed from a 6.8% rate in the fourth quarter of 1974 to 1.4% in the second quarter; following the Rodrigazo crisis, the economy shrank 4.4% by the first quarter of 1976, with fixed investment falling by one sixth and auto production by a third.^[16] The mid-year recession had significantly curbed the growth in imports; but because exports continued to fall, the trade deficit reached a record billion dollars in 1975, nearly depleting foreign exchange reserves.^[16] The government's 1975 budget had been derailed by the crisis and by earlier commitments to cancel its then still-modest foreign debt, something which, even so cost Argentina US$2.5 billion that year, alone. The resulting budget deficits (over US$5 billion, in 1975) and a series of lockouts in the agricultural and commercial sectors began to reassert pressure on prices after November, leading to hoarding and shortages.^[11][16]

The appointment of General Héctor Fautario, a loyalist of Perón, to the branch's high command, fueled broader in the Air Force for action against her administration, and on December 18, General Jesús Capellini attempted a coup d'état by seizing the Móron Air Force base. The military joint chiefs, however, who obtained Fautario's dismissal, stayed the mutiny's hand, secretly concluding that the timing was premature. Partly in response, the nearly defeated ERP besieged the important Monte Chingolo Armory on December 23. This, the most violent among the numerous such attacks in 1975, cost over 100 lives and marked the end of the ERP's violent campaign.^[10]

Peronists rally in support of Mrs. Perón on March 23, 1976, amid rumors of a coup. She was deposed that night.

Economy Minister Antonio Cafiero was dismissed on February 4, 1976, and, within days, the head of the General Economic Council, Julio Broner, left Argentina with his family, altogether. CGT Secretary General Casildo Herreras followed suit, announcing from exile that he had "erased" himself. Cafiero's replacement, Eugenio Mondelli, announced a new devaluation of the shredded peso, causing prices to jump by over 60% in two months. Near defeat, though still active, the Montoneros detonated a bomb at Army headquarters on March 15, killing one and injuring 29. Soon afterward, allegations surfaced that Perón had embezzled large sums from a government-run charity into her personal accounts in Spain. The allegations destroyed her remaining support in Congress, and the UCR initiated impeachment proceedings against the President with the support of many in her own Justicialist Party. However, it was expected that Perón would be thrown out of office by the military before the legislature could impeach her. Indeed, the media were by then openly counting down the days to the expected coup d'état. As it turned out, even as the joint chiefs of staff were professing loyalty to La Presidente, they were secretly planning "Operation Aries."^[12][16]

Calling it a day at the Casa Rosada after working late into the evening of March 23, 1976, in the hope of averting an renewed business lockout, Perón celebrated her executive assistant's birthday with staff. Alerted to suspicious military exercises, she boarded the presidential helicopter shortly after midnight. It did not fly her to the Quinta de Olivos presidential residence as she intended; but, instead to an Air Force base in nearby Jorge Newbery International Airport, where she was formally deposed and arrested.^[13]

Detention and exile[link]

President Raúl Alfonsín hosts Perón during her brief 1984 stay in Argentina. Her call for cooperation with Alfonsín did not prevent a future wave of strikes, however.

The majority of Peronist officials in the national, provincial, and municipal governments were promptly arrested, and many would join the ranks of the "disappeared" during the subsequent Dirty War, including numerous right-wing Peronists.^[12] Isabel Perón herself remained under house arrest in Villa La Angostura and other secluded locations for five years, eventually sent into exile in Spain in 1981. She continued to serve as official head of the Peronist Justicialist Party until her resignation in 1985, nearly a decade after her fall from power. Though there were some who desired her return and wished for her return to power, she refused to stand for election to the presidency. She lived in Madrid, maintained close links with Francisco Franco's family, and sometimes went to Marbella, a Spanish coastal city.^[17]

Following the restoration of democracy in Argentina, she was pardoned from charges of corruption during her presidency and returned in May 1984 to participate in policy talks arranged by President Raúl Alfonsín and opposition leaders. Still nominally head of Perón's Justicialist Party, she played a constructive role in the talks - supporting cooperation between the restive CGT labor union (her party's political base) and Alfonsín. The talks concluded with a weak agreement, and she resigned from her post as titular head of the party.^[18] Perón resumed residence in Spain under a very low profile.

