1[ For a review of the history of the sainete in
Argentina see Blas Raúl Gallo, ]Historia del sainete
nacional[ (Buenos Aires: Editorial Quetzal, 1958).
2 For a discussion of the impact of immigration on Argentine social structure,
see Torcuato Di Tella and Gino Germani, et. al. ]
Argentina, sociedad de
masas [(Buenos Aires: Editorial Universitaria de Buenos
Aires, 1965).
3 There are numerous sources that discuss the transformation of Argentina and
the internal impacts this transformation had on the country. For a general
history of Argentina see David Rock,]
Argentina, 1516-1987. From
Colonization to Alfonsín[ (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1987), and for an excellent study of the city of Buenos
Aires, see James Scobie, ]Buenos Aires, Plaza to Suburb, 1870-1910[ (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974).
4 For a discussion of the elite's modernization plans as they relate to
immigration policy see Donald S. Castro, ]
The Development of and
Politics of Argentine Immigration Policy, 1852-1914[ (San
Francisco: Mellen Research University Press, 1991).]
[5 Torcuato Di Tella, ]Latin American Politics, a
Theoretical Framework [(Austin: University of Texas Press,
1990), 128.
6 Statistics from various sources including República Argentina,
Ministerio del Interior, ]
Censo, efectuado en el año 1895[ (especially Vol. 3), ]Censo, efectuado en el año
1914[ (especially Vol. 2).
7 Felix Luna, ]
Con los "nueve"[ (Buenos Aires:
Privately printed, 1908), 8.
8 Speech by a deputy from Buenos Aires, Nicolás Calvo, in
República Argentina, Cámara de Diputados, ]
Diario de Sesiones[, (1910), I:43-44.
9 Luis C. Villamayor, ]
El lenguaje del bajo fondo (vocabulario
"Lunfardo"),[ (Rio Cuarto, Provincia de Buenos Aires:
Privately printed, 1915), 16-17. The elite's view that public land was there
for the taking by the immigrant was one that was advanced by this class for a
number of years. It was false. The land was not there. It had been stolen by
the elite. The immigrant served only in the function of cheap labor both in the
city and in the countryside.
10 Ibid. Lunfardo is a term that describes both a thief and the language
(argot) of the thief. Buenos Aires was a center for the "white-slave" trade and
many involved in the trade were Polish Jews. A major scandal broke out in the
1920s related to the trade in which a Jewish benevolent society, Zwi Migdal,
was involved as the major source for prostitutes. See Donna J. Guy, ]
Sex
and Danger in Buenos Aires: Prostitution, Family, and Nation in Argentina[ (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1991). Perhaps the most
notorious of all the creole criminal types was the] malevo[. He was a persona so evil that he was unredeemable. The image of
the creole criminal was the subject of an unpublished paper presented by Donald
S. Castro at the XVI International Congress of the Latin American Studies
Association, Washington, D. C. (April 3-5, 1991), "Ethnicity and Reality in the
Argentine Sainete, 1880-1930: The Image of the Creole Criminal."
11 See Castro, ]
The Development of and Politics of Argentine
Immigration Policy, [Chapter VI.
12 Villamajor, ]
El lenguaje del bajo fondo[, 17-20.
13 This topic inspired Marcos Aguinis to write the novel ]
La Gesta del
Marrano[ (Buenos Aires: Editorial Planeta, 1991).
14 For the history of Jewish immigration to Argentina see Haim Avni,
]
Argentina and the Jews. A History of Jewish Immigration,[ trans. by Gila Brand (Tuscaloosa, Alabama: The University of
Alabama Press, 1991).
15 Bustos' mission is described in the Departamento General de
Inmigración, ]
Memoria[, ]año 1881[,
40-45.
16 See José Mendelson and Alberto Gerchunoff et al., ]
50
años de colonización judia en la Arentina[
(Buenos Aires: Delegación de Asociaciones Israelitas Argentinas, 1939),
Chapter I.
17 Avni, ]
Argentina and the Jews[, pp. 45 ff.
18 See James Scobie, ]
Buenos Aires[, 240 and David
Rock, ]Argentina[, 202.
