Loquacious – he speaks at the speed of light – and yet he means what he says and says what he feels. A genuine emotion is perceived as he weaves the threads of his sentences. Marcelo Gonzalez He is an artistic and cultural manager, with more than 20 years dedicated to directing companies linked to communication and entertainment. Develops and promotes constant cultural, educational and solidarity actions. He is founder of Divine Planartistic producer, in partnership with Abel Pintos and also owner of the Tronador Theater from Mar del Plata. In addition to directing the general production of Pintos, he is producer of Cyrano – a play starring Puma Goity with more than 30 artists on stage – on tour throughout the country. “I have been in the entertainment business since 1985, when I did my first concert, in Avellaneda, with Los Abuelos de la Nada to benefit LALCEC. I came from selling in a bus, selling LALCEC cards and selling on a bus. I started organizing parties, the famous reunion parties and graduate trips… but I couldn’t travel.”
News: Because?
Marcelo González: I am an orphan, my grandparents raised me, I was a minor… it was a complicated process. My parents died in a car accident when I was 7 years old. I have a brother who I met again when I was 18. But these things strengthen you. One day I met Sergio Denis’ brother – Carlos Hoffman – who introduced me to Tito Lectoure and we organized the Snow Festival. And when I was 18 I went to see Bariloche. I got to know San Martín de los Andes and there it occurred to me to buy two cable signals, one in Quilmes and the other in Lomas de Zamora. With large and important merchants from the southern zone I created two cable channels and sold them to Grupo Clarín a couple of years later. I met Héctor Cavallero, owner of a production company, and we worked very well. We brought Michael Jackson -it was 1993-, Luis Miguel, Luciano Pavarotti, “Kiss of the Spider Woman”…
News: He also did sporting events…
Gonzalez: Yes. Festivals with soccer stars, farewells to players, in Independiente, Rosario Central, Lanús, the Argentine National Team… And by 2000, when the country was falling, he had in parallel a link with Pont Lezica and Bernardo Neustadt and had set up a radio network. I started with Millennium. Today I have AM 950 which became part of CNN, a News signal.
News: I take him back to when he was 7 years old, because there is a hiatus until he was 18. How did he experience his childhood and adolescence?
Gonzalez: It was a drama. I don’t want to give pity; Maybe my story is useful because I was resilient… At 7 I sold Tita and Rhodesia above the collective 95; The commitment with my grandfather was to do it in a single line, but my condition was not to return home until the entire box was sold. In Avellaneda there was a circuit of the La Plata Hippodrome where the game was played on screens. There the 95 stopped and there was a fat man who sold the turf magazine Azul Palermo. We greeted each other, for Children’s Day he gave me candy and one day I asked him if I could also sell candy there. He told me yes, my grandfather knew him… Shortly after I realized that the people who bought the magazine from him played and left it… and the fat man sold it again mmm… Then I decided to ask him to introduce me to the owner of the gambling establishment so that he would let me clean and collect the magazines, to package them and sell them as old paper. So I sold cookies, candy, paper and cleaned.
News: And you didn’t go to school?
Gonzalez: I always went. Never miss. I was going in the morning, I was the standard bearer. I finished high school, but I didn’t go to university… with so many streets, I was already flying.
News: What led you to buy the Tronador Theater in Mar del Plata?
Gonzalez: It was in 2015. I invented in Mar del Plata what I called Espacio Perfil, which later became Espacio Clarín. I think it was genius. For me it was a before and after. I understood how politics is linked to the media, actors, athletes… and in my head I perceived myself as a chancellor and a thief without a destiny (laughs). I learned and understood that I was not going to transform anything, but I was going to leave a mark, a legacy. At 40 years old and although I had Milanese with puree for the rest of my life, I was too young to retire. So I continued with my own objectives, always thinking about being and not about appearing. And I thought that buying the Tronador from the Spadone brothers was leaving my legacy. The theater was detonated. It took us 5 years to do it again and I spent 5 times more. But his heart was missing…
News: Which would be the Colón Theater School.
Gonzalez: Exact. I called Daniel Scioli, who contacted me with Horacio Rodríguez Larreta and at that moment the director María Victoria Alcaraz was entering the Colón… they thought it was a good idea and they went to see the Tronador. Today the free school is 8 years old and has more than 200 students. I have a teaching staff there and others who travel from Buenos Aires. I give them room and board, minus salaries. We receive monthly audits that check the operation of the school. We already have graduates. Several in Argentina, three in London and one in Switzerland. 11 courses are taught such as performing arts, contemporary dance, ballet, different instruments, orchestra conducting… a great responsibility, but something unprecedented because the Teatro Colón had never been decentralized. Culture is an investment. A country without culture has no path ahead.
News: How are you doing with the work Cyrano?
Gonzalez: This summer I started producing it with the Goity puma and it is going very well. I noticed that people somewhat lost the habit of going to the theater, perhaps due to ignorance. So, together with the Ministry of Education, I proposed setting up open schools so that spectators could know, learn, with journalists in the field or study theater. These schools also operate in Tronador.
News: How does Divine Plan arrive?
Gonzalez: I gave him that name because Abel’s son (Pintos) and mine were born that same day and at the same time. It seemed magical to me. My son León turned 12 and Agustín, Abel’s son, was 5. I never married, I want to clarify that. I have an engineer daughter who lives in Berlin, María Paz (26). I met Abel because his manager, Jorge, had been a classmate of mine from primary school.
News: With Abel he also has fields.
Gonzalez: We have two. One is called La Matera, it is an agroecological enterprise with pecan nuts in Mercedes, with a zero carbon footprint and an arts and crafts school for children from rural schools. The other is in Mendoza, with pistachio crops and the same objective. We made an agreement with the UBA and John Deere tractors to give classes to the young people who attend three times a week.
News: Are you also interested in sustainability?
Gonzalez: I always cared. And the environmental problem was always on my mind. At concerts we raise awareness about the issue of water and plastics. Because with Abel we have a platform called hymnosargentinos.ar where he recorded the hymns, we hired Felipe Pigna, we made agreements with the AFA… Through music we reach ecological issues…
News: Sometimes it doesn’t work?
Gonzalez: (Smiles) I have more than 300 employees, important structures… but I like to cook, read, write, I really enjoy my son León. I come from a place that was not comfortable and the ups and downs make me enjoy what I have today. I am grateful, blessed to whom work dignified. Work today is my place of rest. My two tools are passion and emotion. Life taught me – because that didn’t come from the factory – to have a handbrake on my head and say no to this.
News: Given his career, he went through several governments. How are your businesses today in the Javier Milei era?
Gonzalez: We’re not doing badly. But I am concerned with education and culture and I am attentive to what is done in this regard. Because economic issues come and go; I know it intuitively and having experienced it… The economic recession shakes the pocketbook, there is too much of everything, too much offer and high risk for everyone, spectators and cultural managers. I feel that a readjustment process has to come in the short term. We look at Argentina, which motivates me and being able to close agreements with foreign companies is interesting. I just did it with Mojo Rental, a global company, leader in event infrastructure. I have the UK representation in Argentina. I understand well what happens to us, but working for education and culture is a priority. I hope it is understood.
