Casting Controversies: How the Spanish Zarzuela Defined Argentine Nationalism in the 1890s

The Spanish zarzuela dominated urban mass entertainment in Buenos Aires in the 1890s. During this decade, Spanish actors entertained Argentines en masse by traveling across the Atlantic to perform zarzuelas (light operas) that had originated in Madrid. Zarzuela companies early on began to collaborate with Argentine writers to adapt Spanish zarzuelas to Argentine locales and to then be performed by Spanish actors. Ideas of national identity were extremely politically charged towards the century’s end when Cuba was fighting for independence from Spain. In this historical context, Argentine audiences began to identify Argentine movements, accents, and qualities as so Argentine that they could not be adequately portrayed by non-Argentines.

But what made someone “Argentine”? This paper explores the roles that Spanish actors in their depictions of Afro-Argentine, criollo (native white Argentine), and gaucho characters played in defining Argentina. The physicality of “national” gestures, language, and accents performed by actors was debated and discussed in contemporary media. Theater houses often erupted in protest when Spaniards depicted iconic Argentine roles, especially that of the gaucho. By examining the roots of the first “casting controversies” in Argentina, I argue that live performance is a key way to understand the performative aspect of national identity. This paper will also present the findings of my new work that extends the focus on Buenos Aires to Havana and Mexico City, the cities that formed the primary touring circuit of Spanish performers in the Americas.