Nation, Identity and Performance: The Spanish Zarzuela in Argentina, 1890–1900

Abstract

This article argues that the Spanish zarzuela, the most popular entertainment genre in Buenos Aires, Argentina in the 1890s, sowed the seeds of its own demise, precisely because of its success as an entertainment export. In the early 1890s, Buenos Aires’ audience members were eager for Spanish entertainment, but by the decade’s end they began to question the appropriateness of having Argentine character types performed by its former colonisers. Despite the fact that Spanish actors worked hard to integrate themselves with Argentine playwrights, helping Argentines to establish their own theatre industry, over time Argentine audiences began to demand entertainment that depicted their own nation and customs. Tensions over national identity reached a peak as a result of the Cuban independence movement of 1895–98. Zarzuela performers were visible and vulnerable symbols of Spanish colonisation during its last moments as a colonial power on the stages of the Americas.