A Serious Message May Get a Serious Diva Into Argentine Congress
Moria Casan, a longtime cabaret star and now a maverick candidate for Argentina's Congress, campaigns in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Mataderos. Beside Casan, 56, a onetime TV hostess, is a faux President Bush.
(By Silvina Frydlewsky For The Washington Post)
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Wednesday, October 19, 2005
BUENOS AIRES -- Wearing a hip-hugging leather skirt and nothing above the waist but a strategically coiled artificial snake, Moria Casan shimmied her way to the place she knows best: the spotlight at center stage.
At the Broadway Theater one recent evening, the 56-year-old cabaret star shook through a steamy dance routine and cracked a few equally uninhibited jokes about Argentine politicians. Then Nito Artaza, a co-star in her comic song and dance revue, turned to the crowd and gestured toward Casan.
" She's going to be among our representatives in Congress?" he asked in mock horror.
"Absolutely," replied Casan, posing dramatically. "There, I will be the diva."
If Casan is elected to Congress on Sunday, as recent polls suggest might happen, Argentine politics will get both a strong shot of sequined glitz and a voluble dose of anti-political rhetoric.
"I don't have a political discourse, and I don't believe politicians," Casan said during a recent interview. "I believe the people need someone who will work for them without so much 'blah blah blah.' "
Casan's candidacy has made for endless headlines and jokes -- as well as some serious questions -- about whether the country, beset by chronic economic woes, really needs a feather boa floating among the neckties in the national legislature.
"I don't think she's a bad person, but she has never done anything in her life other than being a showgirl," said Gabriel Cardozo, 25, who runs a magazine stand on the street outside the Broadway, where Casan performs regularly. "What would it say about our country if we elected her to represent us?"
Casan, however, is no stranger to political sparring. In addition to her career as an entertainer, she interviewed politicians and other guests as the savvy, seductive hostess of a pillow-talk TV show, "To Bed With Moria," in the 1990s. She has more than enough wit to compete with heavier-weight candidates in the race for Buenos Aires' 13 seats, including Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa and businessman Mauricio Macri, who owns one of the country's most successful soccer clubs, the Boca Juniors.
More than 50 people are vying for the seats, 11 of which will be distributed among the top three vote-getters and their party associates. Polls show Casan can win only about 5 to 6 percent of the capital's vote, but analysts said that could be enough to snag one of the remaining two seats.
"In a campaign with so many options, the question for political parties becomes how to separate themselves from the others," said Nicolas Ducote, a political analyst here. "So it makes sense to look for candidates with some sort of brand name people will recognize."
Casan's campaign has made full use of her star status. Avoiding stump speeches, posters and policy debates, she has played up her celebrity and even announced her intention to run during a TV talk show.
