The story dates back to 1800 if, two centuries ago, more precisely in January 1868 when the lawyer Manuel Bilbao and José Alejandro Bernheim founded, in the city of Buenos Aires, the newspaper La República. And to market the newspaper they decided to give it to the guys who would be located in the corners offering the newspaper, which was previously only obtained through a subscription or going directly to the printing press. This custom was already implemented with great success in New York and other parts of the world.
And besides, the cost of paying the diariero was lower than the mail and people could have the copy at the time, without waiting for it at home or without the need to go to the printing press. From that January, people began to hear preachers in the corners to the cry of “The Republic, to a weight!” Over time, these cries became the primordial sound of the city’s symphony.
7 years after this implementation of sale of copies, Florencio Sánchez was born in Montevideo on January 17, 1875. At the age of 16 he began studying journalism and with a promising career decided to come to Argentina, where he settled in the City of La Plata. 10 years later he entered the Newspaper “La República”, but at the same time Florence wrote plays, and one of them was based on the story of a child, who abandoned by his parents, made a living selling newspapers.
That book was called “Canillita”, and it was the word that immortalized the trade of selling newspapers.
But why canillita? Canillita comes from Latin, canella, diminutive canna, which means cane. In lunfardo the long bone of the legs or arms is said to be a canilla. Therefore, flaquita legs were called canillas or canillitas. And based on that, the character in Florence’s book was inspired. This child who is such his poverty that he has relatively new trousers but that fell so short as he grew up and became a teenager that he could be seen as “canillas”. The same year he wrote Canillita, 1903, the journalist and writer had great success with his work M’hijo el dotor. Jerome Podestá, an actor and theatrical entrepreneur, proposed to Florencio to premiere Canillita in Buenos Aires. As it was not usual for children to participate in the stages, Blanca Podestá was selected to play the canillita. Such was the success of the work, that the company decided to offer a free function only for diaarieros. On 7 November 1910, Florencio Sánchez died at the age of 35 of pneumonia. 37 years after his death, in 1947, it was decreed that the date of his death should pay homage to “The Day of the Canillita”, in honor of the man who immortalized his figure through the word.
