A few days before the premiere of “El Monte”, the film in which he stars Waiter and who directs Sebastian Caulier, remember that the filming was interrupted by the quarantine, a week before it was finished. “Imagine the desperation of being stranded in Formosa. I left my children —the twins Juan and Mariano (34) with Down syndrome— with everything organized but until one day, then I had to be here with them. So the gesture of producer Daniel Werner was immense. ‘Take a remis’ he told me. And I came back in about 20 hours dodging the gendarmerie, fences, in a deserted country… it cost 80 thousand pesos and Daniel didn’t want to charge me a penny. What’s more, even he paid the last installment for the still unfinished film… The role allowed me to come out of myself and transform body language from the inside out, to compose a character so far away from me. He embodied a father who cut the pulley with the family and the urban, and went to live in the Formosan mountain. There, in the middle of nowhere, he is drawn by supernatural forces. He is a cave doctor, in the sense that he rejects and despises his gay son who comes to his rescue. I do not believe in the metaphysical, I am not an abusive father and I believe in differences. The character demanded effort from me, but it was challenging to do something so different from what I had always done,” says Garzón. In the living room of his house in the Núñez neighborhood there is a Creole guitar on the couch. He takes it and starts with the chords of “Ojalá”, by Cuban singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez, and sings the first verses. He does it very well, he is very in tune. “For me this song talks about love, although they say that Silvio did it for Pinochet… I’m happy, I found a guitar teacher who teaches me to accompany myself with arpeggios. You don’t know what I enjoy! Because what I want is to sing, sing for myself. Or go to the bars and pass the cap! (Series). And I could never learn with the symbolic language of the staff, its eighth notes, its sixteenth notes and flats”. He listens to a message on his cell phone and gently replies that it would be an honor to go to the La Ranchería theater (Junín, province of Buenos Aires) with his show “Jester”, which includes two short plays by Anton Chekhov. And he adds that he’s meant for touring, easy to set up and take down, and that he performs with a violinist.
News: He moves a lot by self-management.
Gustavo Garzon: I make it, I write it, I sell it. You have to learn to sell what you do. I armed myself in such a way that I know that with 70, 80 entries, it closes me. In times of lean cows you have to move a lot so that the money reaches you and pay the bills. I am middle class and even though I earned a lot, I still lived middle class. I need to work. I always lived from this profession, although I am a polyrubro; If I don’t have a job, I make it up. In a pandemic I sold wines on Instagram. My great aspiration is to have 15 days of vacation with my children. And I have achieved it. Last year we went to Mar Azul. I go to the beach, run, read, drink mate.
News: I heard you’re doing “Jester”.
Waiter: Yes, it’s the first time I’ve done a solo show with both works. A drama that is “The song of the swan” and the comedy, “On the damage that tobacco does”. For me, Chekhov’s short works are brilliant and give me the possibility of unfolding. I think it’s the most difficult thing I’ve done in my life, what demands me the most, because nothing has asked me for so much concentration… I always worked a more comfortable line. I began to be more interested in my role as an actor and push my limits.
News: And when does it premiere in Buenos Aires?
Waiter: Not yet. I’m warming it up on tour. She is directed by Gustavo Pardi, also an excellent actor who is the partner of my daughter Tamara (33). We are polishing it. I film it, I see myself…
News: How does it look, are you liking it?
Waiter: In comedy, yes, drama is hard for me… it’s hard for me to reach those depths but I’m getting there, with experimentation and a desire to learn. It makes me feel alive.
News: Tamara is also an actress.
Waiter: Yeah, but he kind of lost interest in acting. She dedicates herself almost exclusively to teaching with people with Down syndrome. He works at my intellectual disability school —now he is in El Camarín de las Musas— but he has his own flight. For my part, I have been teaching classes for conventional people for 22 years, currently at the Itaca theater (4000 Humahuaca), with my partner Cristina Lombardo. I also give 5-hour workshops in the interior of the country when I go on tour.
News: And when he leaves, who do the twins stay with?