Arrest in Spain[link]

A judge in Mendoza, Argentina in November 2006 demanded testimony from Isabel Perón, along with other Peronist ministers of her government, in a case involving forced disappearances during her presidency; on January 12, 2007, she was arrested in Madrid. She was charged by the Argentine authorities with the disappearance of Héctor Aldo Fagetti Gallego on February 25, 1976, and her issuance of her October 6, 1975, decree calling the Armed Forces to "annihilate … subversive elements throughout the country".^[2] The Nunca Mas ("Never Again") report released in 1984 by the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons recorded 600 disappearances and 500 assassinations under the Peronist governments from 1973 to 1976, and it is today acknowledged that the Triple A alone murdered about 600 people.^[19] The 2006 capture in Spain of Triple A death-squad overseer Rodolfo Almirón (then also in charge of López Rega's and Isabel Perón's personal security) shed further light on the extent of Triple A involvement.^[17] Mrs. Perón's extradition to Argentina was denied in Spain on March 28, 2008.^[3]

See also[link]

• Dirty War
• National Reorganization Process

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: María Estela Martínez de Perón

• Guareschi, Roberto (Nov. 5, 2005). "Not quite the Evita of Argentine legend". New Straits Times, p. 21.

External links[link]

• First female president for Argentina

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La Argentina

Antonia Mercé y Luque (September 4, 1890 – July 18, 1936), stage name La Argentina, was a dancer known for her creation of the neoclassical style of Spanish dance as a theatrical art.^[1] She was one of the major influences on Japanese butoh dancer Kazuo Ohno.^[2]

It is given to few artists to incarnate in their art, at a given epoch, the distinct characteristics of their race and its conception of the beautiful, and this, in a manner so in complete and significant that their names get identified with a peculiar way of living and the story of their life becomes a page of history. It is to one such artist representative of her art, of her country, of her age that this short study is consecrated. The recent unexpected renaissance of Spanish dancing, an art whose creative power seemed to have been exhausted, is due primarily to the singular genius of one dancer, La Argentina. Alone she has epitomized and regenerated a form long cheapened and falsified by the music-hall gypsies turned out wholesale in Seville. And her indescribable success has loosened a new onslaught of Spanish dancing, the oldest and noblest of European exotics."^[3]

Early life[link]

She was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. A talented young dancer, her career was greatly influenced by her parents Manuel Mercé (an Andalusian), and Josefina Luque (a Castilian), themselves professional Spanish dancers. It was due to them that La Argentina's entire life was mainly focused on dance, where her parents greatly wanted her to excel. She studied ballet with her parents in her youth. She trained mainly with her father, who taught her to dance at the age of four. When she was nine years old, she debuted at the Teatro Real in Madrid, Spain. At the age of 11, she was a star dancer at the Madrid Opera.

Shortly after the death of her father, La Argentina retired from ballet. After this life-transforming event, at the age of 14, La Argentina started studying native Spanish dances with her mother.

Career[link]

For several years to come, her style of dancing was not highly admired in her society; therefore she could not perform in theatres or in concerts (in which she was used to dancing). She danced wherever she could, which meant performing in café cantantés and music halls.

Prior to World War I, La Argentina was extremely admired in Paris,^{[citation needed]} where she accepted invitations to dance at the Moulin Rouge, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, and other important locations. Years later, she took interest in a gypsy-style dance and made it her own.

In her career she made six transcontinental tours in North America, sometimes accompanied by flamenco guitarist Carlos Montoya.

Awards[link]

She received several awards, including the French Légion d'honneur and the Spanish Orden de Isabel la Católica.

Death[link]

She died on July 18, 1936, in Bayonne, France.

Contribution to formal dance[link]

Her contributions to formal dance are expressed in her style, her choice of music, her use of castanets, and her structuring of performances.

