Rita Cortese began his career in 1980 with the help of Ricardo Monti with the work Marathón; He was a fundamental part of the historic Payró Theater team; he worked alongside prestigious directors such as Roberto Villanueva, Jorge Lavelli and Laura Yusem; won the Martín Fierro for his performance in popular strips such as The sodero of my life and Lalola; was part of blockbusters such as Wild tales (Damien Szifron) and The Odyssey of the Giles (Sebastián Borensztein), but also independent projects such as Monobloc (Luis Ortega) and Heritage (Paula Hernández). Last year, together with Teresa Parodi, he promoted Viento del Sur, a radio program of the Instituto Patria, where he coordinates the area of Culture. On Friday, January 8, 15 and 22 at 9:00 p.m. he will perform on the terrace of the Picadero Theater together with the guitarist Ariel Argañaraz, to present a repertoire of tangos, poems and songs that was put on hold since March, due to the pandemic.
Music is another of the spaces that summon her: first she sang together with Soledad Villamil and Claribel Medina (like her, actresses and singers), until in 2008 she launched Love, that crazy berretín, solo album that won the Gardel Award for Best Revelation Tango Artist: “It was something pending in my life … as I don’t like to have resentments, I said: well, I sing,” he declared at that time to Page 12. Now, when asked about his eclecticism, he says: “That is freedom, something fundamental to be where you want to be. Sometimes we can choose and sometimes we don’t. In that sense, I feel privileged because I was always able to decide which projects I wanted to be part of. I can only be where I am moved ”.
In her repertoire, the artist revalues Argentine culture, something for which she fights from different places: “Tango is a landscape that I carry in me. I was born in Capital, so the reflection of the moon on the cobblestones I know perfectly. Tango has a great collection of popular poets: Manzi, Cadícamo, the Expósito brothers, Charlo, Gardel, Le Pera and many others. I think that in Argentina we never finish reverence what we have: poetry, great musicians in all genres, plastic artists. We believe that it is something natural, that it happens everywhere, but no. We only appreciate our beauty when a European comes and begins to praise those places that we never value. These are things that must be unraveled and fought through the cultural battle, ”he says.
–What is your opinion about the questioning of macho lyrics within the genre?
–I think there are many tangos that should never have been written; tangos or songs of any other genre. But telling a violent bond is another story. “We were”, for example, narrates a violent bond but there is no apology for violence or contempt. “Mano a mano”, on the other hand, is a very macho tango. However, when Cristina Banegas sings it, she gives it a twist from the interpretation and the man somehow looks like an idiot, apologizing. Of course, there are tangos that are tremendous or boleros that speak of a terrible level of dependence: that I will never forget you, that you need me not to kill you. Tremendous! Fortunately, times have changed and everything evolved to the point of being able to have today the law of legal, safe and free abortion.
– How did you experience the sanction of the law?
–It was a great emotion, a great joy, because it is a fight that has taken many years. This push of the youth, of the girls and of many men … It was a push from all sides. And now we must be very attentive to the regulation, so that it serves the objectives that we have in the field of public health with respect to the issue of abortion. The Law of a Thousand Days also seems very important to me, so it was a success in every way.
For these open-air performances, the artist prepares with the same commitment as always, “looking for a song that touches that place that she has to play at this moment. I think it is important to reinforce desire; Going on stage today is a fact of resistance to death, and it is also for the audience that is going to see us. What I don’t know is what will happen to me when I go on stage, I think about it and I’m already excited. As Bifo Berardi says: ‘It is necessary to modify the rhythm to resume breathing. We are at a threshold: the passage from light to darkness, but also from darkness to light. ‘ That’s why I’m going to go up on stage ”.
In the show there will also be a place for poetry, with which Cortese is linked on a daily basis: “It is very difficult for a day of my life to pass without me picking up a book of poetry. It seems to me the perfect synthesis. I found poetry when I was young because I studied Philosophy and Letters, and since then it has accompanied me; I like to look for new voices, young poets. It is a fundamental food because it takes me out of certain places where – as Ivonne Bordelois says – the word is threatened. Language is getting smaller and smaller and poetry is a flower that opens to broaden the senses. Now I am investigating the work of Virginia Negri, a very important poet from Rosario. ‘El poem del chongo’, for example, is an impressive thing ”.
–In your repertoire there are Argentine composers, but also Latin American artists. How important are these roots to you?
– They are essential because it is our first great cultural heritage, which was banished by the European colonizations. In that sense, I share the point of view of Michel Foucault on the definition of culture: he says that it is about the insurrection of the knowledge that was subjected, and in the case of Latin America there are countries like Mexico, Peru or Bolivia where that appears with much more force than here. It costs us a bit, but fortunately it is becoming visible thanks to the struggle and at the cost of many losses. We are a mix, but we are not children of Europe.
When asked about the role of culture in the framework of a country project, he maintains: “There is no art without ideology. A nation is always sustained by a cultural project. What kind of education or health we want: all that is cultural. That is why I distinguish the political from the ideological. Art is always ideology ”. In the ’80s the actress participated in the historic project Open Theater, promoted by authors such as Dragún, Cossa and Somigliana. “They wrote their works and summoned workers from all walks of life to unite against the military dictatorship. At that time there were artists banned from the famous black lists, ”he recalls. The venue for those meetings was precisely the Picadero Theater, an emblematic space of the cultural resistance that was the target of an attack with fire bombs in 1981. There Cortese will return to fill the summer atmosphere with tangos, poems and songs.
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