19 See his ]
Obras completas[, Forward by E. M. S. Danero (Santa Fe:
Librería y Editorial Castellív, 1956).
20 ]
La Bolsa[ (Buenos Airesa: Editorial Kraft, 1956), 28.]
21 David William Foster, Cultural Diversity in Latin American Literature
(Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1994). He provides an excellent
bibliography on the subject of Jews in Argentine literature, cf. 170 ff. Foster
is probably one of the few scholars of the Latin American theatre who
understands the artistic and socio-historical value of the sainete
porteño. For a discussion of the image of the Italian immigrant in
Argentine literature see Luciana Rusich, El inmigrante italiano en la novela
argentina del 80 (Madrid: Editorial Playor, 1974).
[22 Edmundo Guibourg, ed. ]
Trejo, Pacheco, Novión, Vacarezza[ (Buenos Aires:
A-Z Editora, 1987), Introduction, 8.
23 See Tulio Carella, editor. ]
El sainete criollo[
](antología).[ Introduction by Tullio Carella.
(Buenos Aires: Libreria Hachette, 1957), 18 and ]La Escena: Revista
teatral[, XV.737 (August 11, 1932): n.p.
24 In ]
Bambalinas, Revista teatral[, V.200 (February 4, 1922):
n.p. The play takes place arround 1904.
25 The first Yiddish newspaper was "El Fonográfo Hebraico" established
on December 7, 1898 as noted in ]
Caras y Caretas[, I.10 (December 8, 1898): n.p. The photo
essay was in ]Fray Mocho[, 1.22 (September 27, 1912):
n.p.
26 In ]
Comoedia[, 1.6 (June 16 1926): 51-52.
27 In VI.75 (July 1, 1931): 29. One of the main Jewish theatres was the Teatro
Israelita located at Pasteur 641. It was the home of the Gran
Compañía Israelita de arte, drama y comedias. Another important
theatre was the Teatro Comedia located at Corrientes 3234. It housed the Gran
Compañía Israelita de operetas, dramas y comedias. From the
article in ]
Comoedia[, it is unclear which of these
"Compañía Israelita" was the home base of the actor Ben Ami.
28 In ]
Bambalinas[, ]Revista teatral[,
VII.312 (March 29 1924): 1-19. Play is discussed in vein of its anti-Semitic
themes in Maria Ines Cardenas de Monner Sans, "Apuntes sobre nuestro sainete y
la evolucion politica-social argentina" ]Universidad[, 49:73-90 (Santa Fe: Universidad Nacional del Litoral, 1961).
29 In most instances, the saineteros are more explicit when they describe
Jewish cambalacheros as cheats and sharp traders, what is clearly meant is that
Jews use their second-hand shops as fronts for buying stolen goods. This is
clearly seen in the following sainetes: Salvador Riese y Nicolas ]
Paradiso La Morralla o Las Andanzas de un Chitrulo[,
which opened on May 17, 1929. In ]Bambalinas[,
XII.611 (December 28, 1929):1-24. This play describes the criminal life of La
Pelada "un pintoresco producto de la hampa" and Ran, a petty thief. All the
pickpockets and petty thieves sell their hot goods to compra venta person
called "El Ruso Do Jacobo." While this Jew always thinks he is cheating thieves
by buying for less than they want, they rob from him. Clearly, the image given
is that of Jews as sharp traders and dishonest; but, in this sainete, they can
be "out-jewed." For example, Maria: "[[exclamdown]] Miren qué ruso
chorro! [[exclamdown]]Ciento treinta mangos por todo--Che Pelada
[[questiondown]]Qué le chorreaste al tipo?" Pelado: "El bobo y la
marroca (watch and chain)." The image of Jews as fences is also given
in] Don Juan Malevo[ by Roberto F. Cayol (first
played in July 17, 1923). In ]La Escena, Revista teatral,[ VI.267 (August 9, 1923): n.p. In this sainete, which takes place
in "el alegre patio de un conventillo," the petty crook, El flaco Roncoroni,
makes a passing reference to fencing stolen goods with "El ruso."
