Doña Petrona de Gandulfo
Saturday, April 18, 2015
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| Linda Lorenzo as Doña Petrona de Gandulfo, Vancouver 1999 |
What is coin of the realm really applies to the time when
it is in our conscience.
In 1976 Spanish-born writer (he lives in Mexico City) Paco
Ignacio Taibo II started a series of novels featuring a private detective (who
lives in Mexico City) called Belascoarán Shayne. You soon learn that Shayne
loves to listen to Gerry Mulligan.
Most anybody under 30 today would not have a clue as to
who this man (Gerry Mulligan) is (was).
As a young man I remember seeing the wonderful TV series
Meeting of Minds with Steve Allen in which he had famous people from the past
as guests. They were all actors and Allen’s wife Jane Meadows played Cleopatra.
She shared dinner with Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Paine and Theodore Roosevelt.
Telling just about anybody under 30 about this would draw a blank.
For a generation of Argentines of my age (72) we all knew
about a woman called Doña Petrona de Gandulfo. In the 50s no housewife would
cook anything without consulting the Julia Child of Argentina.
In 1999 when Nora Patrich, her husband Juan Manuel
Sánchez (both artists) and I embarked on expressing our nostalgia for Argentine
with paint, pencil and silver halides I wanted to do something in relation to
Doña Petrona. Our lovely (an understatement) Argentine subject Linda Lorenzo played
the part in Nora’s Kitchen. Note in the picture the image of Che Guevara.
Patrich is most definitely on the extreme left in her views. Lorenzo is holding
one of Nora’s mates and she is wearing absolutely nothing under the kitchen
apron.
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| Roxana as Doña Petrona de Gandulfo - Buenos Aires 2013 |
It was only today that sifting through my pictures and
checking with my internal Blogger search engine (I was looking for any
references to Doña Petrona) that I I found a blog in which Roxana, an Argentine model
(I found her through Model Mayhem) posed for me as Doña Petrona in September
2013 in Nora’s house in Buenos Aires. And it was only today that I noticed that
the kitchen apron 14 years later is the same one!
It is my guess that the 2013 ghost of Doña Petrona was
not wearing anything else under that apron.
It important for me to note here is that both photographs show a water kettle. In Argentine Spanish that's a pava. To drink mate one must first boil water (a bit this side of boiling). Note, too that in the lower photo Nora has, on the right, a photograph of Eva Perón.
Roxana as Alfonsina Storni
Homero Simpson dijo una vez
Embates y oscilaciones
It important for me to note here is that both photographs show a water kettle. In Argentine Spanish that's a pava. To drink mate one must first boil water (a bit this side of boiling). Note, too that in the lower photo Nora has, on the right, a photograph of Eva Perón.
Roxana as Alfonsina Storni
Homero Simpson dijo una vez
Embates y oscilaciones
