Carlos Gardel (11 December 1887/18901 - 24 June 1935 Medellín, Colombia) was perhaps the most prominent figure in the history of tango. Although his birthplace is in doubt, Argentina was his home from childhood, and he acquired Argentine citizenship in 1923. He grew up in the Abasto neigbourhood, where was located the Central Market of Fruits and Vegetables, an enormous art-deco styled building, which today is a shopping mall. He studied at the Pio IX Industrial high-school, which is still today functioning; located in the Almagro neigbourhood. He died in an airplane crash at the height of his career, creating the image of a tragic hero throughout Latin America. For many, Gardel embodies the soul of the tango style that sprang from the barrios of Buenos Aires and Montevideo at the end of the 19th century. He is commonly referred as "Carlitos", "The King of Tango" and ironically "El Mudo" (The Mute).
The unerring musicality and dramatic phrasing of Gardel's baritone voice 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, notably: Mi Buenos Aires querido, Cuesta abajo, Amores de estudiante, Soledad, Volver, Por una cabeza and El día que me quieras.
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 a wide repertory with Francisco Martino and later in trio with Martino and José Razzano. Gardel created the tango-canción in 1917 with his rendition of Pascual Contursi and Samuel Castriota's Mi Noche Triste. The recording sold 100,000 copies and was a hit throughout Latin America. Gardel went on to tour through Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, Puerto Rico,Venezuela, Colombia, and also appeared in the cities of Spain: Barcelona and Madrid, Paris and New York. 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 día que me quieras and Cuesta abajo lack lasting dramatic value, they were outstanding showcases for his tremendous singing talents and matinée-idol 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, and yet another variation holds that it was not Che's father but rather Roberto Guevara, a high-class boy often involved in quarrels.
Gardel died in 1935 on an airplane crash in Medellín, Colombia. Le Pera, two of their guitarists (Guillermo Desiderio Barbieri and Ángel Domingo Riverol) and several business associates and friends of the group died in the crash as well. It is believed that a third guitarist, José María 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 thronged 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 that "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 años no es nada (Twenty years is nothing), comes from his song Volver.
The place of Gardel's birth is a matter of considerable controversy that still provokes passionate debate in Uruguay, Argentina and France.
Some theorize that Gardel was born in a small town called Valle Edén in the Uruguayan department of Tacuarembó. 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 Tacuarembó as place of birth. There is speculation, however, that Gardel stated Tacuarembó as his birthplace to evade military service during World War I for his native France.
Written evidence, however, tends to point out that Gardel was born Charles Romuald Gardès in Toulouse, France by an illegitimate father to Berthe Gardès (1865-1943), who brought him, first to Venezuela (from where she apparently returned to France after finding little demand for the hats she handcrafted), and later to Argentina, when Gardel was 27 months-old. An original French birth certificate is owned by the estate of Gilbert Mamery, Puerto Rican radio personality and Gardel scholar. In addition, Gardel's apparent holographic will asserts that he was born in Toulouse, France.
When asked about his nationality, Gardel would answer "I was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, at the age of 2 years and a half..." It is postulated 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 Biografía", Argentinean author 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. Laserre 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. He died from hepatitis in 1921.
