Soundtreack: Ta Perdoado
- Maria Rita
"The exact origins of tango—both the dance and the word itself—are lost in myth and an unrecorded history. The generally accepted theory is that in the mid-1800s, the African slaves who had been brought to Argentina or their descendants began to influence the local culture. The word “tango” may be straightforwardly African in origin, meaning “closed place” or “reserved ground.” Or it may derive from Portuguese (and from the Latin verb tanguere, to touch) and was picked up by Africans on the slave ships.
Whatever its origin, the word “tango” had acquired the standard meaning of the place where African slaves and free blacks gathered to dance by the time Argentina banned slavery in 1853.
During the later part of
the 1800s and early 1900s, Argentina was undergoing a massive immigration. In
1869, Buenos Aires had a population of 180,000. By 1914, its population was 1.5
million. The intermixing of African, Spanish, Italian, British, Polish, Russian
and native-born Argentines resulted in a melting pot of cultures, and each
borrowed dance and music from one another. Traditional polkas, waltzes and
mazurkas were mixed with the popular habanera from Cuba and the candombe
rhythms from Africa.
Most immigrants were
single men hoping to earn their fortunes in this newly expanding country. They
were typically poor and desperate, hoping to make enough money to return to
Europe or bring their families to Argentina. The evolution of tango reflects
their profound sense of loss and longing for the people and places they left
behind.
Most likely, rudimentary
dance forms that may have been known as “tango” were developed in
African-Argentine dance venues. These venues were frequented by compadritos,
young men—mostly native born, poor and of mixed ancestry—who liked to dress in
slouch hats, loosely tied neckerchiefs and high-heeled boots with knives tucked
casually into their belts. The compadritos took the dance to the Corrales
Viejos—the slaughterhouse district of Buenos Aires—and introduced it in various
low-life establishments where dancing took place: bars, dance halls and
brothels. It was in these tenements where the African rhythms met the Argentine
milonga music (a fast-paced polka). Soon new steps were invented and took hold
as a new form of dance that combined traditions from many cultures. Exactly
when and where the various forms of dance and music combined to create what
became widely understood as tango is unclear. What is clear was that tango was
considered a dance from the poor barrios.
Although high society
looked down upon the activities in the barrios, well-heeled sons of the porteño
oligarchy were not averse to slumming. Eventually, everyone found out about the
tango and, by the beginning of the twentieth century, the tango as both a dance
and as an embryonic form of popular music had established a firm foothold in
the fast-expanding city of its birth. It soon spread to provincial towns of
Argentina and across the River Plate to Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay,
where it became as much a part of the urban culture as in Buenos Aires.
The worldwide spread of
the tango came in the early 1900s when wealthy sons of Argentine society
families made their way to Paris and introduced the tango into a society eager
for innovation and not entirely averse to the risqué nature of the dance or dancing
with young, wealthy Latin men. By 1913, the tango had become an international
phenomenon in Paris, London and New York. There were tango teas, tango train
excursions and even tango colors—most notably orange. The Argentine elite who
had shunned the tango were now forced into accepting it with national pride.
The tango spread
worldwide throughout the 1920s and 1930s. The dance appeared in movies and
tango singers traveled the world. By the 1930s, the Golden Age of Argentina was
beginning. The country became one of the ten richest nations in the world and
music, poetry and culture flourished. The tango came to be a fundamental
expression of Argentine culture, and the Golden Age lasted through the 1940s
and 1950s.
Tango’s fortunes have
always been tied to economic conditions and this was very true in the 1950s.
During this time, as political repression developed, lyrics reflected political
feelings until they started to be banned as subversive. The dance and its music
went underground as large dance venues were closed and large gatherings in
general were prohibited. The tango survived in smaller, unpublicized venues and
in the hearts of the people.
The necessity of going
underground combined with the eventual invasion of rock and roll sent the tango
into decline until the mid-1980s when the stage show Tango Argentino opened in
Paris. Once again Paris was ground zero for igniting tango excitement
worldwide. The show toured the world and stimulated a revival in Europe, North
America and Japan that we are part of today."
Source: http://www.tejastango.com/tango_history.html
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