Style[link]

« For the past year I have had a passion for Argentina. The rigour of her classical formation, her knowledge and her taste bring dignity and nobleness to Spanish folklore, and fills me with respect. I feel like I am entering the Escurial when I am with her. » (Edwige Feuillère )^[4]

« While there had always been a great flowering of folkloric dances in Spain, the history of formal dance itself began only in 1920 with Argentina and Escudero. Diaghilev admired them a lot. » (Serge Lifar)

« From what it was, a colourful facet of popular culure, Spanish formalized dance turns, thanks to her genius and infinite patience, into a choreographic style destined to universal acceptance. »(Jean Dorcy)

La Argentina created her own style. Spain has 49 provinces with very different traditions, where the levels of artistic interpretation go from the crudest popular taste to the most austere sobriety. Certain dances were shapeless, deformed, and forgotten as society changed. La Argentina revived the folklore, catalogued it, sought traditional steps wherever she could fnd them in village squares and in humble dance schools ; she used diplomacy and even subterfuge to be shown a particular step or dance by the elders, such as occurred near Salamanca, where she was able to reconstitute the genuine charrada. She felt strongly that what was presented under that name on stage was not authentic. In denying its popular ancestral roots, Spanish dance in the theatre had become insipid. Italian and French influences had deprived it of its originality. The spirit of genuine Spanish dance had deserted it. La Argentina rekindled that spirit. ^{[5] [6]}

Parallel with this search for authenticity, she systematically made the dances she found conform to her own aesthetic. She married the purity of classical style with the ardour and character of popular art. No element, musical or plastic, escaped her labour of re-creation. She devoted more than eight hours a day to it, submitting each pattem of steps to her sense of rhythm and music. She refined and pruned, keeping only what was essential, she stylized and transformed the lead of regional dances into the finest gold. Thanks to her, Spanish formal dance went into a new phase, and rose to a hitherto unattained level of sublimation.

What do we mean by stylizing or adapting for the stage ? Stylised dance must retain the nature and flavour of folklore while respecting the demands of the stage. What are these ?

- To create space - To accentuate movement - The different parts must fit into the whole - The body becomes moving architecture.

The Spanish dancer has the advantage on this last point. Classical dance extends the form and inflects only during moments of transition, in linear continuity. Essentially it offers surfaces, the Spanish body volumes. Classical dance offers surfaces because it is a product of the stage. On stage we are best seen from the front and in three quarters profile; seen from the side the body loses its radiance. and from the back it loses it entirely. Traditionally the Spanish dancer is seen from all angles. He constantly offers volumes to the eye. A thousand fluid body positions give vigour, ardour and celerity. Classical dance paints, Spanish dance sculpts. Classical form elongates itself, shimmers, rises on tip-toe ; it glides, it loses substance, becomes idealised. Spanish form is earthy, it strikes, presses, accentuates downward, stays close to the ground. Made of broken lines, of sinuous and constantly inflected form. It is ready to leap not in the air as in classical dance. but like a wild animal. In adapting itself to the stage, Spanish dance must retain its specific shapes. If it conforms only to stage demands, it would undoubtedly turn into classical dance. It has no right to do so, because of its roots: it is born in the street, in the bars. It represents a region. It reflects the life of the people. its games and bullfighting, the enticing fan of a young girl, African eroticism, oriental gypsy mystery. The court dancer did not possess the triple benefit of their historical, ethnographical and psychological background. That is why he could care only about linear beauty. (^[7])

Music[link]

La Argentina was the first to use music for Spanish dance of the great contemporary composers such as Isaac Albéniz, de Falla, Granados and Turina. The musical monuments of these four composers demanded broad choral movements that folklore did not possess. Taking as their base the guitar's melodic micro-universe, and influenced by foreign (especially Russian and French) composition styles, they considerably widened their musical palette. She also elicited scores from the young composers of her country such as Halffter, Espla, Duran.

Great artists accompanied her on the piano. In 1926 Joaquin Nin, pianist and composer arranged many popular songs and Amparo Navaro, née Iturbi, sister of José Iturbi. Carmencita Perez played in 1926 and 1929–30; Miguel Berdion in late 1929 and 1930, and in 1931 in New York. Luis Galve was her accompanist from 27 March 1931 until the end.

La Argentina used any music that suited her temperament. The interaction between music and dance, the parallels she found between melodic line and body profile, intermingled. Her inner vigour seemed to produce both music and dance, so much that any gesture became music for the eye.

