The tragedy in abeyance of Cándida. Emigration and assimilation in the cinema of Niní Marshall

In his writings about cinema, Jean Epstein poetically explained that every film contains a ‘tragedy in abeyance’ that is not explicit in the narrative. This cinematic idea guides the analysis of the films Candida (1939) and Candida millonaria (1941), two of three comedies that Luis Bayon Herrera directed about a Galician maid in Buenos Aires. Nini Marshall plays Candida, a newcomer to Argentina who projects the stereotype of the female Galician immigrant. In these films Candida faces two tragedies: that of a newcomer in an alien society and that of assimilation, which endangers the identity of the immigrant striving to fit into this new society. Drawing on Epstein’s concept of photogenie, this article explores the representation of an almost invisible ‘other’ –a female, immigrant, domestic worker who is part of an ethnic minority– and the contradictions implicit in her comic portrayal.