lit a candle 9 Sept 2026My father listened to Chiche every morning on the drive to work. He'd call me sometimes and say, did you hear what he said today? He kept Buenos Aires honest. Going to miss that voice in the car.
Their story
Samuel Gelblung was born on 7 February 1944 in Buenos Aires and grew up in Villa Devoto in a middle-class Jewish Argentine family with Communist Party activism in its background. He entered print journalism in the mid-1960s at Editorial Atlántida's mass-circulation magazine Gente. Early assignments included covering the 1967 Six-Day…
Samuel Gelblung was born on 7 February 1944 in Buenos Aires and grew up in Villa Devoto in a middle-class Jewish Argentine family with Communist Party activism in its background. He entered print journalism in the mid-1960s at Editorial Atlántida's mass-circulation magazine Gente. Early assignments included covering the 1967 Six-Day War (sometimes under the byline Mariano Ovejero), Vietnam, and the Nigerian civil war. He rose inside Gente and, by his own later account to La Nación, became the magazine's director. Spanish Wikipedia and critical Argentine press place his chief editorship in the late 1970s, overlapping the hardest years of the 1976-1983 civic-military dictatorship. That period remains the most contested chapter of his reputation: a 1978 Gente package from France framed exile human-rights campaigners (including Julio Cortázar) as leaders of an "anti-Argentine campaign," language human-rights critics still cite as collaborationist framing. Gelblung and his defenders described themselves as fighting terrorism with "truth"; opponents called the magazine's line dictatorship-friendly. Both sides belong in any honest memorial.
After print, he became one of Argentina's most recognizable broadcast voices. On Canal 9 from the mid-1990s he hosted Memoria, a magazine that mixed paranormal investigations with exposés of frauds (psychic scams, the Roswell autopsy film, "psychic surgery"). Parallel radio careers included long stretches on Radio 10 (Edición Chiche), Radio Mitre (Hola Chiche), returns to Radio 10 with Grupo Indalo, Rivadavia, Belgrano, and later Radio Del Plata. Television credits spanned América, El Trece's 70.20.x franchise, C5N, Canal 26, Polémica en el bar panels, Net TV, and, in his final years, a durable presence on Crónica TV. He also founded digital newsrooms: MinutoUno (2006), later Edición10, DiarioVeloz / InfoVeloz, RatingCero (with Rodrigo Lussich and Adrián Pallares), and related ventures. In February 2022, in his late seventies, he traveled again as a war correspondent to cover Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Awards tracked his radio primacy: multiple Martín Fierro nominations and wins for journalistic radio programs and male journalistic performance in the 2000s; a Konex Diploma in 2007 as radio host; a Martín Fierro for best panelist (2018); and the Martín Fierro de Oro at the 2022 cable awards, which he accepted with the line that he had started late on television and found the recognition almost too much.
His private life was comparatively stable by Argentine celebrity standards. After an earlier marriage to Marta Inés Velasco, he married former model Cristina Seoane (wedding dated to about 1976-1977 from a 2011 La Nación duration note; by September 2026 La Nación described nearly 49 years together). They had three children, Federico, María, and Maggie, and, per La Nación's death report, seven grandchildren.
He published Manual Chiche in 2006 and treated the microphone as a second home, telling colleagues that television had unexpectedly overtaken the typewriter as his first house. Even after wheelchair returns and doctors' pleas for rest, he kept booking guests, streaming projects, and live Crónica segments, arguing that stopping would make him sicker than working.
Health crises clustered late. June 2020 brought sepsis and pneumonia. November 2023 renal insufficiency hospitalization included a bedside visit from then president-elect Javier Milei. Through 2026 he suffered a home fall, vascular problems with stents, a nearly month-long intensive-care stay after ankle thrombosis, repeated respiratory admissions, and a stubborn refusal to stop working ("Es parte de la terapia," he told Crónica colleagues). On 8 September 2026 he was hospitalized again for breathing difficulty (Mater Dei in most same-day reports). On the morning of 9 September 2026, Crónica TV reported his death at age 82; La Nación said he had been in intensive care at Sanatorio Los Arcos after an initial Mater Dei admission. Either way, Argentina lost a polarizing, tireless, five-decade media presence the same week.
This page is for Samuel "Chiche" Gelblung (1944-2026), the Argentine journalist, war correspondent, magazine editor, and radio and TV host. It is not a page for Mirtha Legrand (hospitalized the same week, a different person), and it is not a page for other Gelblung relatives who are not this public figure.
Biography adapted from ES/EN Wikipedia; La Nación; TN; MinutoUno; Clarín; Infobae; Crónica TV; Konex; El País (1996)..
In their own words
“A la muerte no le tengo miedo, no me asusta y no se encuentra entre mis proyectos. Además, con mi trabajo la desafié muchas veces.”
July 2026 interview with La Nación, discussing mortality weeks before his final hospitalization.
“Empecé de viejo en la tele, esto es demasiado reconocimiento.”
Accepting the Martín Fierro de Oro (cable, 2022). Source: La Nación / Clarín award coverage.
“Es parte de la terapia.”
Returning to Crónica TV work after 2026 health crises, describing work as therapy. Source: Infobae / Crónica reporting.
“El terrorismo abrió un frente externo... Debe contrarrestar, con la verdad, su arma más poderosa, esa campaña.”
1978 Gente package line, documented as historical controversy (not endorsement). Source: ES Wikipedia citing period Gente.
Photos
3Samuel "Chiche" Gelblung, portrait used with La Nación death coverage.
by People Forever
Chiche Gelblung, MinutoUno founder portrait from site obituary.
by People Forever
Chiche Gelblung career still from TN obituary coverage.
by People Forever
Same here. My dad never missed a show either. That's a real loss.