Castanets[link]

Of using castanets she

As a little girl ( I was three or four perhaps), I used to hear the insistent, percussive sound of the big castanets when my parents gave lessons. The unmusical noise irritated me so much that I would go and hide in the furthest part of the apartment so as not to hear its reverberation. There I would practice my tiny hands on a pair of castanets my father had given me, and more or less unconsciously - one hardly uses reason at that age - I sought to draw sounds from my instrument that did not hurt my ears. Such were my beginnings and I can only say that my liking for castanets came from the disgust that other’s castanets inspired in me".^[8]

Even as a simple accompanist to regional dances, Argentina became an astonishing soloist and the castanets a genuine concert instrument, even going so far as to modifying their design to obtain more satisfying tones. "The public not only liked Argentina's dancing, and her slim, gently curving arms, it also enjoyed her castanet performance. It was a virtuoso display. "The perfection of her interpretation and the faultless manner of expressing the smallest musical nuance drew comparison with the great Toscanini. « Her performance contained such subtleties » André Levinson said, « such a variety of tones that they were almost like a voice, and such an intensity of expression impatience, challenge and triumph - that they not only amounted to a voice but to a language! « As the famous Spanish-Cuban composer, Joaquin Nin, who styled himself as teacher of perfect Bach and whom I used to see for this reason once said, I always refused to be shackled, even if the chain was the customary pearl necklace offered young women after marriage. But I adored the thread of pearls provided by Argentina's castanets, when she would come as my lessons with him were fnishing to rehearse the wonderful dances of her first recitals at number 27, rue Henri-Heine. » Nothing henceforward would be as before. She was imitated. Some tried to equal her. All the great artists of Spain adopted her musical notation for castanets. She gave Spanish dance her own special imprint, which nowadays it would be inconceivable to do without; she showed the way to future castanet performers, and facilitated the instrument's admittance to the orchestra.^[9][10]

Recital format[link]

Argentina was also the first to inaugurate the recital format, performing her own choreography for concerts in which she was alone on stage, accompanied simply by a pianist, occasionally by a guitarist, especially for the flamenco dances. Her guitarist throughout was Salvador Ballesteros, a family friend. She did not succeed all at once. Like everything else in her career (which began very modestly in Madrid, to end up at the Paris Opera), it happened progressively. She first performed dances in variety programmes, then in pieces with orchestral music; later on in dances where less importance was accorded the orchestra. Her first shows in 1925 during a European tour and in the South of France were shared with Joaquin Nin the composer and soloist, the singer Alicita Felici, with Mme Ginesty-Brisson at the piano, or with the opera singer Dolores de Silvera. The same programme took place at the Salle Gaveau, in Paris, on January 10, 1926. It was in Berlin, on October 15, 1926, that she gave her first solo recital with Carmencita Perez as accompanist. At the end of October of the same year, she gave the same performance in Stockholm, then at the Salle Gaveau in Paris. From then on, she retained the same format:

1927: Salle Gaveau, Théâtre Femina 1928: Salle Pleyel 1929: Théâtre des Champs-Elysées 1933: On December 3, first recital at the Paris Opera 1934: Gala at the Opera, and recital at the Opera Comique 1936: Springtime saw her in Cannes where the kings of Sweden and Denmark applauded her; in May she retumed to Paris and, except for her own ballets, always performed alone on stage with ever-increasing triumph around the world. Argentina was also the first artist of such fame to give recitals at inexpensive prices that were within everybody's range, at the old Trocadero which held more than fve thousand seats. The success of these popular shows was sheer madness. She was obliged to renew the experience several times a season as it had become a tradition expected by all Parisians, who jammed the box-offces, the thousands of seats available beind sold out in a single day.

Main creations[link]

1. Concert dances

1912 El Garrotin, based on a popular air. La Corrida, music by Valverde (taken from choreographies created in 1910 for the opérette l’Amour en Espagne Tango Andalou, music by Ballesteros.

1916 Danse des Yeux verts, music specially composed by Granados.

Between 1916 and 1921 :Habanera, music by Pablo de Sarasate. Cordoba, music by Albeniz. Danza V, music by Granados.

1921 Sevilla, music by Albeniz. Serenata, music by Malats. Sérénade Andalouse, music by C. Ruecker.

1925 Danse du Feu, music by Manuel de Falla. Andalouse Sentimentale, music by Turina. Boléro Classique, music by Iradier. Bohémiene, based on a popular air. Seguidilla (without music).

