Algunos respetables del show-business
dijeron ¿Y esta quién es?
¿Es cantante? ¿Es actriz o qué cosa es?
Ahora aquí estoy, mírenme.
Some respected show business types
said, ‘and who’s she?
A singer? An actress? Something else?’
And yet, I’m still here, look at me.
‘Aquí estoy’ [‘I’m Still Here’], song by Kado Kostzer, Nacha Guevara and Stephen Sondheim, from the album Aquí estoy [I’m Still Here] (1981)
During her time in exile, Nacha Guevara clung to an impossible dream: to meet Harold Prince, the wizard of Broadway.
It was an almost irrational desire, but one day, that dream came true: not only did she meet the star director and producer, Prince took her to the world stage, from the Kennedy Center to Broadway, accompanied by a fifteen-piece orchestra and featuring Alberto Favero — her partner in art and in life — on the piano.
Critics struggled to define her: Nacha could not be easily pinned down. Was she an actress? A singer? A clown? The praise that was showered upon her was filled with comparisons: ‘A touch of Piaf, a pinch of Chaplin, the mystery of Dietrich, the magnetism of Aznavour’. Andy Warhol featured her in Interview, Richard Avedon captured her with his precise lens for Vogue, and she was selected ‘1982 Performer of the Year’.
It was around that time that American magazines began to mention a new virus, HIV/AIDS, a tragedy that would devastate the artistic community. By that point, Nacha had become a gay icon, a symbol of resistance and freedom.
Harold Prince was an excessively generous host who welcomed her into his home. At the time, he was preparing his magnum opus, The Phantom of the Opera. After dinner, he would take her to his studio, which was his laboratory of ideas, mock-ups and obsessive experiments. Nacha took it all in, absolutely fascinated: it was three magical years of intense training.
While she was triumphing in New York, the Malvinas War broke out in Argentina.
‘On stage, I am no longer an exile. The stage is like my
home; it is my home. On stage, I was always the same, I always did whatever I liked,
always’.
Nacha Guevara