Martha Gularte
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18 June 1919
Martha Gularte | |
|---|---|
 Gularte in 1950 | |
| Born | Fermina Gularte Bautista 18 June 1919 Paso de los Novillos, Tacuarembó, Uruguay |
| Died | 12 August 2002 (aged 83) Montevideo, Uruguay. |
| Occupation(s) | Candombe dancer, choreographer, poet and vedette |
| Children | 2 |
Fermina Gularte Bautista (18 June 1919 – 12 August 2002), better known by her stage name Martha Gularte, was a Uruguayan candombe dancer, choreographer, poet and vedette. She became a symbol of carnival and Afro-Uruguayan culture.
Fermina Gularte Bautista was born on a ranch in Paso de los Novillos, Tacuarembó, Uruguay, in 1919.[1][2] Her paternal grandfather was an enslaved man in Brazil.[1] Her white mother, Custodia Bautista, died when Gularte was aged 2.[3]
Gularte spent her childhood in orphanages in Montevideo.[4][5] She met the poet Juana de Ibarbourou who was visiting the orphanage.[3] After leaving the orphanage, Gularte worked as a domestic servant.[3] To escape the low pay of this job, she began to dance in cabarets from a young age.[1][6]
Career
Gularte danced in cabarets across South America, including in her home country of Uruguay, and in Argentina, Brazil and Chile.[8] She pioneered the role of the female vedette,[9][10] was a candombe dancer and became a symbol of the Uruguayan Carnival and Afro-Uruguayan culture,[11][12][13] along with Rosa Luna.[14][15] Playwright Fernán Silva Valdéz [es] described her as "a black flower with tambourine petals."[16]
In 1946, Gularte was hired to work at Enrico Venturino Soto's "Caupolican Circus," but left as she did not like the roaring of the animals.[8] In 1949, Gularte debuted with the group Añoranzas Negras.[1][15] Gularte later moved to Spain, where she choreographed the cabaret "El Molino Rojo."[17] In the 1960s, she joined the troupe Morenada.[8] In 1982, she founded the Tanganika troupe with her children.[15]
When in her 60s, Gularte began writing, publishing The Boatman of Jordan River, Song to the Bible in 1998.[8] In 1999 she released an autobiography.[15] Gularte also wrote poetry which reflected on Afro-Uruguayan history, losses of cultural continuity and estrangement from the African homeland.[11][13]
Gularte continued to dance alongside writing, before announcing her retirement from the stage in February 2002.[8] Shortly before she died, Gularte featured in the Uruguayan film In This Tricky Life by Beatriz Flores Silva.[11][15]
Personal life
Gulrte had two children, Jorginho[18] and Katy.[9] She gave birth to her son Jorginho, who had an American father, in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.[8]
