While walking through Buenos Aires, from under the walking sides and the cobblestoned streets of San Telmo we can get old stories that conform the essence of what is nowadays our identity, that was very distant from the roots of tango and as close as humidity itself.
Here in Buenos Aires, EVERYTHING IS RELATED TO TANGO. Almost without knowing it, we talk, we walk and we breathe tango. The way of standing and of going through life between shyness and pride that characterizes us in a way relates us with the essence of those “tango characters”, vengeful and arrogant, evil and sweet, lonely people who try to get by and those who try to escape their obligations. Maybe today the object of the transgression has changed –from whores to travesties, from gin to beer- from guilt to freedom but the excesses are still the same…
Tango is related to bohemia, to cheating and even to a form of reacting impulsively. You just have to see the dance so as to feel its provocation and to let yourself captivate by its mystery. It is enough to go through its lyrics to decode its way of feeling and thinking of these men in love, with a mixture of tenderness and ingenuousness hidden in their hearts, and of those faithful women who know how to love and who became idealized were remembered until the end of time. Malena, Gricel, María…
Between myths and heroines, a defined character is as hard to explain as our complex and contradictory history that is filled with pain. There is nothing better than a tango to feel accompanied, to feel identified and understood.
We all repeat phrases, almost unknowingly, sentences or lessons we learnt that are related to history and that are the lyrics of a tango that was written a long time ago, in a different setting and with other influences and characters. Probably and almost without knowing it, every time an Argentinian mumbles, he/she is crooning one’s own tango…
