La Argentinita

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Lore & Background

Encarnación López Júlvez was born on March 3, 1898, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Spanish immigrants. After two siblings died in a scarlet fever epidemic, she was brought to the north coast of Spain in 1901, where she began learning Spanish regional dances. At age four, she started learning flamenco from Julia Castelao. Her first public performance was at age eight at the Teatro-Circo de San Sebastián in the Basque Country. She chose the name La Argentinita in deference to the famous flamenco dancer Antonia Mercé (La Argentina). After traveling throughout Spain as a child prodigy, she settled in Madrid to perform at Teatro La Latina, Teatro de la Comedia, Teatro de La Princesa, Teatro Apolo and Teatro Príncipe Alfonso. Her success led her to tour Barcelona, Portugal, Paris, and Latin America. In the early 1920s, she returned to Spain and worked in Madrid. Among her early performances was the 1920 premiere of Federico García Lorca's musical play El maleficio de la mariposa as 'the Butterfly.' She announced retirement in 1926 but quickly returned, joining the artistic renewal of the Generation of '27, combining flamenco, tango, bulerías and boleros. She danced to compositions by Manuel de Falla, Joaquín Turina, Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados and Maurice Ravel, and helped develop Ballet Español.

Reader's Guide

La Argentinita's significance lies in her role as a leading figure in flamenco during the early 20th century, bridging traditional Spanish dance with modern artistic movements. She collaborated with prominent poets and composers of the Generation of '27, including Federico García Lorca, with whom she recorded five gramophone slate records in 1931, accompanied by Lorca's piano, titled Colección de Canciones Populares Españolas. She formed her own ballet company, Bailes Españoles de la Argentinita, with her sister Pilar López Júlvez and García Lorca, staging notable works such as an adaptation of Falla's El amor brujo in 1933 and Las Calles de Cádiz in 1933 and 1940. Her career was marked by international tours, including a successful run in New York in 1936, and she presented the flamenco troupe El Café de Chinitas at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1943 with her own choreography, texts by García Lorca, scenery by Salvador Dalí, and orchestra directed by José Iturbi. After her death from an abdominal tumor in 1945, her body was repatriated to Spain in December and buried in Madrid. A plaque at the Metropolitan Opera House honors her cultural contributions, placed among the medals of Alfonso X El Sabio and La Orden de Isabel la Católica.

Did You Know?

• She was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Spanish immigrants, and her father had a fabric business.
• Two of her siblings died in a scarlet fever epidemic, leading her family to move to Spain's north coast in 1901.
• She chose the stage name La Argentinita in deference to the famous flamenco dancer Antonia Mercé (La Argentina).
• In 1931, she and Federico García Lorca recorded five gramophone slate records, with Lorca playing piano, titled Colección de Canciones Populares Españolas.
• Her lover Ignacio Sánchez Mejías, an intellectual and bullfighter, was gored to death in the Manzanares bullring in 1934.

Roots in Two Worlds

Encarnación López Júlvez was born on March 3, 1898, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the daughter of Spanish immigrants where her father had a fabric business. Her childhood in Argentina was marked by tragedy when two of her siblings died in a scarlet fever epidemic. In 1901, she was brought to the north coast of Spain, a move that would reshape her destiny. At just four years old, she began learning flamenco from Julia Castelao. By eight, she was already performing publicly at the Teatro-Circo de San Sebastián in the Basque Country. She adopted the stage name La Argentinita in deference to the famous flamenco dancer Antonia Mercé (La Argentina). After traveling throughout Spain as a child prodigy, she settled in Madrid, where she performed at Teatro La Latina, Teatro de la Comedia, Teatro de La Princesa, Teatro Apolo and Teatro Príncipe Alfonso. Her success led her to tour Barcelona, Portugal and Paris, and then Latin America. In the early 1920s, she returned to Spain, where she worked in Madrid. Among her early performances was the 1920 premiere of Federico García Lorca's musical play El maleficio de la mariposa as 'the Butterfly.'

The Generation of '27 and Artistic Synthesis

After announcing her retirement in 1926, La Argentinita made a swift return, aligning herself with the creative ferment of the Generation of '27. She combined flamenco, tango, bulerías and boleros into a hybrid vocabulary. She danced to compositions by Manuel de Falla, Joaquín Turina, Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados and Maurice Ravel. Her orbit included poets such as Rafael Alberti, Federico García Lorca, Edgar Neville and Ignacio Sánchez Mejías. Sánchez Mejías, an intellectual and bullfighter, was a married man and her lover. In 1931, she and García Lorca recorded five gramophone slate records, accompanied by García Lorca's piano, titled Colección de Canciones Populares Españolas. With the beginning of the Second Spanish Republic, she formed her own ballet company called Bailes Españoles de la Argentinita together with her sister Pilar López Júlvez and García Lorca. She staged several flamenco theatrical shows, including an adaptation of Falla's El amor brujo in 1933, and Las Calles de Cádiz in 1933 and 1940. Her company included flamenco figures Juana la Macarrona, La Malena, Fernanda Antúnez, Rafael Ortega and Antonio de Triana, who was her first dancing partner until the 1940s.

Exile and the American Stage

The goring death of her lover Ignacio Sánchez Mejías in the Manzanares bullring in 1934 shattered La Argentinita's life in Spain. She sought refuge in her work and moved to Buenos Aires to dance at the Teatro Colón; from there she embarked on a long American tour. In 1936 she achieved success in New York. Afterwards, she returned to Spain but was forced to flee the country shortly before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. She traveled through Morocco, France, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium and the US, where she remained in exile in New York. From then until her death in 1945, she developed her career and became one of the biggest stars of international dance, and even participated in movies. In 1943, she presented the flamenco troupe El Café de Chinitas at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, with her own choreography, texts by García Lorca, scenery by Salvador Dalí and the orchestra directed by José Iturbi. She also performed at the Washington DC Watergate complex with her sister.

Final Curtain and Enduring Legacy

On May 28, 1945, La Argentinita gave her last performance at the Metropolitan Opera of the orchestral work El Capricho Español, composed in 1887 by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and based on Spanish melodies. At the end of the event, she had to be admitted to a hospital, where she died on September 24 from a tumor in her abdomen. She did not want to have it operated on because she did not wish to abandon dancing. Her body was repatriated to Spain in December and buried in the Spanish capital. That same year, the company of Bailes Españoles de la Argentinita was dissolved. Among the honors she received after her death was a plaque consecrated at the Metropolitan Opera House, positioned among the medals of Alfonso X El Sabio and La Orden de Isabel la Católica to honor her merits in the field of culture. Her recorded legacy includes two original compositions and participation in twenty-seven additional recordings, spanning tango, popular song, and orchestral dance.