Our landlord informed us recently that actor John Malkovich wanted to buy our apartment! She had to turn him down though, as she would rather continue to rent the cupola apartment to tourists. Wow. I walked around the apartment picturing John Malkovich decorating the fridge here with postcards of his trip to Iguazu Falls as I do, playing the piano, bidding on Elance projects as a proofreader… poor John, he’s really missing out. I’m sure he would love this place for the round rooms, impressive spire on top of the dome, and the porthole windows.
Living in this building is also like taking a portal into the mind of a magician, since Mr. David Bamberg better known as Fú-Manchú also lived in this apartment. Originally from Britain, he brought his magic show to Argentina in 1926. As a magician that travelled around the world, he was known for his colorful presence, stage scenery, comedy, kimonos, and shadow plays. After starring in several magic movies in Mexico, he retired in 1966 and opened up a magician school and also a magic shop on Av. Riobamba 163. See Fú-Manchú in this video. His shadow plays look great on the walls of my green office.
As I mentioned in a previous post, there is a plaque near the door of the building commemorating the fact that Alfonsina Storni lived in the building. Upon further research I’ve come to realize that she is one of the most well-known Latin-American women poets of the twentieth century. Inspired by her own personal experiences, Alfonsina courageously wrote about the struggles of women in modern urban society, advocating equality for women and lamenting the inadequacies of idealistic relationships in a male-dominated society.
Commemorative Plaque outside my door for Alfonsina
Alfonsina Storni was born in Capriasca, Switzerland to Italian-Swiss parents and eventually came to live in Buenos Aires around 1912 and her first book of poetry was published in 1916. She became a part of a group of writers, poets, artists, and musicians of the time who together formed a “group of people in arts and letters” called “La Peña,” and they would meet at Café Tortoni, the oldest café in the city.
I read in her biography that she would often recite poetry at Café Tortoni where it was common to see artists sketching, journalist writing, and “Ricardo Viñes playing for the first time the compositions of his friend Erik Satie.” Oddly, this is significant to me because I’ve been playing Satie on the piano here in the apartment. Maybe those songs had been favorites of Alfonsina!
A Room of Her Own at Cafe Tortoni
Café Tortoni today is full of photographs, artwork, and old newspaper articles, commemorating the time spent at Tortoni by such notable people as Jorge Luis Borges, García Lorca, Julio Cortázar, and Carlos Gardel among others. Often, entire rooms are named after famous people; the Alfonsina Storni room is pictured above.
It was in 1929 that Alfonsina moved to the tenth floor of my building. I often wonder what life was like during her stay in this apartment. Just what was happening in Argentina during that time period? Turns out that in 1929, Argentina had actually had the world’s fourth highest per capita GDP. These years of prosperity ended with the Crash of 1929 and the ensuing worldwide Great Depression. In 1930, a military coup, forced the president out; support for the coup was bolstered by the sagging Argentine economy as well as a string of bomb attacks and shootings involving radical anarchists, which alienated moderate elements of Argentine society and angered the conservative right, who had long been agitating for decisive action by the military forces. Thanks to Wikipedia, now I have an idea.
Alfonsina at Home
During the 1930s she traveled to Europe several times until she became sick and suffered a nervous breakdown. She began calling out to the sea in her poems which alluded to the embrace of the ocean and the crystal house waiting for her there at the bottom. In 1938, she took a train to Mar del Plata and stayed in a small hotel where she wrote “Voy a Dormir” (I Am Going to Sleep) on October 20. Two days later, she sent the poem to the editorial office of La Nacion. While the public read her poem, she walked into the ocean and drowned. Argentina had lost an original feminist and painter of modern life. You are able to read her poems in English and Spanish here.
I came across a children's park in Colonia, Uruguay named after Alfonsina
Like so many before her, Alfonsina used the nervous breakdown as a poetic muse – kind of an Argentine/Swiss Sylvian Plath.
Hope things continue to be great in Malbec country.
Greg