his talented writer and poet was born in Bahía Blanca, son of Alfredo, a national public accountant, and Emma Castro, teacher. There he attended primary and secondary school and he graduated as Senior Music Teacher. Later he studied three years in order to become a notary public in the Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas (Law School) of La Plata.

In his hometown he worked in journalism and he had several radio programs, either as author or actor. He also worked as creative editor in several advertising agencies and carried out a wide theatrical activity, as actor and director. He was one of the founders of the Teatro Libre Los Independientes.

In 1965 he decided to settle in Buenos Aires, where he led a bohemian life, but always linked with journalism and the artistic and literary creation. He worked either in papers as in diverse radio programs.

He continued his theater studies with Onofre Lovero and he ended up acting in several plays. He also appeared as actor at the Teatro Alvear, in Mariano Mores's company, in the musical revue Buenos Aires canta al mundo.

Among his multiple tasks, he was also literary and repertoire advisor of the Editorial Melograf between 1968 and 1969 and repertoire advisor of the Editorial Edami, between 1970 and 1971.

«Being also musician and digger of the city's genre, it was not strange that that condition, added that of poet, won for him the friendship of firmly consecrated talents: Nira Etchenique, Homero Expósito, Julio Camilloni, Margarita Belgrano and Edmundo Rivero, among many others that enriched his learning —as he himself said— and caused, greatly, his incursion in tango, in the twofold aspect of author and composer. His concern for the rescue and the maturation of the tango work took him to join the Renewal Movement of the 60s alongside Héctor Negro, Osvaldo Avena and others.» (Text by Sara Reboul in the back cover of the book of poems by Mario Iaquinandi Cantos del habitante, published in Bahía Blanca by Letraviva, 1992.)

His best known number is the tango “Contame una historia”, written in 1966 and musicalized by Eladia Blázquez. Surprisingly, in the first records where it appeared his name was omitted. This tango has been recorded a score of times, by Rubén Juárez (with Carlos García), Adolfo García Grau, Néstor Fabián (with Atilio Stampone), Graciela Susana (with the Palermo Trio), Claudio Bergé, Eladia Blázquez, Adrián Guida and Hernán Salinas (with Osvaldo Pugliese), Roxana Fontán, María José Mentana, Jacqueline Sigaut, among others.

Musicalized also by Eladia Blázquez, he wrote “María de nadie”, recorded by Alfredo Belusi with Osvaldo Requena and by Eladia Blázquez.

Among the numbers that he wrote, we highlight: “Romance para una vereda”, with music by Edmundo Rivero (h); “Cuando no estás conmigo”, music by Oscar Cardozo Ocampo; “Llanto por Gobbi”, music by Arturo Penón; “Romanza para un amén” and “Primer infierno”, music by Dante Gilardoni; “Triste espejismo”, music by Reinaldo Martin; “La historia de los dos”, “Como un tango”, “Apiolate”, “Baldío de mi infancia”, “Me la nombra un bandoneón”, “Plegaria para un después", with his own lyrics and music.

In his facet as writer he stood out as storyteller, some of his main works are: Buenos Aires así, stories; Memorias y fundamentos del Ángel, poetic chronicle based on the Astor Piazzolla's musical series of the Angel and the Devil; Para entender Buenos Aires, poems.

In 1962 his story Ariel y el sapo was awarded by the oral magazine Once Varas (Radio Universidad de La Plata) and in 1970 he was granted the diploma of honor as the best author in the River Plate, given by CX36 Radio Centenario of Montevideo, Uruguay.

In 1984, he returned to his hometown where he continued with literary work and, also, he appeared reciting his tango poems in different shows; he returned to the radio to conduct a program on Radio Nacional of Bahía Blanca.

When he celebrated his 30 years with tango, the city of Bahía Blanca paid him homage at the Municipal Theater, where he recited several poems and different aggregations and interpreters appeared. It was one of his last appearances in public.

He had a cancerous disease and died in his hometown. One year later the Municipal Council of Bahía Blanca declared all his work, unanimously, of municipal interest. In another official resolution, the Municipality decided to place a historical review in the house where he was born and lived his childhood and adolescence, on 226 19 de Mayo street.

In the presentation of the above mentioned book of poems Cantos del habitante, Nélida Rouchetto left us a good portrayal of Iaquinandi: «He embraced, with talent, disciplines like the paper, radio and television journalism, commentator involved with the reality that hurted him, storyteller, poet with a wide thematic spectrum, but mainly he was a tango man, pioneer in the innovating tango poetry of the 60s. His tango "Contame una historia" was welcomed by singers and the public that paradoxically didn't know the name of the author of the lyric because it was almost always omitted; so he became a popular anonymous author. Reading these verses and his tangos, we discover the poet facing his lyricism with the daily materialism, his vehement creative inner world.»

We want to thank Carlos Iaquinandi for his support. For more information about Mario Iaquinandi's work, please write to 290543@wanadoo.es.