The Voice of Tango, Carlos Gardel, signs an autograph for a fan.
- Autograph by Carlos Gardel.
- 8.5 cm x 13.4 cm.
- No date given, probably in the United States.
- Perfect condition.
- Unique piece.
Anyone who has ever walked through the cities along the coast of the Río de la Plata, in the southern part of the Americas, knows that there is an air of melancholy in these parts of the world, not as sadness, but as an indecipherable nostalgic beauty. Tango is the main symbol of this feeling. It is impossible to listen to a tango without feeling some kind of nostalgia. For what? Everyone will say. What is not a subjective interpretation is the name of the main exponent of this musical style: Carlos Gardel, an elegant and vain man, who became part of the popular imagination with his suit and hat, as shown in the rare autographed photograph we recently found. However, the origin of this great star is uncertain, and although the currently most accepted version is that he was born in France, the singer's past is full of mysteries and adventures.
Although Buenos Aires was Gardel's home, there are three main hypotheses about his birth, all of which have been told at some point by the singer himself. In 1904, after running away from home at the age of 14, he was arrested by a police officer and told that he had been born in France, in Toulouse, in 1890. In 1915, another version came to light, in which Gardel was supposedly born in the city of La Plata, south of the Argentine capital. Years later, in 1923, Gardel had his passport written up stating that he had been born in Uruguay, in 1887. On each of these occasions, the King of Tango registered his name with slightly different spellings: Gardes, Gardez and, finally, Gardel.
But why would the singer have given such different information about his identity? It seems that Gardel wanted to distance himself from some unorthodox acts committed in his past. A famous Argentine newspaper had access to the singer's criminal record and some revelations came to light that may explain his reasons.
It seems that, before his international fame, Gardel had a past as a con artist. A police document from 1915 presents him as “el pibe Carlitos”, the boy Carlitos, who participated in the so-called “uncle fraud”, a scam that consisted of approaching a stranger in a bar and claiming to have a rich uncle who had left him an inheritance, but in a distant city. The man would then be asked to lend money to go to the place to retrieve the treasure, with the promise of a large compensation. Needless to say, the said nephew escaped with the money without ever sending any news, right? But could Gardel really have participated in this type of scheme?
It is impossible to be certain of Carlos Gardel's origins or past before he became famous, but it is a fact that his voice has left its mark on the history of humanity, being included in the UNESCO Memorial del Mundo program. Gardel made 957 recordings, covering 792 different themes. In addition to music, he was also a movie star, recording in both France and the United States. Today, Gardel is a symbol of Latin America, not just Argentina. Unfortunately, the singer died young, before he was fifty years old, in a plane crash in Colombia. Even so, he will go down in history not as a con man, but as the man who gave music to the vibration of a continent.
Carlos Gardel's autographs on photographs, in excellent condition, appear rarely.
