Church and music are part of life Dyne practically since he was born. The first of the two, as he highlighted, brought him endless problems: from a toxic relationship with gender violence involved until the separation of his parents. But, he also helped her with her innate talent for singing genres like gospel, soul, jazz and blues, which today became her way of being able to feed Tiziano, her 4-year-old son.
“I started singing in church when I was 8 years old, I sang on stages throughout my adolescence,” Dina Indarte said about her first links with music and her first contact with artists like Tina Turner and Whitney Houston.
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As he developed his talent for singing, things got worse in the Christian church that his parents – both pastors – had in the Buenos Aires town of Banfield, Lomas de Zamora party. “I didn’t like the type of teaching,” Dina said, but at the same time she recognized the large number of musicians that she allowed her to meet.
Despite this, the church did not cause him problems because of its teachings or its philosophy of life, but because of a particular person with whom he fell in love. At the age of 17 he met in church, whom a year and a half later he would become Titian’s fatherhis only son.
“I was going through a delicate family moment with a fight at my house and I decided to move in with him. It was all very fast and very traumatic because “A few months later I was already pregnant.”he related.
With Titian’s pregnancy they began controls, aggression and toxicity who was his partner at that time. The ordeal was as unbearable as it was progressive as the weeks and months passed.
Dina sings at the Banfield station. (Photo: TN/Nicolás González).
Dina told TN that “being pregnant “This person still committed gender violence” and revealed that he received from pushing to headbutting and insults. The arguments could range from the clothes he wore to depriving him of the opportunity to work.
“He told me ‘I’ll support you’, but he didn’t do it out of love, but out of control. Being at home all day with my son was good, but I needed the money and I wanted to go out into the world,” the young woman explained.
As happens in a good number of toxic relationships, Tiziano’s father – who preferred not to reveal his name – left her on several occasions, but then they got back together. In the middle was Titian’s upbringing.
To the previous violence, during and after pregnancy, a new one was added: attacking her in front of the child they have in common. “Even when I was asleep, when I was a baby, he would hit me and my son would wake up crying. He also didn’t take care of basic things for a baby like cleaning him or giving him a bottle.”
Dina sings at the Banfield station. (Photo: TN/Nicolás González).
Four years and a pandemic later, he decided to put a definitive end to the relationship: “Having diapers, I got brave, I separated and reported him.” Justice acted relatively quickly and began to impose a perimeter for the boy’s father, who today lives in Córdoba.
A new opportunity in his life opened up, especially because he began to have the possibility of going out to work, something that at that time his partner did not allow him. Along with that came the economic problem, in a country in constant crisis.
A sales clerk, a telephone operator in a call center, a baker and an ice cream maker were some of the jobs she had during the last three and a half years. In the vast majority, she was not even able to pay the rent and food for her son, until she found the opportunity in music.
From charging $600 an hour to singing at the Banfield station: the transformation of “the Whitney Houston of Rock”
That separation led to a new job in a call center. The conditions were not the best, but the money helped her to support his son: “I remember that I was able to celebrate his birthday,” she recalled.
To the seven hours of daily work, three hours of round trip travel with complex schedules were added: “I had schedules that were from 4 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon when I arrived at my house.. I was gone between 10 and 12 hours, so I had to pay a babysitter.”
Some time later he left the call center and by October of last year he was already working in an ice cream parlor in the Lanús district. Conditions improved, but what worsened drastically was his salary: “They paid me $600 an hour and it wasn’t just for me: $300 was for Tizi’s babysitter and $300 for me.”
“They were four-hour shifts, so I made $2,400 a day, which wasn’t even enough to buy him milk.”. “I ate noodles with oil because I couldn’t even afford to buy cheese.”
Dina sings to the cap and sometimes they hire her for birthdays. (Photo: TN/Nicolás González).
The separation of his parents, added to other personal problems, ended up leading him to leave that job. In the desperation of the moment, he made the decision: “It’s my time, I need to go out and sing, expose myself and connect with people,” he said.
An invitation to do karaoke in a little-known bar in Llavallol led her to meet Karim, a local sound engineer. Seeing her talent, he convinced her to go outside and they threw her into the pool full of musical dreams.
The first attempt was in Laprida pedestrian streetfrom the Lomas de Zamora game, where Karim took charge of everything: “He brought a car battery, connected it and put on the console. I played for half an hour and made $7000. I saw the cap and thought I could make this money better than working anywhere else.”
“It was better than working 12 hours at a job, to get paid half of the cap”, Dina pointed out, about what she was thinking at that moment. It was then that she decided to look for a speaker on a buying and selling platform, and invested practically everything she had earned in his talent: “It cost $5,000 pesos and came with a cable and a microphone, it was very small.”
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With those weapons she appeared alone in the Banfield station tunnel, the one that connects Vergara Street with Alem Street and the one she had traveled throughout her life. “The choice of the place is because of my roots, it is where I have always been.”
That first time the success was resounding: “I made $40,000 in two hours”, he recalled. Her emotion was such that she repeated it several times in a few days: “It was coming to the station, singing and going home to buy weed, sugar and other things. He didn’t throw butter on the ceiling either.”
Between songs by Whitney Houston and some covers in Spanish, Dina was gaining popularity among the residents of Banfield. “People started recording me, many wanted me to go viral. They even called me ‘the Whitney of Banfield’”said the young woman with a laugh, who recognizes that today she does not do “even half” of what she did that first time, but that now she has a lot of other opportunities.
“They started hiring me to sing at birthdays and weddings. They started a lot of more serious projects,” revealed the Banfil native, who continues to go at least twice a week to sing at the station. Today she already does it with a level of professionalism – especially at a technical level – greater than that time: “A friend donated me a speaker that sounds better and my father lent me a microphone from the church.”
“I grew up on that music, listening to Tina Turner and Whitney Houston,” Dina told TN. (Photo: TN/Nicolás González).
Dina explained that what she earns at the Banfield station is enough for “eat, pay the Sube and Tizi expenses” and that between the events and the help of Karim – his now manager and friend – he pays the rent and monthly expenses.
In that sense, he told what the economic dynamics are like: “I see how much was made in the cap, I see what I am missing at home and I try to buy it. Mostly it’s things of the day, toilet paper or pasta.”
“Sometimes I save $3,000 or $5,000 from the hat and put it together to get to $11,000 and buy Tizi’s garden shoes. To be comfortable during the month, I should have 3 or 4 birthdays a month or come to the station five times a week,” Dina explained.
Far from moving away from the street where she saw – and sees – her musical career being born and growing, she keeps her feet on the ground: “Since I was a girl I have seen myself on stage and I am going to achieve it. But if it is not achieved, I will work on something else and move on. Music saved me and singing in the street is another level, I feel confident in what I do.”
Dina dreams of “filling River’s field.” (Photo: TN/Nicolás González).
His motivation is not economic, but for his son, for the passion of singing and for what it generates in people. “The cap saved me. People cry when I sing, they hug me. She unhooked me from what was happening to me emotionally. It is priceless to be singing in the street and for people, who also have a hard time, to get excited.”
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To his list of 20 songs that varies with the days, he continues to add artists and even accepts recommendations from the Línea Roca audience: “Sometimes they recommend songs to me and I ask them to come next week so I have it prepared.”
About his original musical style, he said: “I grew up with that music, listening to Tina Turner and Whitney Houston. I always liked those gospel tones. I want to sing the music that I like and that I feel transmits. I like that they are difficult topics, I enjoy that.”
Finally, he recognized his dream in musical terms: “Today I am satisfied with a theater, but “The dream I am pursuing is to fill the River field.”.
