Tango y Cultura Popular ® English Edition TyCP Special | Page 57

where their love flourished.
Soon he returned to Buenos
Aires, and Gricel’s agony began.
Thinking about her, Contursi felt
the motivation to develop his
prolific work as Tango composer,
and wrote Quiero verte una vez
más, En esta tarde gris, Toda
mi vida. Using his health as a
pretext, he returned some more
times to Córdoba, where he
kept a passionate relationship,
Gricel’s father was unable to
stop. In those times, without the
Internet, cell phones, Contursi
sent her love letters whenever
he was back with his family in
Buenos Aires.
At the time the poem Gricel
sees the light, one of the most
sensitive and romantic Tango
songs, she gets married and
has a daughter. The music
by Mariano Mores added to
that poem made it a classic of
the Música Porteña. Later the
songs Sombras nada más and
Cada vez que me recuerdes, La
noche que te fuiste and Garras
would come out. In the poems,
Gricel was always present... but
physically she was away.
In 1957, José María, who had 4
kids, become a widower, Gricel
was alone as well because
her husband had left her for
another woman. Ciriaco Ortiz,
the famous bandoneon player
told Gricel about Contursi’s
recent widowerhood, and she
immediately traveled to Buenos
Aires, where they got together
again. That tortuous love story
would have a happy ending,
and they got married on 1967,
he was 56, and she was 47,
57
their marriage lasted until 1972
when Contursi died in Capilla
del Monte, the town in Córdoba
they chose to live happily ever
after. She died 20 years later,
but she’s still alive as a Tango
heroin, as a legend.
Discépolo and Tania: Uno
Listing this genius’ work would
take many pages, but to make
it short, we can recall some
of Discepolín’s tangos, as
Malevaje, Qué vachaché, Yira
Yira, Cambalache, Sueño de
juventud, Chorra, Confesión,
Cafetín de Buenos Aires, Esta
noche me emborracho, Alma
de bandoneón, Infamia, Uno, El
Choclo and many more. He was
theater and film director, actor
and scriptwriter.
Tania was born in Spain, she
was a singer and actress, and
developed a valuable career in
Argentina. She was the couple
of the great composer Enrique
Santos Discépolo, until his early
dead. Following her older sister’s
steps, who was an Opera singer,
she studied singing and dancing
from an early age. Her debut
on Tango was singing Fumando
espero, later Esta noche me
emborracho and Sentencia,
with which she earned a
great success. José Razzano
introduced her to Discépolo
in 1927, and they began a
relationship straight away. She
was married, but about to get
divorced, and it was her who
took the lead and seduced him.
“How about going out? I have
a car” - she said. “I don’t, I’m
poor” - Discépolo answered.