Mitzura Domnica Arghezi (also spelled Mițura, born Domnica Theodorescu; 10 December 1924 – 27 October 2015) was a Romanian actress, visual artist and politician, also active as a ballerina, book editor, and museum curator. She was the daughter of poet-journalist Tudor Arghezi, the sister of writer Baruțu T. Arghezi, as well as the half-sister of art photographer Eli Lotar. Her childhood was spent at Mărțișor, her father's estate in Bucharest, and became the inspiration for his children's books, which a grown-up Mitzura illustrated. She was trained in dancing by Floria Capsali, and appeared in music shows for both the National Opera and the National Theater Bucharest. During and shortly after World War II, she exhibited her work in the graphic arts, to critical acclaim. Mitzura's career in both visual arts and letters was interrupted by her family's persecution in the early stages of Romanian communism. Deemed a child "of the bourgeoisie" by Scînteia, she was forced to renounce her studies at the University of Bucharest and focus instead on becoming an actress. She graduated from the Caragiale Institute of Theater just as Arghezi Sr was undergoing rehabilitation.
Debuting on the screen with the 1951 In Our Village, Arghezi returned ten years later with a leading role in Doi vecini—based on a comedic story by her father, and marking the directorial debut of her Institute colleague Geo Saizescu. This was followed in 1964 by another substantial role, as Gena in Titanic Waltz. Though she continued to appear in films and was part of the National Theater company, from 1967 she became mainly focused on preserving her late father's legacy, and by 1975 was in charge of Mărțișor, reopened as a museum. Following Baruțu's self-exile and Lotar's death, she took full managerial control of the estate, sparking controversy with her rigid interpretation of copyright, and being accused of stealing others' research in her own work as editor of the Tudor Arghezi corpus. She was also criticized for her alleged compromises with communist governments, and, into her old age, remained adamant that Romania under socialism was preferable to the United States.
Despite being part-Székely, Arghezi was an advocate of Romanian nationalism, and repeatedly voiced suspicion toward the Hungarian minority. After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, she entered electoral politics with the Romanian National Unity Party, presenting herself in the race of September 1992. She later joined Corneliu Vadim Tudor's Greater Romania Party (PRM); for several months in 1995, she was the inaugural holder of a government secretariat channeling support for the Romanian diaspora. Arghezi was elected to the Chamber for Olt County in the general election of 1996, and reelected in 2000 (when she was also the first woman to preside over a Chamber session). Openly calling for a ban on the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians, she was also an opponent of the then-governing Romanian Democratic Convention. Arghezi defended the PRM's image as a moderate-nationalist force, expressed support for European integration, and spoke about her father's philosemitism, while remaining loyal to Vadim Tudor throughout the PRM's decline and factional splits. She died in 2015, weeks after Vadim Tudor's own death, and was buried at Mărțișor amid a controversy surrounding her inheritance.
Biography Origins and early life Arghezi was born in Bucharest on 10 December 1924.Museum of Romanian Literature, "A încetat din viață Mitzura Arghezi", in România Literară, Issue 45/2015, p. 16 Mădălina Ceban, Mitzura Arghezi a fost înmormântată, joi, în grădina Casei Mărțișor, alături de părinții ei, Mediafax, 29 October 2015 Her father was Tudor Arghezi, by then a nationally famous writer, who celebrated her birth with the poem Cântec de adormit Mitzura ("A Song for Rocking Mitzura to Sleep"), and composed a new lyrical piece for each of her birthdays."Tineret. Poezia lui Tudor Arghezi în contextul literaturii interbelice", in Foaia Românească. Săptămânal al Românilor din Ungaria, Vol. LXIII, Issue 20, May 2013, p. 6 Her mother, Paraschiva, from a rural family of Bukovina Romanians, was Arghezi's second wife.Ferenczes, p. 47 Specifically, she and her sister Saveta ("Tătana") were from the Burda clan of yeomen, hailing from either BuneștiBaruțu T. Arghezi, "Hotare de aer. Remember", in Steaua, Vol. XXIII, Issue 14, July 1972, p. 12 or Pleșești.Constantin Beldie, "Memorii și memorialiști. Acasă la Arghezi (III)", in Argeș, Vol. XVIII, Issue 2, February 1983, p. 12 They had been orphaned early on, after both their parents died of food poisoning. Paraschiva and Tudor's other child, Iosif Theodorescu, was born on 28 December 1925; Baruțu Arghezi, fiul scriitorului Tudor Arghezi, a încetat din viață, Mediafax, 25 August 2010 as observed later by their family friend Constantin Beldie, the couple had been married for 15 years before having either child, who therefore risked being "spoiled" by their loving parents. Tudor had been married to Constanța Zissu, from whom he had another son, Eliazar Theodorescu.Ion Pop, "Meridiane. Expoziție Eli Lotar la Paris. Un 'vagabond de rasă'", in România Literară, Issue 50/1993, p. 26Ferenczes, p. 40 At exactly the moment of Mitzura's birth, Eliazar had rebelled against his upbringing, leaving Romania to try his luck in France, and establishing his fame there as photographer-filmmaker "Eli Lotar".Șerban Cioculescu, "Breviar. L-am cunoscut pe Tudor Arghezi", in România Literară, Issue 9/1982, p. 7Petru Comarnescu, "Inedit: Jurnalul lui Petru Comarnescu", in România Literară, Issue 15/1993, p. 12 Diana Meseșan, Vagabonzii ideali, Scena9, 24 June 2019 He himself cited Paraschiva's pregnancy as contributing to his decision.
