The death of the extraordinary actor Hector Alterioin Spain at the age of 96, shocked Argentines this Saturday, December 13th, and among the dozens of notes that PERFIL made about him throughout his long and very successful career, we find a glimpse of the country he left when he came to join in 2013 ‘Fermin’, Film by Hernán Findling and Oliver Kolker, which portrayed a psychiatric patient who only expressed himself through tango lyrics. There he told a young doctor old stories from the 1940s. Gastón Pauls tells a young psychiatrist stories from Argentina in the 1940s.
Alterio was 84 years old at the time and had lived in Spain for decades.where he had moved due to threats from Triple A, in the violent days of Peronism in the 70s.
“Fermín touched on one of my passions, tango, and he brought me back to Buenos Aires after three years when I came to perform a play with José Sacristán,” he recalled at the time, saying that each visit to Buenos Aires aroused deep feelings in him.
Authoritarians don’t like that
The practice of professional and critical journalism is a mainstay of democracy. That is why it bothers those who believe that they are the owners of the truth.
“I can’t escape a place that constantly shocks me with everything that happens here.” he said in the note “And I don’t talk about political situations, but about feelings, about memories that belong to me, I see houses that belong to me, neighborhoods, streets, buildings. I hear the sound of conversations…”
They then asked him if he was homesick because he lived far away from Buenos Aires, but he immediately interrupted them. “I’m realistic, not nostalgic.”
He then talked about his feelings on this trip to Buenos Aires “I see the city in disarray, especially in some important, specific sectors, such as Corrientes Street.”
“The front of the City Theater, which was a spotless, clean thing, is now a place where I suddenly encounter people living there and making their own homes. I’m struck by the habit of people walking by as if none of this existed.”he added.
They then questioned him about his political vision of Argentina in these yearsKirchnerism was still in full swing, and Alterio pointed this out “I listen, I listen because I have a certain humility… I’m stopping because I don’t know the names of the representatives. I can give you an impression: I understand that there are confrontations, but that there is no resistance to the government’s policies, at least not vigorous ones. And I see a lot of resistance from journalism that comes from the fact that the space that a political group has to cover is empty.”
—You always used a phrase from Bonavena to refer to acting: You take away the chair and you are left alone. Do you have the feeling that you have often been repressed in your life? Are you afraid of what will happen now? They asked him.
“Falling off the bench is an image I associate with when I have to get on stage, it’s me, and there’s no turning back. Alone. There’s my side at ringside. That’s coming off the bench.” In life, I have my wife who supports me and my children at work, and I do not suffer from Alzheimer’s. At the moment I’m having a bowel movement, my memory tends to change a little but I’m very vigilant because it’s harder for me to keep some pain than for others, but it doesn’t go beyond that. I feel lucky: I remember phone numbers and walk alone…”
HB
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