30 The portrayal of Jewish women is another area of contrasts. Often they are
portrayed as the instrument for inter-racial and religious understanding as the
one who converts. Since, according to Jewish law, it is through the woman the
transmission of religion occurs, her intermarriage is the fastest way of
disappearing the Jews. In an earlier period, it was through the intermarriage
of the Afro-Argentine woman, the Argentine cultural elites--again through the
sainetero--felt the black "other" could be disappeared. In the 1927 sainete by
Ernesto Marsili, ]
Pa mujer, la de mi tierra[, another
point-of-view was presented. This sainete first played on October 1, 1926. It
takes place in Mataderos a rural town in the Province of Buenos Aires. The only
Jewish characters in the play are Jacobo and his daughter Rebeca. She is loved
by poor Valentín and rich Pandolfo. She vacillates between the two and,
at last decides for Valentín, who rejects her for being too
calculating---always looking for the advantage. He forgives her because she is
that way because of her race...because of that they will never understand each
other. When she claims that love has no "Patria," he answers that it has
"raza...y la patría es lo único que puede anularla. Si usted
hubiera nacida en mi patria o yo en la suya, non hubiéramos entenderse
comprendido ...sus hijos podrian entenderse con mis hijos...Nosotros
jámas." He sings tango by Carrero, "Güey, abrojito, güey!":
"Mujer pa gusto o capricho/ puede ser de donde quiera/ mujer para toda la vida/
tiene que ser de mi tierra." In ]La Escena, Revista teatral[, X.449 (February 3, 1927): n.p. A very positive image of Jewish
women is in ]La botica de enfrente[ by Arturo Lorusso
(first played June 17, 1920). In this sainete there is only one Jewish
character Fanny Brownsky a dentist. She is important because women are not
portrayed as professionals and in this exceptional case the woman as
professional is Jewish. In ]La Escena, Revista teatral[, III.107 (June 1920): 2-36. Another, very common and unflattering
description of Jewish women, is as prostitutes. the euphemism for whore, and
for Jewish whore, is "Polaca." See Julio F. Escobar ]Un cansado de la
vida[, in ]Bambalinas, Revista teatral, [ VIII.380 (July 18, 1925): n.p. The sainete was first presented
in July 2, 1925. In this sainete on character "La loca del Bequelo" is
described as a Polaca whose ]cafiso[ [pimp] is "el
pardo Reyes." See also Roberto Cayol ]El Festín de los
Lobos[ in ]Bambalinas, Revista teatral[, 1.3 (April 1918): 5-35. In this sainete one character is
described as "la Polaca," who speaks French.
31 In ]
La Escena, Revista teatral[, IX.398 (January 11, 1926):
n.p.
32 In ]
El Entreacto, Revista Teatral[ I:4 (1919):
n.p.
33 In ]
La Escena, Revista teatral[, VI.84 (July 23,
1923): n.p.
34 In ]
La Escena, Revista teatral[, IV.180(1921):
n.p.
35 While the association of Jews with Communists is fairly common, the tying of
both Jews and Italians to supposed ethnic radicalism is not. In the sainete
]
Es inútil barajar cuando quién talla es la vida,[ by Horacio V. Dutra, both Jews and Italians are jokenly portrayed
as "radicals." (first played November 22, 1923). This play has both a Jewish
main character as well as an Italian main character, they, along with rest,
live in a conventillo on Humberto 1deg. Street. Another character, a creole,
called Sinforoso Romelliares y Padia calls the Italian "cara Mussolini" and
Jew Lanscandifft "cara maximalista." Pasual, the Italian makes fun of the Jew
by constanly misspronouncing his name. For example, he calls him
Salomón, when his name is Samoel, as pronounced by Jew (Samuel), and
twists the last name into Zranscandil, when corrected by Jew it comes out as
Transcandifft. The Jew, when accused of eyeing the girl friend of Pasual,
claims inocence by exclaiming " [[exclamdown]]Oh! [[exclamdown]]A mi!
