Personalities
Diego Maradona
He was born on 30 Oct 1960 in a poor district of Buenos Aires. He is considered the best player in the history of football (together with the Brazilian Pelé) and was voted Best Player of the Century in an official poll conducted in the FIFA website.
Playing as part of Argentina’s international football team he inspired the team to win the World Cup in 1986 (Mexico), where he scored the infamous “hand of god” goal against England. The team were runners-up in the 1990 World Cup (Italy) and back in 1979 the World Youth Cup. His most important achievements as regards playing in clubs were winning the UEFA Cup for Napoli, and inspiring them to win two scudettos. (Italy’s premier football league). These are the only domestic league honours that Napoli have won to date.
Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara
He was born in Rosario, Argentina, the 14 June 1928 and became a doctor, a politician and a guerrilla. He is still a controversial figure. He joined Fidel Castro’s revolutionary struggle in Cuba and became one of its leaders, helping to overthrow the regime of President Batista.
After he was tracked down and killed in Bolivia in 1967 he has become a symbol worldwide but he is not universally admired and still stirs strong feelings for and against his ideas. His sympathisers see him as a symbol of the fight against social injustice as well as a symbol of rebelliousness and an uncompromising spirit, while his detractors see him as a mass murderer and a criminal. His most famous saying was ‘Till victory…fatherland or death!’
Evita
María Eva Duarte de Perón was born in the province of Buenos Aires on 7th May 1919 and died the 26th July 1952 from cancer.
There has always been a unanimous recognition of her tireless work for the promotion of equality between men and women (equality of political and civil rights) and of her decisive influence in obtaining the vote for women.
She created the Eva Perón Foundation, which performed an invaluable social service that reached practically every child, old person, single mother and any other women who were the only breadwinner, all belonging to the poorest levels of society. The foundation helped to build (to establish) hospitals, schools, orphanages, granting of scholarships to students, and the general promotion of women in the community.
There is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice based on the life of Evita (later made into a film), which includes the song ‘Don’t cry for me Argentina’, interpreted by innumerable singers, from famous sopranos to Madonna.
Carlos Gardel
Carlos Gardel is the symbol of tango music. There are two versions of his place of birth: one of them asserts that he was born inToulouse (France) on 11th December 1890 and the other that he was born in Ta uarembó (Uruguay) on 11th December 1887. What is not in dispute is the fact that Gardel and his mother moved to Buenos Aires in 1893 and later took on Argentinian citizenship in 1923.
Tango was the making of Gardel and he is recognized as the foremost exponent of tango music (or singer of tango music) throughout the world.
His greatest hits were (and still are today) ‘Mi Buenos Aires Querido’, ‘Por una cabeza’ (the music of the film Scent of a woman, with Al Pacino), ‘Volver’, (dedicated to Buenos Aires), ‘El Día que me Quieras’ and many more.
There is a popular saying that shows the affection in which he is held by the people of Argentina: ‘Gardel sings better and better every day’.
General José de San Martín
José Francisco de San Martín (1778-1850) was an Argentine soldier whose campaigns were decisive in securing independence from Spain not only for Argentina but also for Chile and Peru. He was trained and had his baptism of fire in Spain during the Napoleonic wars and was able to turn this to his advantage when fighting the Spaniards in South America. He took over a disorganized and demoralised army and turned it into an effective fighting force. His greatest achievement was the crossing of the Andes in 1817 with a huge army which then went on to liberate Chile and Peru from Spanish rule.
In Argentina especially he is considered a national hero and revered as one of the greatest leaders of the independence movement.
Jorge Luis Borge
Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986): poet, essayist and story teller has been recognised both at home and abroad as the major Argentine author of the Twentieth Century. During his lifetime he received many prizes and decorations in Spain, the United States and Great Britain and his work has been translated into all the major languages. The most outstanding and original parts of his work are his short stories or fictions, works of fantasy with a strong philosophical bias: the most important titles are two collections, Ficciones (1944) and El Aleph (1949).