1926 Mexicaine, based on a popular air. Ciel de Cuba, based on a popular air.

1927 Valencia, music by C. Ruecker. Chaconne, music by Albeniz.

1928 Serenata Andaluza, music by Manuel de Falla. Jota Valenciana, music by Granados. Danse Gitane, music by Infante. Lagerterana, music by Guerrero.

1929 la vie brève, music by de Falla. Carinosa, popular music from the Philippines. Jota Aragonesa, music by de Falla.

1930 Goyescas, music by Granados. Danse Ibérienne, music specially composed by Joaquin Nin. Danse de la Meunière, music by de Falla.

1932 Almeria, music by Albeniz. La Romeria de los Cornudos, music by Pittaluga (The Shawl Dance - a dance from Granada). Puerta de Tierra, music by Albeniz. Danse du Meunier, music by de Falla. Légende, music by Albeniz. Charrada, popular music from Salamanca. Malaguena, music by Albeniz. Castilla, music by Albeniz, « Matid 1 800 ». Cuba, music by Albeniz. Alegrias, music by Ballesteros.

1933 Zapataedo, music by Granados. Tientos, music by Infante.

1934 Sacra-Monte, music by Turina. Esquisse Gitane, music by Infante. La Fregona, music by Vives. Suite Argentine, based on a popular air (Condicion-Bailecito - Zamba). Suite Andalouse, based on popular airs (Sevillanas-Peteneras - Bulerias).

1936 1935 Fandango, music by Turina. Polo Gitano, music by Breton. La Firmeza, based on Argentinian popular music, becoming the last dance in the Suite Argentine.

2. Ballets

1925 L’Amour Sorcier, music by Manuel de Falla.

1927 El Fandango de Candi, music by Duran. Argentina successively expressed feminine shrewdness, thwarted love, tenderness, wearing a pink costume with cubist flounces cut into scallops.

1927 Au coeur de Seville, cuadro flamenco based on a popular air.

1928 Sonatine, music by Ernesto Halffter. This ballet, a mixture of Old France and Castilla, made Spanish courtly dancing come to life again. With delightful touch, Argentina introduces a shepherdess on stage, gliding and pirouetting imperceptibly.

1928 Le Contrebandier, music by Oscar Espla, where the future Empress Eugénie meets Prosper Mérimée and where the countess of Teba saves a smuggler who is pursued by two opérette gendarmes.

1928 Juerga, music by Julien Bautista. Scenes of popular life in Madrid around 1 885 : returning from a popular festival, young people from good families in search of pleasure mingle with common folk, and give themselves to unrestrained jollity : turmoil, dancing, and colourful to-ing and fro-ing.

1929 Triana, music by Albeniz. Lovers' tiffs during the Corpus Christi in Sevilla.

Notes[link]

Further reading[link]

• Suzanne F. Cordelier: La vie brève de la Argentina. Paris 1936
• Monique Paravicini (ed.): Argentina. Gilberte Cournand, Paris 1956
• Argentina. Bienal de Arte Flamenco (V el Baile). Sevilla 1988
• Ministerio de Cultura (ed.): Homenaje en su Centenario 1890-1990 Antonia Mercé 'La Argentina'. Madrid 1990
• Suzanne de Soye: Toi qui dansais, (you danced and danced) Argentina. Paris 1993
• Carlos Manso: La Argentina, fue Antonia Mercé. Buenos Aires 1993
• Ria Schneider (ed.): Argentina. Antonia Mercé. Kastagnettenstücke, entstanden 1912-1936. IGkK, Köln 1993
• Brygida M. Ochaim, Claudia Balk: Varieté-Tänzerinnen um 1900. Vom Sinnenrausch zur Tanzmoderne, Ausstellung des Deutschen Theatermuseums München 23.10.1998–17.1.1999., Stroemfeld, Frankfurt/M. 1998, ISBN 3-87877-745-0

External links[link]

• La Argentina's biography
• Short Biography
• Tarot & Dance: The Dancing Queens, Antonia Merce, La Argentina, Queen of Coins(c) Cheryl Lynne Bradley 2003] at TarotCanada.tripod.com La Argentina
• Legado de Antonia Mercé La Argentina en la Fundación Juan March(Spanish).
• Archive of Antonia Mercé La Argentina, Fundación Juan March-Madrid(English).