The History of Tango in Buenos Aires

The real deal on one of Argentina’s most iconic exports: The Tango

Q: What do you get when you cross African beats, Spanish flamenco, prostitutes and cocaine?

A: Tango, baby, tango!

Buenos Aires dances to the rhythm of a passionate, serious and macho tango. In many ways tango has made this city a hotbed of sexual escapades, a stage for public displays of affection, and dare I say, a man’s world. For anyone who thinks tango is just a dance, you’re in for a treat. The origin of tango music is a fascinating story of cultural integration that mirrors the history of Buenos Aires.

Buenos Aires started out as a poor Spanish colony. In the 1700’s Spanish men came to Buenos Aires looking for work and prosperity. What they found upon arrival, however, was nothing but miles and miles of nothingness: no cows, no mountains, no women, lots of intimidating natives and barely any port traffic. They were lonely, nostalgic, bored and relied on their flamenco guitar rhythms for a little taste of home. Their music was based on different Spanish aires and arpeggios, which were basically a melody without a strong backbone beat. Music clubs called peñas were where they gathered to sing, dance, drink and reminisce about their homeland.

The Spanish began to bring slaves over from Africa in 1770. While they toiled away working the fields, these slaves too shared the sentiments of their loneliness, boredom and nostalgia. They too looked to their native music for comfort, happiness and celebration.

Imagine the farm owner sitting on his porch, strumming a flamenco melody while his slaves gathered around beating on their drums. It was then when the lonely melody without a beat met the strong beat lacking a sweet melody. This was the first cultural mix of music in Buenos Aires and the spark that would soon burst into tango. This initial combination is known as milonga, and is the base of the tango sound.

The pace of tango music has always mimicked the pace of the city. When the Spaniards first arrived, Buenos Aires was nothing but a stagnant port, as almost all trade took place farther north in Lima. The city was really just empty pampa , silence and endless open space with few inhabitants. It was a slow town and the milonga followed suit.

Soon, the gaucho hit the scene. A cultural mulatto himself, the gaucho was a mix of Spanish criollo , African slave and natives. He roamed the land as an independent soldier, looking after himself and finding farm work where possible. Just like the slaves and early settlers, the gaucho was the ultimate symbol of loneliness, nostalgia and solitude. He also soothed his aching heart with his only companion, his guitar. Maybe it was he, who upon hearing the African beats and Spanish flamenco, created the milonga. We can’t know for sure, but many agree that this romantic figure was responsible for initiating the sad, powerful lyrics that accompany this important rhythm. He sang of his most inner emotions, his daily hardships and his solitary life.

After 1894, a very important group of immigrants arrived. Men from southern Italy flocked to Buenos Aires in response to the Argentina government offering land for those willing to work it for at least 2 years. These men crowded into Buenos Aires and found a sleepy port with a severely disappointing proportion of men to women. They too found themselves taking part in the same pity-party as their neighbors and introduced their own national folkloric sound, tarantella.

This dramatic influx of Italian men further contributed to the uneven ratio of men to women in Buenos Aires, thus turning the city into the frat house of Latin America. With few women around, this dirty port became infested with cabarets, whore houses called puterios (from the word for slut: puta ) and all sorts of illegal activity.

The Spaniards and Italians, whose hard work eventually allowed them to send for their families, certainly put their women to work upon arrival. After all, every woman is someone’s daughter. Macho demands and carnal desires ruled the city and illegal businesses brought money and a faster pace to the port.

It is common knowledge that music helps smooth uncomfortable  social situations, so the milonga became an  integral part of daily life. The pace of the music quickened, and its tone happier and more lively, as was needed to aleviate suffering in what was still a poor port town.

The milonga was played in the antesalas (reception areas) of local whorehouses. In this room, horny gangsters would woo and choose their puta by dancing to the music with a more-than-macho attitude of entitlement. In underground clubs and cabarets, musicians, men and putas danced and sang through to the wee hours of the morning.

Interestingly, tango and the milonga belonged to the poor inhabitants of Buenos Aires. During these formative years, wealthy colonial families looked down upon these sounds much like the upper classes of the US did with jazz music. It wasn’t until the mid-1900’s that the upper echelon of society became comfortable with the tango lifestyle.

Life continued to rock to the tango rhythm and the mid-1900’s saw another huge wave of immigration bring thousands more Italians among other European nationals. The city boomed, as it simultaneously experienced serious urban migration as farmers dropped their hoes in search of industry and opportunity.

At this point Buenos Aires had already become a booming port and one special export was about to change the pace of music once again: cocaine. While this drug was at it’s peak popularity in Europe, Buenos Aires was the main port of its exportation for Latin America. Argentina never produced cocaine, but Buenos Aires was simply abuzz with an abundance of this white powder rushing through its open arms. Always a fan of anything illegal, locals dug into this drug phenomenon and the musicians were certainly no exception. (note: this is still a very taboo subject and little has been officially recorded)

Q: What do you get when you cross a musician, a guitar and lots of coke?
A: Seriously FAST picking and strumming

Well, the Spanish arpeggios get mucky when played too fast. So the clever musicians of the time invented a slide technique called arrastrado (mugre ), which is the unmistakable sound of tango.

During this second wave of immigrations between the 18802s and the 1930s, Argentina developed extremely rapidly. Much of the previous Spanish construction was knocked down and the city received a complete makeover. The buildings were now of French and Italian architecture, and expansive parks and plazas were built into the city. All of a sudden, Argentina was one of the 10 wealthiest nations in the world, and it was common for the Argentine upper class to own second homes in Europe. It was an annual vacation to France that some young and rebellious Argentines introduced tango music to Parisians. The dance caught their attention, and took Paris by storm. From Paris, tango quickly spread to other European capitals and New York and what was once an indecent dance of the Argentine dock workers became a global craze.

The newly reimagined tango, which was now a staple of upper class society in New York and Europe was eventfully reimported back to the Argentine Capital. The tango cafes and clubs opened in downtown Buenos Aires became all the rage for elegantly dressed porteños to attend shows.

The Argentina economy began to decline in the late 1900s, and has never fully recovered. The days of being one of the top 10 wealthiest nations may be in Argentina’s distant memory, but many of the grand and ornate tango halls still put on gorgeous performances to this day.

If you’re interested in reading more on your own, check out this title:

Julie Taylor, Paper Tangos (Durham: Duke University Press, 1998).

And if you are interested in actually seeing one of the extravagant shows or taking a tango lesson yourself click here!