[[exclamdown]]Te juro pir Abraham, Isaac y pu Jacob que soy mocente." When both
men get angry they forget Spanish and fight in Italian and Russian which
prompts Sinforoso to observe "[[questiondown]]Conferencia facista, bolsevike?"
In ]La Escena, Revista teatral[, VI.286 (December 20,
1923): n.p.
36 I n ]
Bambalinas, Revista teatral[, VI.293 (November 17,
1923): n.p.
37 In ]
La Escena, Revista teatral[, XIII.619 (May 8,
1930): n.p. Play was by Juan Villaba and Hermido Braga. It opened on April 3,
1930. The sub-theme of the Jew as a fool is also repeated in many sainetes. For
example, in the sainete ]El Mercado del Abasto[ by
Antonio Botta and Antonio Molinari Lopardi, the Jew Chicoff, "el ruso," is
ridiculed and made the fool by creoles. The message is clear, the creole does
not need to fear the Jew because he can be bested. In ]La Escena,
Revista teatral[, XIII.63 (July 24, 1930): n.p. Play opened
on May 27, 1930.
38 In ]
La Escena, Revista teatral[, XI.528 (August
9, 1928): n.p.
39 The review is in ]
Comeodia[, VI.75: 34. The play
was produced by the Compañía Buenos Aires and opened in the
teatro Buenos Aires on May 30, 1931. The play is reproduced in ]La
Escena, Revista teatral[, XIV.681 (July 16, 1931): n.p.
40 Note on opening of ]
Judio[ in
]Comoedia[ 1.4 16 (May 1926): 34.
41 In ]
Comeodia[, I.8 (July 16, 1926): 14.
42 This is based on a photograph in ]
Comoedia[, I.6
(July 1, 1926): n.p. This character is dressed wearing a yamulka and has a
beard.
43 In 1.9 (August 1, 1926): 51.
44 In 1.7 (July 1, 1926 ): 45. Impact of ]
Judia[ on
Argentine musical theatre is discussed in "Ensayos Criticos"]Anuario
Teatral Enciclopedia práctica de la escena argentina, 1926-27 [(Buenos Aires: ATA Ediciones, 1927), II.2 (1926-27): 103-104.
Review essay is signed by "L. A." ]Judia[ is
described as the first musical comedy in Argentina "la primera obra del
génaro." Mnne Rasimi brought to Argentina the "bataclán" (roughly
a chorus-girl) and her success led to imitators. Many Argentine authors and
theatre companies tried out the new génaro: Romero, Pelay, Bayón,
Gonzalez, Cairo, Cayol, Alippi, Quiroga y Cía---most failed and only two
had real success with the génaro, and even those have not really created
musical comedy in the American sense as in New York. One thing authors learned
from their efforts was "la comedia musical es algo tán variante y
polimorfo como un kaleidoscopio." What they have produced? According to the
critic "unos han fabricado partiendo de la opereta y otros, partiendo de la
revista. La primera sería algo así como comedia-opereta, y la
segunda una comedia revista. In Paris they have invented the word "pieza"
[piece] to describe those works that did not fit into any genre and they did
not know what to call them---when a work was not a "... comedia, ni pochade, ni
sainete, ni jugute cómica, ni nada, siéndo todo, le dicen:
pieza." (104). The North Americans have done the same "cuando fabrican una obra
con música que no es revista, ni opereta, ni es comedia, ni es nada, y
tiene un poco de todo, le llaman: musical comedy." In the teatro
Porteño, Ivo Pelay has created something new, but, since he has never
seen a real musical comedy or a "pieza française," he has created
something new that is not exactly a model for the musical comedy; even so, it
is new, fresh and interesting. What he has done is create a theme that unifies
the twelve cuadros and four intermedios into an unified one-hour presentation.
The public has had a hard time ajusting to this new form of theatrical
production. But he has done it. It is not just a revista or a collection of
isolated parts, while it is closer to a revista than to an opereta, it does
represent something new.
45]
[Eichelbaums's play was great success as noted in
]Comoedia[ I.10 (Agust 16, 1926): 45. Except for
these plays, ]Comoedia[ described the theatre season
of 1926 as a desert.