Waiter: With employees, family, friends who love them. Everyone is giving me a hand. My hardest job is to organize her day to day when I’m not there. But I never stopped doing anything for them. The three of us live here alone, with a lady who comes a few days a week… They are more independent every day, but they still need supervision in their transfers, shopping, handling money. They are very loved, they do not bring any problem, they are taken to sleep. My current partner, Jimena (41), also takes them.
News: Are you psychoanalyzed?
Waiter: I did psychoanalysis. The last time, I realized that I was going to speak more than to listen… I believe in psychoanalysis, but if one wants to change. When you’re having a hard time, if you don’t want to or can’t change, no psychologist can do it. The key is to become aware and believe that something can be changed or not.
News: Did you completely overcome tongue cancer? Did you find out what the emotional incident was that triggered it?
Garzón: It is over and it was 17 years ago. I discovered two incidents, but it is something very intimate that I will not say. I realized how emotionally sick I was. If he kept giving me bad blood like that, I was going to get sick again. They say that the secret is that problems do not get into your body.
News: Do you think you can say the worst in the best way?
Waiter: I feel a bit prisoner of sincerity and honesty. I learned that you can say no, with dulce de leche. You don’t have to be aggressive to disagree.
News: But you weren’t like that…
Waiter: Nope. I was very brutal in the way I said things, I was fired from many places for that, and that way only brought me problems, isolation and loneliness. And since I don’t like being alone and I need people, my neighbor, affection… Because it’s not enough to do things right, they have to love you. And to make yourself loved, you have to stop being shocking and unpleasant for the other. Now I’d rather be happy than right.
News: Who were the women in your life?
Waiter: Alicia Zanca, the mother of my first three children, Ruth Alfie, the mother of my son Joaquín (23) and my longest relationship of 15 years, with Romina Hamra. Then I entered a very complicated void…
News: It shouldn’t be easy to be with someone like you, who says that when the flame goes out, it’s over… Do you require eternal passion?
Waiter: (smiles) Well, now I’m understanding that love can be in other ways, because the price of loneliness is very high. But there always has to be the desire to be with the other. And the partner has to bring you joy, otherwise there is no point. When couples become toxic they don’t go. I never had relationships over time that I wasn’t happy with. I was learning to be alone and to be good with myself, doing things that are interesting to me. Thus, you can be alone or accompanied, but you do not look for the woman as a lifesaver.
News: How do you see the country?
Waiter: This is a very argumentative country. People are outraged. He thinks of everything, especially the porteño, who speaks ill of everyone. My ideology must have brought me some problem on a professional level, but I didn’t find out about it because I have a low profile in politics. I don’t confront. I have been an artist with an ideology since I was a child…
News: Black on white, which one is it?
Waiter: I come from the left, I turned to Peronism and with Menem I stopped being a Peronist. And with Néstor and Cristina I became a Kirchnerist. Currently I am still a Kirchnerist, the best thing I experienced as an Argentine citizen was the 12 years with them. Today is another topic. I am quite confused, it is an unhappy moment in Argentine politics. The big problem here is the impossibility of reaching agreements on state policies. Hate and the need to destroy the adversary are stronger than the interest in helping the country. Dialogue and agreement do not occur. If the city’s head of government says that he dialogues with everyone except Kirchnerism…
News: Same thing on the other side…
Waiter: I am not aware. I didn’t hear it. But you have to agree because the two policies are so opposed, that if a third position does not appear that achieves certain basic agreements, with state policies that say this country goes this way or that way… And find the solution to inflation together . I don’t know who makes it. If they are the big economic groups, who are they? What I know is that it harms us all. The three heads on one side and the three on the other have to be lowered from the horse for the good of all. Hopefully Alberto and Cristina, Larreta and Fernández, Massa and Macri get together… If they do not have that gesture of humility, there will be no case. Like parents when they’re fighting. So that the children do not suffer, even if they are separated, they have a space for conversation. They are separated parents, the children are 46 million.
