e was journalist before being an author, and carried out that activity in different newspapers (La Voz del Interior of Córdoba, among others). His debut in theater was in Buenos Aires, on August 8, 1918 at the Comedia, with the play El calendario festivo which he co-wrote with Franco Padilla and with music by Bernardino Terés.

There is not known an approximate number of the plays he premiered, especially variety shows, but below there is a list of the most successful which we repremiered at the theaters Apolo, Fémina, Comedia and Casino, venues where he spent entire seasons leading companies with León Alberti, Ivo Pelay and Luis Amadori: A las 9 en el convento in collaboration with Schaeffer Gallo; Mano mora, El Caballero Negro, Hay fuego en la pasarela, Es pa’ morirse de risa, Aquí vienen las bellezas, Los varones somos muchos, with Arnaldo Malfatti; Porteño tenía que ser, with Pascual Contursi; Voy derecho a Cardenal with Carlos Osorio; Don Ponciano Peñaloza, with Eliseo Gutiérrez; Escríbame una carta señor cura, with Domingo Parra; Los Caballeros del Caño, with Oscar R. Beltrán; ¡Qué papa el año que corre! and De pura cepa criolla with León Alberti; El proceso de Mary Pullman with Antonio de Bassi; La otra noche en un banquete with Amadori; Mefistófeles, ¡Qué papa el año 40!, La banda de pistoleros, En los muelles de la Boca, Conflicto internacional, Veraneamos en bañadera, Aquí nos reímos de todo, Leguisamo solo.

For one of them, at the Fémina theater, in 1929, he wrote the tango “Dicen que dicen” on the Enrique Delfino’smusic, which on that stage the actor José Muñiz performed and later was recorded by Carlos Gardel. (Along his career of playwright he had met the singer many times in the theaters of Buenos Aires but their relationship grew stronger because of the above tango and through Enrique Delfino with whom he wrote the first one, “Pato alegre”, years before).

When he premiered at the Apolo his acclaimed sainete A las 9 en el convento, in 1921, at the hall of the theater he found a music baton which someone had lost and which he then always carried with him because, he used to say, brought him luck. Exactly ten years later at the hall of that theater he died of a heart attack.

Ballestero (and not Ballesteros) was born in San Eugenio del Cuareim (Uruguay) on August 16, 1892 and passed away in Buenos Aires on October 20, 1931.