Alberto Castillo (December 7, 1914 – July 23, 2002) (nickname: Riobal) was a prominent Argentine

tango Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries as the result of a combina ...

singer and

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

. He was born Alberto Salvador De Lucca in the

Mataderos Mataderos (Spanish for "slaughterhouses") is a ''barrio'' (neighbourhood) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is one of the three ''barrios'' that make up the Comuna 9, alongside Liniers and Parque Avellaneda. Located in the south-west end of the city, ...

district of

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

, the son of Italian immigrants Salvatore De Luca and Lucia De Paola (from Teggiano, near Salerno). Castillo made his professional debut in the 1930s and began a successful recording career in 1941; his first hit was his cover of the Alfredo Pelala tune “Recuerdo”. Castillo sang with the orchestras of Julio De Caro (1934), Augusto Berto (1935) and Mariano Rodas (1937) and

Ricardo Tanturi Ricardo Tanturi (27 January 1905 – 24 January 1973) (nickname: El caballero del tango) was a piano player, composer and bandleader (tango musical genre) in Argentina during the Golden Age of tango Tango is a partner dance and social dan ...

(1939). With his keen sense of rhythm and his tendency to go hoarse, Castillo made a name for himself as the main interpreter of the

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...

-oriented genres of

candombe ''Candombe'' is a style of music and dance that originated in Uruguay among the descendants of liberated African slaves. In 2009, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) inscribed ''candombe'' in its Repres ...

and milonga. One of his most successful recordings was "Cien Barrios Porteños" (The one hundred

barrios of Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, autonomous city and capital of Argentina, is composed of forty-eight neighborhoods (locally known as ''barrios''). Since 2008, the city is also legally divided into communes, each one including one or more ''barrios''. Among the mos ...

), to the point that presenters would announce him as "the singer of the 100 barrios". Beginning in 1946, Castillo appeared in a number of Argentine films. Castillo was also a

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

by training. This fact famously convinced his fiancée's parents to let her marry Alberto, because he was "more than just a tango singer", and was used as a plot device in the Argentine movie Moon of Avellaneda (Sp: "Luna de Avellaneda"), where Castillo is summoned to deliver a baby right after finishing his set at a carnival fair (the story is fictitious). Castillo did have a short stint as a sport physician. In December 1951, the Vélez Sársfield soccer team, which he supported, was on a tour of

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, and several players came down with

heatstroke Heat stroke or heatstroke, also known as sun stroke, is a severe heat illness that results in a body temperature greater than , along with red skin, headache, dizziness, and confusion. Sweating is generally present in exertional heatstroke, b ...

Pernambuco Pernambuco () is a States of Brazil, state of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast region of the country. With an estimated population of 9.6 million people as of 2020, making it List of Brazilian states by population, sev ...

, where Castillo was scheduled to perform. A member of the Vélez delegation contacted Castillo, who tended to the players and stayed with the team for the remainder of the tour, rescheduling some of his shows to fit the team's agenda. Among his later releases was a cover of his candombe hit “Siga el Baile”, recorded with Argentine band

Los Auténticos Decadentes Los Auténticos Decadentes (Spanish for "The Authentic Decadents") is an Argentine band that mixes ska with Latin American rhythms. The band was formed around the year 1986 by Cucho and Nito, who invited Gastón to join them. Their first hit was ...

. Castillo was the mentor of many other tango artists, such as Silvia Gabriela. Castillo is buried in

La Chacarita Cemetery Cementerio de la Chacarita in Buenos Aires, Argentina, is known as the National Cemetery and is the largest in Argentina. Location The cemetery is in the barrio or district of Chacarita, in the western part of Buenos Aires. Its main entrance i ...

in Buenos Aires.

Selected filmography

* '' The Tango Returns to Paris'' (1948)

References

External links

* *
Alberto Castillo
on Tango.info
"Profile - Alberto Castillo"
The Tango Times: Summer 2002. 1914 births 2002 deaths Singers from Buenos Aires Argentine male actors 20th-century Argentine male singers Tango singers Argentine gynaecologists Burials at La Chacarita Cemetery {{Argentina-actor-stub