"Necessity is the mother of creativity." That is the favorite phrase of Pablo Quintana, a 27-year-old singer and musician, who lives in Munro, works in an office and still does not leave his amazement at what is happening to him in the last 72 hours, the most important of his working life without intending to.
He rents a studio apartment in Munro for which he pays 50 thousand pesos but the verbal contract expires on May 31. "Now to renovate, the owner asked me for 100 thousand pesos and the truth is that it does not give, for 30 square meters, but also I can not afford the expense. My salary-to-rent ratio is very unequal," he says without complaint, but almost asking for help and understanding.
Beyond the distressing and anxious situation he is going through, like tens of thousands of people who cannot afford rent increases, Pablo did not get under the bed, nor did he pack up to return to his mother's. At least not for now. "Suddenly, in the midst of nervousness and bewilderment for not knowing what I am going to do in three weeks, my mind began to musicalize the bitter emotions I had."
Pablo "Palmito" Quintana (27) is a musician but lives from his job as an office worker. "It's amazing how opportunities appear from an unfortunate theme."
"I have to move, the c... of his sister, everything is expensive and I can not find anything / The owner hurries me and says to leave, I'm going to live in a square / Moving is difficult, it's expensive, it's a disaster and I have to get a lodging / I'm not one of those who have a guarantor, with my kitten we are going to stay on the street / In twenty days I have to leave here, because if not the owner will come to take me out".
As a musician who has been juggating her for ten years, Palmito -her stage name- took her metier of changing lyrics and words to well-known songs, to thematize them with the current drama of rent. "The first idea that came to me was 'M. A.' (Best Friends) the hit of BM and it was unimaginable madness. I had never done this, it hadn't occurred to me, and the day the owner of my apartment threw that pale at me, I had that lucidity and freshness to record the song and upload it to my Instagram."
The impact was so great that his 1,500 followers climbed in a few hours to 17,3. "But the craziest thing is that I posted the video on my TikTok account, which I never use with which I had no followers, and it had 30 million views and from one day to the next I reached <>,<> followers."
Despite being a frequent user of their networks, "you never think that this can happen, that a simple video you make in the greatest of anonymities can become a monster."
His inability to take care of the rent led him to record videos on Instagram about the vicissitudes of renting reversing hits of popular music.
Before it became all the rage, Palmito's ingenuity and inventiveness went further and he appealed to his extensive knowledge of popular music to transform classics and turn them into trends. "Volver a empezar" by Alejandro Lerner appeared. "Days go by and I can't find an apartment / Where I live the owner doesn't love me anymore / Where will I find a direct owner who does not ask for a guarantee to rent / To be able to rent and that I reach my salary, to be able to rent if it is a studio apartment ... good." Another boom in tune with a consecrated, not with a beginner.
A shower of messages began to arrive on Instagram. From words of support, to people who opened the doors of their homes, to real estate agents making offers. There was no lack of Argentine humor, of course. "I hope you don't find, so you keep breaking it around here." Or those messages full of tenderness: "You are so big that I would leave you my apartment and sleep on the street." And even one predicted the future: "After this you will get not only department, but farm contracts."
From catharsis in the networks to working on TV
Mobilized outside, Palmito was moved by the good vibes of the people. "The Argentine feeling of wanting to lend a hand, even without having anything, is wonderful. I was offered apartments in other neighborhoods for more or less the same money, but I live and work for Munro. Anyway, what surprised me the most was the job proposal for a television channel. That was not in any possible dream, "he surprises with a hint of intrigue.
Palmito was offered to do a television column that will begin this Friday in El Trece and should musicalize, with humor, the vicissitudes of daily life.
The production of the news program "Mediodía de noticias", which goes through El Trece, proposed him to make the section "Palmito te canta la justa", in which the young man will musicalize topics such as inflation, prices, pickets appealing to well-known songs "of those that the viewer will capture immediately". And he makes it clear that the column, which debuts this Friday, "has to have a share of humor, like those videos I posted on my networks."
Grateful for the solidarity of the people, he says he could not answer or read the hundreds of messages he continues to receive. "The common denominator is that she feels identified with the videos I uploaded... The rent is a neuralgic problem of those of us who are between 25 and 35 years old and that we cannot pay with the meager salaries we earn. I don't know if the owner of my apartment found out or saw the videos, but it's clear that if we don't reach an agreement I'm going to have to leave. I'm not going to stay on the street, but I don't want to screw anyone."
Admirer of Spinetta, Fito, Charly, La Renga and Los Redondos, Palmito is looking for the return in these hours to "A world of sensations", in which he seeks to print his stamp on the hook theme of Sandro, which may be the song with which he debuts on television. "How do I define this? It's an unexpected stroke of luck. I've been looking for it, I've been chopping the stone to find the diamond for a long time and it wasn't happening to me."
Palmito recorded four songs and all registered an unexpected echo for their maker. "You surpass yourself in each one. Come on, that little house comes out." "You're amazing, this is making chaos an art." "Skinny, I can't stop listening to your videos. One after another, twenty times. You will succeed and achieve your own. I pray for you," they said under the reversal of "Soy cordobés."
"The days go by I have to move, the owner is already throwing me out / Desperate I'm looking for rent, to be accepted with a cat / I'm looking for a direct owner copado, that to enter does not charge me fees / Pass me the data that if you have rent I keep looking for it."
MG
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