46 In 1.9 (August 1, 1926): 45.
47 In 1.10 (August 16, 1926): 55.
48 The play is reproduced in ]
Bambalinas. Revista teatral[, IX.461 (February 12, 1927): n.p. The review appeared in
]Comoedia[, I.4 (May 16, 1926): 34. Foster discusses
the play in ]Cultural Diversity in Latin American Literature[, 98-103. In a review of ]El hijo del rabino [by the Jewish author M. Graiver, the critic N. Rego asks if
anti-Semitism is more a "problem de forma que de fondo" and critques the work
for placing too much emphasis on the message than on the theatricality of the
work According to the critic too much focus was placed on the discussion of
anti-semitism in Argentina, thus the work was criticised for focusing on its
message than on its presentation. In ]Comoedia[,
VIII.93 (November 1, 1932): 5.
49 In ]
La Escena, Revista teatral[, XV.721 (April
21, 1932): n.p. While, this play is not truely a sainete, it is almost short
enough to qualify. It is in two acts and runs about a third longer than a
regular sainete.
50 In ]
Teatro Nacional, Revista Semanal de Teatro[,
II (May 7 1919): 45-46.
51 In ]
La Escena, Revista teatral, [VIII.343
(January 22, 1925): n.p.
52 In ]
La Escena, revista teatral, [ XI: 502
(February 9, 1928): n.p.
53 In ]
La Escena, Revista teatral[, XVI.769 (March
23, 1933): n.p.
54 In ]
Alberto Vacarezza[ (Buenos Aires: Ediciones
Culturales Argentinos, 1975), 52.
55 Jews are not the only ones concerned with intermarriage. Salomón
David, who by his name might very well be a Jew is not. He is described as a
"mayorista turco en el ramo de tienda, con una cara de bruto que asuste..." in
the sainete ]
El que tiene tienda, que la atiende [by Antonio de Bassi
(it first played in the Apollo theatre on March 14, 1930) see ]La
Escena, Revista teatral[, XIII.615 (April 10, 1930): n.p.
Thus Jews and Turks are interchangeable. The theme of aculturation and losing
ones children to another culture is as well used for "turk," cf. ]El
Turco Salomon[ by Antonio de Bassi and Antonio Batta which
played in the teatro Sarmiento in July 1924. The Turco Salomon worries about
his two children Ricardo, described as "acriollado." He is a student and
involved in politics. His daughter, Margarita, is in love with the creole
Valorio and wants to marry him. Reviewed in ]La Nación[ (July 3, 1924), in the section "Arte y teatro."
56 In ]
Bambalinas, Revista teatral[, XIV.739
(December 3, 1932): 3-24. Subsequent citations from the play will be given by
page number within a parenthesis.
57 Newspaper reviews were reproduced in ]
Bambalinas, Revista
teatral[, XIV.741 (January 7, 1933):1-2.
]Comoedia[ also had a short favorable review also.
See VII.8 (July 9, 1932): n.p.]
58 For a discussion on the cultural role of the Afro-Argentine see Donald S.
Castro, "The Image of the Afro-Argentine in the Argentine Popular Theatre," in
Joseph V. Ricapito, ed., Selected Proceedings, Louisiana Conference on
Hispanic Languages and Literatures, 1994 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State
University Press, 1995), pp. 41-60. The concept of the other in society has
been studied from anthropological and sociological points-of-view for some
time. The cultural aspects of this study usually take the form of a discussion
of marginality. See Bernard McGrane, Beyond Anthropology, Society and the
Other (New York: Columbia University Press, 1989).
59 Ministerio de Relaciones Esteriores y Culto, Documentos
diplomáticos y consulares, II, Boletín No. 8 (January 1902),
23-24.
60 Damián M. Torino, El problema del inmigrante y el problema
agrario en la Argentina, (Buenos Aires: Privately Printed, 1912), p. 41.
[61 In the ]
Segundo censo de la República Argentina efectuado el 10 de mayo de
1895[ (Buenos Aires: Taller Tipográfico de la
Penitenciaria Nacional, 1898), Vol. I, p. 662.
62 Ibid, p. 24.