The Soul Of Tango | Buenos Aires

The Soul of Tango from Enrico Martino

A story about the real tango, that it’s not the celebrated Tango-Export, as the porteños call the glamorous tango shows for tourists in Buenos Aires, or the couples of dancers in the streets of San Telmo or La Boca. The dance and music that would become the tango, declared in 2009 part of the World’s Cultural Heritage by the United Nations, has been created by European immigrants, mainly Italian and Spanish, freed African slaves and gauchos in Buenos Aires around the 1880s. In dirty places where sometimes tango’s deep soul still lives for aficionados, old cafès like Tango bar Lo de Roberto where dusty bottles and worn lyric sheets line the walls, where tango is not a dance, is poetry and songs played by traditional guitarists and tango singers. Or Bar del Chino in Pompeya, a popular district where tango was born, one of the few existing places in the world where tango is sung as it was 60 years ago. Here a group of remarkable veteran artists, unknown to the general public, express the real essence of tango, a particular way of seeing and enjoying life, without commercial tricks. Tango in Buenos Aires is a not only a world of artists but also of skilled craftsmen specialised in making shoes and dresses exported in many countries, or Radio Ciudad FM 92.7, a radio broadcasting 24 hours every day about tango. Old-fashioned milongas like the Confiteria Ideal, a magic setting for films like The Tango Lesson and Evita that brings back to the beginning of last century, dances are held every day and every night. Since the beginning of the 1990s, the tango culture in Buenos Aires has undergone dynamic development, and today one can choose from between fifteen and thirty different milongas every day.

Multimedia story by Italian photojournalist Enrico Martino
http://www.enricomartino.com

3 Responses to “The Soul Of Tango | Buenos Aires”

  1. oscar wright says:

    Hi, we just started a new blog on tango history…each day we post an event that
    happened that day in tango history…it can be the birth of a famous singer,
    composer of poet, the debut of a film or the recording of a famous tango song…
    you can even search tango principles according to their sun sign

    Can you help spread the word by letting your contacts know about it or placing
    a link on your blog…there is no advertising or money involved…we’re
    not selling anything, we simply love tango and in particular tango history…we
    welcome any suggestions…..

    If you come to Rome, please let us know…we would be glad to welcome you
    and show you around; my wife and I love meeting and being with people…thanks, have a
    nice day…well here is the link http://todayintango.wordpress.com/

    Oscar Wright and Maria Teresa Ruocco
    66 via ovidio
    00195 Rome, italy

  2. Hi, Enrico
    I must confess I hesitated to pressed the play button. I thought Oh my God, another stranger speaking of tango…
    Well, I swallow my words. Amazing stuff, great photography and very honest to the spirit of Buenos Aires and the tango.
    My compliments and best regards from Buenos Aires
    Pat
    PS: yep, Pat Murhpy from Argentina… :P

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