Beatriz Inés Rovira
Lovingly known as “Beti”
3 November 1943 — 22 April 2023 · aged 79
UBA professor of Argentine literature, devoted River fan and the tango teacher's wife
Buenos Aires, Argentina Born in Rosario, Santa Fe Resting at Cementerio de la Chacarita, Buenos AiresAbout Beatriz
In 1976, Beatriz Rovira was dismissed from her post at the University of Buenos Aires by a letter that gave no reason, which was in itself the reason. She took the letter home, framed it, and hung it in the hallway, where it stayed for the rest of her life, next to a photograph of River Plate's 1986 championship squad.
Born in Rosario in 1943, the daughter of a railway accountant and a primary-school teacher, Beatriz arrived in Buenos Aires at seventeen to study literature at the Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, where she fell in love with the poems of Alfonsina Storni, with the lecture halls on Calle Puán and, in 1964, with a tango-dancing printer named Horacio Giordano, whom she married in 1966. For the eight years after her dismissal she taught privately and in secondary schools. In 1984, with democracy restored, she walked back into the university and stayed for twenty-four years, retiring as Professor of Argentine Literature.
Her students remember lectures delivered without notes, a voice that could silence a hall of three hundred, and an office door that was always open. She wrote two books on women poets of the River Plate, edited a collection of letters from the 1920s, and supervised more than sixty theses, several of which are now in print. She believed a good literature class was a conversation that should leave everyone a little hungry.
At home she and Horacio ran what their children called the divided house: he was a Boca man, she a River socia for forty years, and the Superclásico was a diplomatic incident handled with neutral snacks. She claimed to be a hopeless dancer, and Horacio claimed she was the best partner he ever had. Both, the children said, were true.
Beatriz died on 22 April 2023, aged seventy-nine, at home in Buenos Aires, after a short illness, with a volume of poems open on her bedside table. She is survived by Horacio, her husband of fifty-seven years, their children Marina and Gustavo, her granddaughter Lucía and her sister Alicia.
“Read slowly, argue kindly, and never apologize for a good book.”
- Place of birth
- Rosario, Santa Fe
- Resting place
- Cementerio de la Chacarita, Buenos Aires
- Passed away
- 22 April 2023, Buenos Aires
Memorial Service
Tuesday, 25 April 2023 at 09:00 UTC
Add to calendarLife journey
Licenciatura en Letras
Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras1961 – 1966 · Buenos Aires
Graduated with honors and a thesis on the poetry of Alfonsina Storni.
Married Horacio Giordano
1966 – 2023 · Buenos Aires
Fifty-seven years in a house divided between Boca and River.
Lecturer in Literature
Universidad de Buenos Aires1966 – 1976 · Buenos Aires
Taught until dismissed in 1976 without explanation.
Secondary Teacher and Private Tutor
Various schools1976 – 1984 · Buenos Aires
Kept teaching in classrooms and living rooms through eight difficult years.
Professor of Argentine Literature
Universidad de Buenos Aires1984 – 2008 · Buenos Aires
Returned when democracy was restored and supervised more than sixty theses.
Profesora Consulta
Universidad de Buenos Aires2009 · Buenos Aires
The university's honorary title for retired professors of exceptional merit.
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Family & connections
Also remembered on Evermore
Beatriz is survived by
- Horacio Giordano· Spouse
- Marina Giordano· Daughter
- Gustavo Giordano· Son
- Alicia Rovira· Sister
- Lucía Fernández Giordano· Grandchildren
Tributes & memories
6 people have shared a memory of Beatriz.
Knew Beatriz? Share a memory with the family and everyone who loved them.
Sign in to write a tribute- PM
Former student, now a poet in Madrid
Beatriz introduced me to Storni on my first day and told me that poets are people who refuse to be quiet. I moved to Madrid in 2002 to keep writing. Every manuscript I send out has her red pencil on it, in my head.
- RS
Baker and neighbor in Villa Crespo
Every Sunday morning she and Horacio walked past my bakery. He bought medialunas; she bought the newspaper and argued with the headlines. I have missed the argument ever since. The street feels a little less like itself.
- RA
Friend of the family and milonguero
I danced with Beatriz exactly once, in 1991, at Horacio's club. She stepped on my foot and said, “That's for Boca.” We laughed for years. A woman with a pen like a scalpel and a heart like a warm kitchen. Rest well, Beti.
- MG
Sister-in-law
For fifty-seven years Beatriz and my brother Horacio fought about football and made peace over empanadas. She adored him, mocked him and defended him with equal ferocity. Wherever they are, she is cheering for River, he is humming Gardel, and both of them think they are winning.
- DP
Colleague in the Department of Letters
In 1984 Beatriz walked back into the faculty building after eight years, nodded to the porter and went straight to her classroom. No speech, no ceremony. She simply taught as though the intervening years had been a long recess. Her first lecture was about courage, though she never called it that.
- VR
Former student, now professor at the UBA
Professor Rovira returned my first essay with a single comment: “Good. Now stop apologizing and write it again.” I rewrote it nine times. It became my first published article. Today I teach in her old classroom on Puán, and the first thing I tell my students is: stop apologizing.
