This Saturday marks the 131st anniversary of the birth of Argentine singer Carlos Gardel. According to a legend, his spirit haunts a hotel that was in 1933.
Five whiskeys, several waters and a bottle and a half of wine. That is the detail of the extras for which Carlos Gardel paid in 1933 when he occupied room 32 of the Gran Hotel Concordia, in Salto, Uruguay, where popular legend tells that his spirit continues to wander.
Reality or fantasy, the truth is that in the room that housed the ‘Zorzal Criollo’ from October 23 to 25, 1933, just two years before his premature death in a plane crash, time seems to have stopped.
The made bed, three hats hanging on a coat rack and memorabilia from the author of “My dear Buenos Aires”, including the invoice that he had to pay and which includes an ‘ll’ in his surname (Gardell), turn the modest piece into a kind of museum dedicated to the ‘Magician’, whose birth is 131 years old this Saturday.
Where? In the establishment they have no doubts. “My heart is Argentine … But my Uruguayan soul because I was born there”, says a small sign placed in the reception of the oldest hotel that still works in the South American country.
Radio Clarín de Uruguay, the station where Gardel is heard at even hours
“There are many myths. I have not lived them, I have heard them, but everything has an atmosphere and a fantastic sphere. I cannot say them because I did not live them, but I did listen to them,” says Yanina Haczek, who works at the Gran Hotel Concordia.
Photos, posters, paintings related to tango and even some old pasta record … Everything serves to remember Carlos Gardel, whose name is at the entrance of this room that no longer receives any more guests.
She clarifies why: “That is heritage, that is untouchable because it is unique.”
National Heritage
On a spring noon, hundreds of people walk through the center of Salto among the shops and restaurants that populate this tourist city in the northwest of Uruguay.
Among all these doors, the one that leads to the interior is very special: a life-size image in wood of the ‘Morocho del Abasto’ welcomes visitors on their way to the Andalusian Patio, one of the seven that the enclosure conserves. .
Antique furniture, caricatures, paintings and pictures, a wine cellar and even a small theater are part of the heritage of a place that few imagine before crossing the threshold.
Founded in the 1860s and declared a National Heritage Site, the Gran Hotel Concordia also functions as a Cultural Center that carries out various activities and keeps some of the most outstanding stories of the place.
According to the information provided to Efe, the carriages and the stables were some of the first services offered by the hotel.
Also, that of “baths at all hours”, as shown in an advertisement from 1876 that promoted a subscription for “twelve sessions of comfortable hygiene” for those who wanted to wash themselves without the complications of heating water at home.
Another facet of the Concordia came when many professionals, such as doctors, dentists or lawyers, used the rooms for their offices and, according to documents, one “made mechanical noses, elastic lips and plugs on facial wounds and was in charge of the placement of eyes artificial “.
“Turned into a butterfly”
Several rooms are baptized with the names of distinguished guests, such as the Uruguayan artist Agó Páez Vilaró or the Argentine cartoonist Peloduro; However, the wall that most moves is the one dedicated to Marosa di Giorgio, one of the most particular voices in Latin American writing.
“Perhaps I will return as a butterfly …” is the phrase he said to a friend of hers days before he died and which, since 2004, has been on his tombstone. With this motto, the hotel also remembers one of Salto’s most famous daughters, born 16 months before Gardel stayed there.
It was in October 1933, immersed in a tour that took him to other Uruguayan and Argentine towns before his definitive tour of Europe and the United States, from which he would never return to the Río de la Plata.
The performance at the Ariel Cinema, in which he performed with the musicians Héctor Pettorossi, Guillermo Barbieri, Ángel Riverol and Julio Vivas, cost a very high price for the time (1 peso) but, according to the chronicles, “the enthusiasm” and ” the vehemence “in the applause from the audience made the performance last two hours longer than planned.
Outside the walls of the hotel, life passes with its usual calm and no one can even imagine that the ‘Magician’ ever slept inside it and, perhaps, just perhaps, his spirit wanders “wandering in the shadows”, as he sang wrap”. (I)
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
