Tango Icons: Enrique Santos Discepolo

Who was Discepolo?

Enrique Santos Discépolo (born in Buenos Aires on March 27, 1901 – died in Buenos Aires on December 23, 1951) was an Argentine composer, musician, playwright, and filmmaker. He was also known as Discepolín. His brother, Armando Discépolo, was a theater director and playwright. Discépolo is especially remembered for composing several of the so-called “essential tangos”, or “golden tangos”, among which stand out Yira, yira (1929), Cambalache (1934), Uno (1943), and Cafetín de Buenos Aires (1948), in which he crystallized the lyrical vein of the writer and which ultimately brought him great prestige.

A bit of history about Discepolo

He was born in the Balvanera neighborhood of Buenos Aires and died in the same neighborhood of a heart attack, 50 years later.

After his parents’ death, his brother Armando Discépolo, 13 years his senior, became his teacher and discovered his vocation for theater. With him, he took his first steps as an actor in 1917. In 1918, he wrote his first plays: El señor cura, El hombre solo, and Día feriado. In 1923, he acted in the play Mateo, written by his brother. He continued writing for the theater genre, and at the same time, in 1925, he composed the music for the tango Bizcochito and the lyrics and music for Que vachaché.

He maintained a romance of 24 years with the Spanish singer Tania. On a trip to Mexico in 1945, he had a brief relationship with the former actress and journalist Raquel Díaz de León, with whom he had a son named Enrique Luis Santos Discépolo Díaz de León (April 21, 1947 – May 28, 2017), whom he could not meet since he returned to his country when Raquel was only six months pregnant.

Enrique Santos Discepolo´s Career

In 1928, he composed the tango Esta noche me emborracho, popularized by Azucena Maizani. Later, between 1928 and 1929, he wrote Chorra, Malevaje, Soy un arlequín, and Yira, yira, among others. Meanwhile, he continued to act successfully in theaters in Montevideo and Buenos Aires.

Between 1931 and 1934, he wrote several musical works, including Wunderbar and Tres esperanzas. In 1935, he traveled to Europe, and upon his return, he became involved in the world of cinema as an actor, screenwriter, and director. Simultaneously, he wrote and composed his most notable tangos: Cambalache (1934), Desencanto (1937), Alma de bandoneón (1935), Uno (with music by Mariano Mores, 1943), and Canción desesperada (1944).

Starting in 1943, as part of a campaign initiated by the military government that forced the suppression of lunfardo language, as well as any reference to drunkenness, prostitution, and pimping, or expressions that were arbitrarily considered immoral or negative for the language or the country, the tango Uno was included among those censored for radio broadcast. The restrictions continued when General Perón’s constitutional government took office, and in 1949, Sadaic executives requested their annulment from the administrator of Post and Telecommunications in an interview, but without results. They then obtained an audience with Perón, which took place on March 25, 1949, and the president – who claimed to be unaware of these directives – nullified them, and Uno, like many other tangos, was able to return to the radio.

In 1947, after a tour of Mexico and Cuba, he composed Cafetín de Buenos Aires (1948). During the following years, he continued to produce films, theatrical works, and tangos, some of which were premiered after his death.

Finally, on April 13, 1951, he premiered and starred in his last film as an actor, directed by Manuel Romero, called El hincha, in which his famous phrase describing what a football fan is became immortalized.

Of Peronist ideology, Enrique Pichon-Rivière says that Discépolo’s doubts about Peronism increased between 1950 and 1951 and that “he suffered a strong conflict of ambivalence towards Peronism, which he felt in its popular aspect but rejected in some of its actions.” From the radio studios, he identified those he considered “sheep” of the oligarchy or lackeys with the nickname “Mordisquito”, actively combating them. Tania recounts that Discépolo admitted prior censorship and usually handed over a copy of the script he was going to read the next day to the Secretary of Press and Broadcasting, Raúl Apold, for approval. His participation in that program and the defense of Peronism brought him the hatred of many, to the point of buying all the tickets for his shows so that when he went on stage, he would see the theater empty. These acts by people he considered friends filled him with deep sadness, which, combined with the cancer he suffered, precipitated his death in 1951.

Discepolo Actor

Plaques at the “corner of Discépolo” (Corrientes Avenue at 900 and Enrique Santos Discépolo Street), commemorating him. In 1917, he made his debut as an actor alongside Roberto Casaux, a comedian of the time, and a year later, he signed along with a friend the piece Los duendes, mistreated by critics. He then raised the bar with El señor cura (an adaptation of a story by Guy de Maupassant), Día feriado, El hombre solo, Páselo cabo, and, above all, El organito, a fierce social portrait sketched together with his brother, in the mid-1920s. As an actor, Discépolo evolved from a supporting role to a leading name, and his work in Mustafá, among many other premieres, was remembered with enthusiasm.

The last film of Discépolo as an actor and screenwriter was ‘El Hincha,’ which premiered in 1951 and left a series of unforgettable phrases that define the Argentine soccer fan:

“What would a club be without the fan? An empty bag. The fan is the soul of the colors. It’s the one you don’t see, the one who gives everything without expecting anything in return. That’s the fan… That´s me!”

Cambalache

In 1935, he composed for the movie “Alma de Bandoneón,” one of his emblematic tangos “Cambalache.

Discepolo´s work

Autor of the following Tangos:

Tangos:

• Secreto
• Malevaje
• Qué vachaché
• Yira, yira
• Que sapa señor
• Cambalache
• Sueño de juventud
• Justo el 31
• Chorra
• Soy un arlequín
• Quién más, quién menos
• Confesión
• Canción desesperada
• Cafetín de Buenos Aires
• Esta noche me emborracho
• Sin palabras
• Tormenta
• Desencanto
• Alma de bandoneón
• Infamia
• Uno (letra)
• El choclo (letra)
• Bizcochito (música)

Actor:

• El hincha (1951)
• Yo no elegí mi vida (1949)
• …Y mañana serán hombres (1939)
• Cuatro corazones (1939)
• Melodías porteñas (1937)
• Mateo (1937)
• Yira, yira (1930)

Director:

• Cándida, la mujer del año (1943)
• Fantasmas en Buenos Aires (1942)
• En la luz de una estrella (1941)
• Caprichosa y millonaria (1940)
• Un señor mucamo (1940)
• Cuatro corazones (1939)

Screenwriter:

• Blum (1970) (argumento)
• El hincha (1951)
• Yo no elegí mi vida (1949)
• Cándida, la mujer del año (1943)
• Fantasmas en Buenos Aires (1942)
• En la luz de una estrella (1941)
• Confesión (1940)
• Caprichosa y millonaria (1940)
• Un señor mucamo (1940)
• Cuatro corazones (1939)
• Melodías porteñas (1937)