Ovidio Cátulo González Castillo is known as "the poet of tango". He was a great lyricist and composer who wrote, among other classics, "Organito de la tarde", "El aguacero", "Tinta Roja", "Caserón de tejas" and "María". He was born on August 6, 1906 in Buenos Aires. His anarchist father wanted to register him in the Civil Registry as Descanso Dominical González Castillo but, before the refusal of the organism, he was registered with the name that would go down in history. He spent part of his childhood in Chile, exiled with his family for political reasons. They returned to the country when Hipólito Yrigoyen assumed the presidency.
He was also a journalist, wrote theater and presided over SADAIC (Sociedad Argentina de Autores, Intérpretes y Compositores) and the Comisión Nacional de Cultura. A great scholar, during the thirties he obtained one of the chairs of the Manuel de Falla Municipal Conservatory, becoming its director in 1950, until he retired from the position.
An animal lover, he owned 95 dogs, 19 cats and two lambs, which he named Juan and Domingo. He was the founder of the Movimiento Argentino de Protección Animal (MAPA).
Child prodigy
At the age of eight he already showed a passion for music, learning music theory, solfège and violin. Later he began to study piano and composition. At the same time he devoted himself to boxing (he was Argentine Featherweight Champion), and was pre-selected for the 1924 Olympic Games to be held in the city of Amsterdam.
"Organito de la tarde" was his first tango, awarded in the "Disco Doble Nacional" contest organized by Max Glucksman. It was his father who wrote the lyrics.
In 1927 he traveled to Spain together with an orchestra formed by: Ricardo Malerba and Miguel Caló on bandoneons, Alfredo Malerba on piano, Carlos Malerba and Estanislao Savarese on violins, Roberto Maida on vocals and he as pianist and conductor. Among their repertoire were: "Caminito del taller", "Acuarelita de arrabal", "Silbando", "El Aguacero" and "Invocación al tango". Due to the great success they had, the tour lasted more than two years.
In 1935 he began to devote himself to poetic creation and started to work with musicians who had an orchestra, contributing to the composition of the lyrics. He collaborated with Aníbal Troilo in: "María", "La última curda", "La cantina", "A Homero", "Y a mi qué", "Una canción" and "Desencuentro".
In his impeccable list of tangos of his creation stand out: "Dinero, Dinero" (together with Enrique Delfino), "Te llaman violín" (together with Elvino Vardano), "La Madrugada" (in collaboration with Angel Maffia), "Un hombre silba" (with music by Sebastián Piana), "Para qué te quiero tanto" (together with Juan Lorenza), "Papel Picado" and "Tango sin letra", among others.
In 1974 he was appointed Illustrious Citizen of the city of Buenos Aires and, in gratitude, Cátulo told the following fable: "The eagle and the worm reached the top of a mountain. The worm boasted about it. The eagle said: 'You climbed, I flew. Birds or worms? -asked Catullus, "this is a key question".
He died at the age of 69, on October 19, 1975.
"He was a poet full of metaphors."
By Marcelo Simón, journalist and radio broadcaster.
"Son of anarchists, he himself professed a libertarian thought as it was said many years ago. He was a great poet, a sweet voice, if one can say this way because he clearly was, and with a strong idea of freedom. He was the son of a libertarian, as anarchists were called many years ago in South America. He was a poet full of metaphors, but long metaphors, he did not make the language crackle, he handled it with an enormous sweetness and with an absolute sapience. I remember very well -because I had the good fortune to have dealt with him, to have written librettos for him- that Aníbal Troilo, that Pichuco had a great admiration for Cátulo, who filled a long and deep chapter of the literature that is sung in our land, Argentina and Uruguay. He was a remarkable, powerful and very sweet creator. I am glad to be able to remember a great creator, admired, I insist, by Pichuco Troilo. I remember a cabaret night in the city of Córdoba in which I talked a lot with Troilo about Cátulo, this remarkable cultural entertainer. A great man.
"Cátulo Castillo, Semblanza".
By Ricardo Salton, journalist and music critic.
In tango, a miracle took place of which few genres in the world can boast. Or perhaps it was not a question of mysticism but simply the sum of historical and social circumstances, individual talents and well-planned and, undoubtedly, well-earned cultural fights. The fact is that from that combination of blacks and gringos, of Creoles and Tanos, of Germans and Spaniards, a music-dance-poetry was born that could be, at the same time, immensely popular and profoundly artistic.
To think of the history of tango, beyond other analyses, is to think of those personal talents, of names that put their signature to the melodies and lyrics. And among those brilliant creators is, of course, Ovidio Cátulo González Castillo, who became eternal with his middle name and with the surname of his paternal grandmother.
Son of another renowned artist linked to tango, he shared with his father José González Castillo the authorship of "Organito de la tarde", "El aguacero" or "Acuarelita del arrabal", among others. But his work extended beyond the genre. He was Argentine featherweight boxing champion, journalist, cultural manager, a person persecuted by the dictatorship of '55, radio and television scriptwriter, president and secretary of SADAIC, highly respected and much remembered teacher of the Manuel de Falla Municipal Conservatory of Buenos Aires and, more than anyone else, deservedly Illustrious Citizen of his hometown.
However, this porteño from the neighborhood of Boedo achieved worldwide fame and a transcendence that remains unchanged more than 45 years after his death due to his works as orchestra conductor, as composer and, above all, as lyricist of tangos, waltzes and milongas.
"Café de los angelitos" with José Razzano; "Tinta roja", "La cantina", "Silbando" and "Caserón de tejas" with Sebastián Piana; "El último café" with Héctor "Chupita" Stamponi; "La calesita" and "Patio de la morocha" with Mariano Mores; or "María", "La última curda", "Una canción", "Patio mío", "Milonga del mayoral", "Desencuentro" and "A Homero" with his great sidekick Aníbal Troilo. Those are just some of the titles that Cátulo -in tango, it is enough to mention that name to know who we are talking about- bequeathed to us so that we can continue listening to them, in the voices and musicians of the past and of the present, in the records and on the stages. Forever and ever.
SOURCE: todotango.com and APU.