Martha Gularte

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Gularte and the second or maternal family name is Bautista.
Martha Gularte
Gularte in 1950
Born
Fermina Gularte Bautista

(1919-06-18)18 June 1919
Paso de los Novillos, Tacuarembó, Uruguay
Died12 August 2002(2002-08-12) (aged 83)
Montevideo, Uruguay.
OccupationsCandombe dancer, choreographer, poet and vedette
Children2

Fermina Gularte Bautista (18 June 1919 – 12 August 2002), better known by her stage name Martha Gularte, was a Uruguayan candombe dancer, choreographer, poet and vedette. She became a symbol of carnival and Afro-Uruguayan culture.

Early life and family

Fermina Gularte Bautista was born on a ranch in Paso de los Novillos, Tacuarembó, Uruguay, in 1919.[1][2] Her paternal grandfather was an enslaved man in Brazil.[1] Her white mother, Custodia Bautista, died when Gularte was aged 2.[3]

Gularte spent her childhood in orphanages in Montevideo.[4][5] She met the poet Juana de Ibarbourou who was visiting the orphanage.[3] After leaving the orphanage, Gularte worked as a domestic servant.[3] To escape the low pay of this job, she began to dance in cabarets from a young age.[1][6]

Career

Gularte danced in cabarets across South America, including in her home country of Uruguay, and in Argentina, Brazil and Chile.[8] She pioneered the role of the female vedette,[9][10] was a candombe dancer and became a symbol of the Uruguayan Carnival and Afro-Uruguayan culture,[11][12][13] along with Rosa Luna.[14][15] Playwright Fernán Silva Valdéz [es] described her as "a black flower with tambourine petals."[16]

In 1946, Gularte was hired to work at Enrico Venturino Soto's "Caupolican Circus," but left as she did not like the roaring of the animals.[8] In 1949, Gularte debuted with the group Añoranzas Negras.[1][15] Gularte later moved to Spain, where she choreographed the cabaret "El Molino Rojo."[17] In the 1960s, she joined the troupe Morenada.[8] In 1982, she founded the Tanganika troupe with her children.[15]

When in her 60s, Gularte began writing, publishing The Boatman of Jordan River, Song to the Bible in 1998.[8] In 1999 she released an autobiography.[15] Gularte also wrote poetry which reflected on Afro-Uruguayan history, losses of cultural continuity and estrangement from the African homeland.[11][13]

Gularte continued to dance alongside writing, before announcing her retirement from the stage in February 2002.[8] Shortly before she died, Gularte featured in the Uruguayan film In This Tricky Life by Beatriz Flores Silva.[11][15]

Personal life

Gulrte had two children, Jorginho[18] and Katy.[9] She gave birth to her son Jorginho, who had an American father, in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.[8]

Death and legacy

Gularte died on 12 August 2002 in Montevideo, Uruguay, aged 83.[15] She is featured on the "Murals of the Plaza of the Carnival Museum" in Uruguay.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Martha Gularte". Museo del Carnaval (in Spanish). Retrieved 29 September 2025.
  2. ^ Lopes, Nei (8 July 2014). Enciclopédia brasileira da diáspora africana (in Brazilian Portuguese). Selo Negro Edições. ISBN 978-85-87478-99-3.
  3. ^ a b c Suar, Germán (20 February 2023). "Martha Gularte". Periódico Años Dorados (in Spanish). Retrieved 29 September 2025.
  4. ^ Estol, Federico (2009). Fiestas del Uruguay (in Spanish). Mar Dulce. p. 199. ISBN 978-9974-8218-0-4.
  5. ^ La herencia cultural africana en las Américas (in Spanish). Ediciones Populares para América Latina. 1998. p. 38. ISBN 978-9974-582-15-6.
  6. ^ Fuente, Alejandro de la; Andrews, George Reid (26 April 2018). Afro-Latin American Studies: An Introduction. Cambridge University Press. p. 77. ISBN 978-1-107-17762-8.
  7. ^ a b Falca, Marcelo (27 September 2024). "Inauguraron "Murales de la Plaza del Museo del Carnaval" por los 100 años de Lágrima Ríos". El Explorador (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 September 2025.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Jaramillo, María Mercedes; Ortiz, Lucía (24 July 2025). Stories of Latin American Women of African Heritage: Daughters of Muntu. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-040-36906-7.
  9. ^ a b Andrews, George Reid (18 October 2010). Blackness in the White Nation: A History of Afro-Uruguay. University of North Carolina Press. pp. 79, 169–170. ISBN 978-0-8078-9960-1.
  10. ^ Alfaro, Milita; Cozzo, José (2008). Mediomundo: sur, conventillo y después (in Spanish). Edita Medio & Medio. p. 53. ISBN 978-9974-8161-0-7.
  11. ^ a b c "Poemas de Martha Gularte: Poetisas Uruguayas". Isliada - Literatura Cubana (in Spanish). 8 October 2024. Retrieved 30 September 2025.
  12. ^ "La madre de todas las vedettes". Búsqueda (in Spanish). 24 January 2019. Retrieved 30 September 2025.
  13. ^ a b Lewis, Marvin A. (2003). Afro-Uruguayan Literature: Post-colonial Perspectives. Bucknell University Press. pp. 20–23. ISBN 978-0-8387-5550-1.
  14. ^ Vilaró, Carlos Páez (2000). Entre colores y tambores: viaje desde la punta de la cerbatana, hasta la lonja del tamboril (in Spanish). C. Paez Vilaró. p. 222. ISBN 978-950-529-104-5.
  15. ^ a b c d e f Ramos, Armando Olveira (8 March 2013). "Crónicas Migrantes: Rosa Luna y Martha Gularte, un clásico memorable del candombe". Crónicas Migrantes. Retrieved 1 October 2025.
  16. ^ Vilaró, Carlos Páez (1985). Así te veo-- Montevideo (in Spanish). Milgraf. p. 43.
  17. ^ "Marta Gularte". Turismo Tacuarembó (in Spanish). Retrieved 29 September 2025.
  18. ^ Rojas, Gustavo Fripp (15 April 2020). ¿Qué es boniato, maestro? Pequeño diccionario ilustrado de uruguayismos para porteños: Contiene como chiquicientas definiciones (in Spanish). Alter ediciones. ISBN 978-9974-8723-7-0.
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