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- El día que me quieras
El día que me quieras (c.1979), José Cabrujas
- Titles
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English title: The Day You’ll Love Me
Date written: c. 1979
First publication date: 1979
First production date: 1979
Keywords: violence > social, identity > hierarchy, history > time, history > change/revolution, ideology > politics, family, Social > Hierarchy
- Title information
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This is the title of a tango, most famously sung by Carlos Gardel
- Pitch
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It was the 11th of June 1935 when Carlos Gardel arrived at this house and Elvira Ancízar divided her life into two stages or, better said, into two movements, and as simple as before and afterwards.
It’s 11 June 1935 and the legendary tango singer, Carlos Gardel, has come to give a concert in Caracas. This is just what some people have been waiting for. Living under a dictatorship there is dissent in the home of the family Ancízar; their house is dreamy, full of exotic and decorative objects which betray something of their romantic yearning for another way of life. María Luisa invests her hope in the first Communist state in Russia and is planning to follow her political ideals and her love of ten years, Pío Miranda, to Stalin’s Ukraine. For the other members of the family – María Luisa’s brother, sister and niece – it is not Communist Russia which represents hope, but the fact that Carlos Gardel is in town, and nothing is more wonderful than when he invites himself for dinner. Everyone behaves as if they are entertaining royalty, all except for Pío Miranda who is intent on dampening the excitement. He reminds Gardel, as well as the Ancízar family, that while Caracas is entranced by a tango star, there are innocent people being tortured and imprisoned by the regime. But does Pío Miranda really have the answers? In this Chekovian family drama, Cabrujas slices through history and offers us a view of this point in time which is fascinating to reinterpret now, over seven decades later.
- Synopsis
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It’s 11 June 1935 and Carlos Gardel, the legendary tango singer, has come to give a concert in Caracas on what will be his last world tour. Only a few days later he will be killed in a plane crash while flying over Medellín, Colombia. El día que me quieras captures this moment in history. It is the time of dictator Juan Vicente Gómez’s rule and there is dissent in the home of the family Ancízar. Their house is dreamy, full of exotic and decorative objects which betray something of their romantic yearning for another way of life. María Luisa invests her hope in the first Communist state in Russia and is planning to follow her political ideals and her love of ten years, Pío Miranda, to Stalin’s Ukraine. Her cynical elder sister, Elvira, does not approve. She questions the authenticity of Pío Miranda’s professed Marxist ideals and his resistance to marrying María Luisa, even after ten years of being together. For the other members of the family - Plácido Ancízar, María Luisa and Elvira’s brother, and their young niece Matilde with her romantic notions of love – it is not Communist Russia which comes to stand for their romantic ideal, but Carlos Gardel.
When Gardel arrives in Caracas, the population is star-struck, but it is the Ancízar family who Gardel graces with his presence when he invites himself for dinner after his concert. He is struck by Plácido Ancízar when he encounters him as a member of staff at the Majestic hotel. He hands Plácido an envelope with complementary tickets to his concert that evening for all the family. Later Gardel goes in search of Placido’s home and when Lepera and Gardel walk into the Ancízar family home, the last person they expect to see is the Argentine celebrity. Matilde is beside herself with excitement with the idea that the man they saw perform at theTeatro Principal will be dining with them at their own home. Pío Miranda is the only one who does not share this enthusiasm for celebrity, not even attending the concert when a free ticket is pressed upon him. ‘Gardel no me divide la historia’, [‘Gardel does not divide history for me’] , he says; apparently, in his view, it is Stalin who does that.
When Gardel arrives at the Ancízar home he is fawned over by everyone except Pío, who makes barbed comments in response to Gardel’s invitations to flatter and adore him. Pío is intent on undermining the romantic narrative about Gardel which Matilde and the whole Ancízar family is swept up in. He reminds them all, including Gardel, that while Caracas is entranced by this tango star, there are innocent people being tortured and imprisoned by the regime and that this situation has gone on for over 27 years. But is Pío truly the romantic hero? It seems that Elvira’s suspicions have some foundation as Pío himself is cynical about his own socialist convictions.
In this Chekovian family drama, Cabrujas slices through history and offers us a view of this point in time which is fascinating to reinterpret now, over seven decades later.
- Editions
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Cabrujas, José Ignacio, El día que me quieras. Caracas, Monte Avila (1979)
Cabrujas, José Ignacio, El día que me quieras / Acto Cultural. Caracas, Monte Avila (1989)
- Useful readings and websites
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Balderston, Daniel and Gonzalez, Mike, ed. 2004. Encyclopaedia of Latin American and Caribbean Literature, 1900 – 2003, p. 98. London, Routledge
Giménez, Leonardo Azparren. 1992. ‘Procesos en el teatro venezolano de los ochenta’, Latin American Theatre Review, 25: 2, 191–6
Misemer, Sarah M. 2008. Secular Saints: Performing Frida Kahlo, Carlos Gardel, Eva Peron and Selena. London, Tamesis
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Entry written by Gwendolen Mackeith. Last updated on 5 October 2010.