Tudor and his immediate family were only officially registered as "Arghezi" from April 1956;Ferenczes, p. 38 though Mitzura took the famous surname, in a 2002 she referred to it as a "sweet burden", which had always seen her compared to her father.Ioana Florea, "Acasă la... Tudor Arghezi, cu fiica sa, Mitzura", in Cuvântul Liber, 4 December 2002, p. 4 Throughout her life, she supported Romanian nationalism, presenting Arghezi Sr as a "good Romanian", and being herself critical of Romania's Hungarian community.Ioana Florea, "Acasă la... Tudor Arghezi, cu fiica sa, Mitzura (II)", in Cuvântul Liber, 5 December 2002, p. 6 On her father's side, she had ethnically diverse origins. These were long obscured by Arghezi Sr, and only became accessible after archival research in the 1970s. Records brought up at the time indicate that Tudor was born out of wedlock to the Romanian pastry-maker Nae Theodorescu, originally from Oltenia, and took his surname.Ferenczes, pp. 37–39 Tudor's mother, Rozalia, was a domestic servant from Transylvania (at the time in Austria-Hungary), who also had children from other relationships; one of them was the lawyer Alexandru Arghezi Pârvulescu, who in 1975 revealed that "Arghezi" was also Rozalia's original surname, and not a literary pseudonym invented by her son.Ferenczes, pp. 39–40 Rozalia gave her ethnic origin as "German", reporting that she had converted from Catholicism to Romanian Orthodoxy—though various of her contemporaries already knew her as a Hungarian, and more specifically a Székely, who had taught her sons to speak her native language. In 2015, journalist István Ferenczes discovered her birth certificate as "Rozalia Ergézi" of Vlăhița, further establishing her origin among the Székelys of Bukovina.Ferenczes, pp. 40–44
Domnica spent her earliest years at Mărțișor,Mitzura Arghezi, "L-am cunoscut pe Tudor Arghezi. Mărțișorul, 'mica noastră patrie'", in Luceafărul, Vol. XXII, Issue 20, May 1979, p. 7 an estate that her father had bought and developed in Văcărești, southern Bucharest, in 1926. This new home was only completely built in 1931,Valeriu Fărcaș, "Memoria vie. Amintiri cu Tudor Arghezi la Mărțișor", in Vatra, Vol. XLII, Issues Issues 495–496, 2012, p. 168 after Arghezi Sr had drained a swamp and extended a paved road.Valer Donea, "O vizită la Tudor Arghezi", in Adevărul Literar și Artistic, 20 October 1935, p. 4 Mitzura and her two brothers were all partly raised by their paternal grandmother Rozalia, who lived with them at Mărțișor; he was noticeably discreet when introducing her, leading some of his close friends to assume that she was a governess, rather than the children's grandmother.Ferenczes, pp. 40, 47 As a child, Mitzura coined Iosif's lifelong nickname, "Baruțu"—a contracted and corrupted form of Apăreciule, from his constant requests for apă rece ("cold water").Romulus Dianu, "Cu d. T. Arghezi despre el și despre alții", in Rampa, 8 July 1929, p. 3 After his youngest no longer required her services, Tudor forced his mother to move out of the house and into a rented apartment, or, according to Beldie, a monastery. The latter author was once told by Mitzura that Rozalia was Arghezi's stepmother, and was thus punished for having mistreated Tudor in his childhood; she also reported that Alexandru had been similarly shunned by the "Arghezi tribe" for speaking ill of them. Beldie notes that another one of Nae Theodorescu's wives, a Greek-Romanian, was on good terms with the family, and gave Mitzura her first lessons in English.
As reported by Mitzura herself, the writer loved both of his youngest children, and made them the literary subjects of his Book of Toys, which recounts his fascination with their early development; the book was much criticized by Beldie, who found that its only possible readers were housewives. However, he praised Arghezi Sr for not overindulging his children and for ultimately allowing his "anarchic" worldview to inform his approach to child-rearing. The father's affection is recorded in a September 1927 letter he sent to his patron A. L. Zissu from Râșnov, where he was vacationing when Mitzura was struck by an illness. As he confesses therein: "I was no longer able to write down just one line until today, when the light of her eyes shone again, when she could smile again".Solomon Savin, "Scrisori inedite ale lui Tudor Arghezi", in Revista Cultului Mozaic, Vol. XII, Issue 168, September 1967, p. 2 Creating his own printing press in Văcărești, he conceived early on of a plan to have Mitzura train as his illustrator, and Baruțu as a typographer.Felix Aderca, "Amintiri și mărturii despre Tudor Arghezi. Pledoarie pentru Bilete de Papagal", in Viața Romînească, Vol. XIII, Issue 5, May 1960, p. 18 His method was also anti-literary; as he explained in 1935, he never read to his children, since "literature is a strictly intimate thing". As noted by literary historian Mircea Zaciu, Mitzura was always less educated than her father: while Arghezi Sr, who had spent time in Switzerland, used competent French in his correspondence, Mitzura's French letters were "puerile [and] immature", as well as ungrammatical.Mircea Zaciu, "Exerciții de despărțire (XXXVIII)", in Vatra, Vol. XXIII, Issue 270, September 1993, p. 15