We belly dance, they tango

While walking the streets shadowed by acacia, jacaranda and pine trees, the next more beautiful than the other, or taking a tour on an open air bus under the sparkling sun, all you hear is tango. Tango for the Argentineans has the same value as belly dancing does for us. Just as much as we love to perform or watch belly dancing when we become emotional, Argentineans taste the flavor with tango. It virtually has become a national music.

Tango is bordello music
I didn’t know before, I learned it here. It seems that tango is a genre of music created by Italian, Peruvian and Uruguayan "foreign workers" who came to Buenos Aires in the 1880s. The only amusement these workers had, who came to the coastal town Buenos Aires to make up for the deficit of manual labor in the country, was the bordello. There would be such a rush that the bordello owners would hire an orchestra for their customers who waited for one or two hours.

These orchestras and workers from very different countries created tango music by making it up. Because they could not read or write, they constantly improvised (played as they pleased). The songs were always about daily life. The dance was made up by customers of bordellos who came to be with a woman for five to 10 minutes. When watching professional tango dancers in Argentina one can tell where this dance comes from. It smells extremely like sex, a dance full of figures of two people making love standing up. I’m not talking about the tango that we dance. The one in Europe is very nice but has a boring choreography.

You should see the tango shows in Buenos Aires. Then you’ll see how much the aspect of sex can penetrate a dance. As a matter of fact, in the beginning of the 1900s it was bad to do the tango, even a sin. The Catholic Church prohibited the tango, which rose from bordellos and featured a sex-like act standing up.

I’ve been to many places and seen monuments and historical places of interest, but would never have thought that a grave could be a center of appeal. This happened to me in Buenos Aires. I resisted but finally found myself standing next to Eva Peron’s grave. There is no equivalent in our country, one that is not much seen in Europe or America either. A small grave but each vault is almost like a monument.

Argentina has a society that is extremely sympathetic, happy and in general introverted. What struck me the most was that there are no black people in Argentina. However, manual labor on the continent of America was mainly met by black slaves from Africa. They were not brought to serve Argentina, which was occupied by Spain for 500 years. I asked why and they said, "it was too expensive that’s why they did not prefer it."

There are no natural resources. They achieve income through cattle and agricultural export. Despite the fact that they are not a rich nation, their enthusiasm and view of life, their taste and discipline makes the country the most interesting one in South America. Their democracy has often, just like ours, been interrupted. But their military was very cruel. It came but never left. Now they protect their democracy, which they have earned in 25 years, like the apple of their eye. Do you know what Buenos Aires’s most important issue is from our standpoint?

It is so very far away. If it were a country easier to be reached I’m sure it would be invaded by Turks. I enjoyed it very much. I would recommend it to everyone who can spare the time. People become more enriched the more they see different countries and different cultures. This is where the Buenos Aires interlude ends. Tomorrow I’ll move on to Rio. Let’s see the difference between the two countries.