“Tourism and Exile: Mounting the Tango Show “For Export”
Ana Cara
Oberlin College
Consider the following….
I
During my various fieldtrips to Buenos Aires, a valuable informant used to take it
upon himself to indicate to me the old and current tango recordings, tango bars, tango
performers and performances that he considered to be “for export.” Implicit in his
classification was the existence of another category: a tango produced for personal,
native or national consumption – a tango not intended for foreign travel or passing
visitors, not created for profit or for tourists. Couched in his distinction was the presence
of a more “modest,” more “intimate,” more “real,” more “authentic,” closer to the “soul,”
carried in “the blood,” felt in the “heart” tango for native criollos. This tango criollo, he
would say – in stark contrast to the stylized, highly profiled tango of the limelight, staged
in glittery costumes and cabaret-like shows that circulate in Buenos Aires and abroad –
spoke to the cognoscenti rather than the ignorantes.
II
From a 1912 article published in “El Diario” (Buenos Aires):
Just as we were all convinced that in Europe they didn’t
consider us ‘sauvage’ and that wheat, corn, and frozen
meats were proof in the Old World of the best exponents
of our civilization and our amazing progress, we received
the unexpected news several years ago that in Paris they
had learned about our existence not because of the valuable
products from the Argentine soil nor because of the articles
published by Mr. Eugenio Garzón in the ‘Figaro,’ but
because of the tango.
III
Sample filmography:
“Tango!” (1933) L.J. Moglia Barth. This is Argentina’s first sound film.
The plot is essentially a pretext for the display of tango music and dance. A
young man, abandoned by his woman, searches for her in Paris, where he
succeeds as a tango star. However, he returns home to Buenos Aires, to his first
love, and to a “criollo” tango.
“El tango en Broadway” (1934) L. Gasnier. An Argentine (Carlos
Gardel) goes to Broadway, mounts a “criollo” tango show, becomes a success.
“Tango Bar” (1935) J. Reinhardt. An Argentine goes to Paris, mounts a
tango show in which he sings about his Buenos Aires barrio, becomes a success.
“Tangos: El exilio de Gardel” (1985) F. Solanas. Tells the story of
Argentine exiles in Paris who try to mount a tango show in order to “cure” their
nostalgia for home.
IV
A medley of tango lyrics:
Yo sé que aún te acuerdas del barrio perdido,
barrio
de aquel Buenos Aires que nos vio partir,
que en tus lasbios fríos aún tiemblan los tangos
que en París cantabas antes de morir.”
I know you still remember the lost
of that Buenos Aires that saw us depart,
that on your cold lips still tremble the tangos
you used to sing in Paris before dying.
(La que murió en París, H.P. Blomberg, 1930)
Buenos Aires, cuando lejos me vi
solo hallaba consuelo
en las notas de un tango dulzón
que lloraba el bandoneón.
Buenos Aires, when I found myself far away
there was only solace
in the notes of a sweet tango
that the bandoneon wept.
(La canción de Buenos Aires, M. Romero, 1932)
Mi Buenos Aires querido,
cuando yo te vuelva a ver
no habrá mas pena ni olvido.
My dear Buenos Aires,
once I see you again
there’ll be no more sadness and forgetting.
(Mi Buenos Aires querido, A. LePera, 1934)
La geografía de mi barrio llevo en mí,
Será por eso que del todo no me fui:
(…)
Ahora sé que la distancia no es real
Y me descubro en ese punto cardinal
Volviendo a la niñez desde la luz.
Teniendo siempre el corazón mirando al sur…
I carry in me the geography of my barrio,
maybe that’s why I never fully left:
(..)
Now, I know that distance is not real
and I discover myself in that cardinal point
returning to childhood from the light
with my heart always facing south…
(El corazón al sur, E. Blázquez, 1975)
Que importara tanta nostalgia en tu pañuelo,
Tanta neblina que en el tiempo se quemó
Hoy tu vuelta y nosotros cantaremos
Los tres como antes: Buenos Aires, vos y yo.
Why worry about so much nostalgia in your handkerchief
so much mist burned away by time.
Today your return and we will sing,
the three together like before: Buenos Aires, you and me.
(Mi ciudad y mi gente, H. Negro, 1968)
V
From “History of the Tango,” Evaristo Carriego, (1930), by Jorge Luis Borges:
The tango may be discussed, and we discuss it, but it encloses,
as does everything that is truly real, a secret. Musical dictionaries
register their brief and full definition, approved by all. That definition
is elementary, and promises no difficulties, but the French or Spanish
composer who, having trusted in it, correctly works out a ‘tango’
discovers not without chagrin, that he has put together something
that our ears don’t recognize, to which our memory offers no hospitality,
and which our bodies rejects. That is to say that without the evenings
and nights of Buenos Aires, a tango cannot be made, and that in heaven
there awaits for us Argentines the Platonic idea of the tango, its universal
form (…)
VI
From Playbill , Mark Hellinger Theatre, (New York), “Tango Argentino,”
(1985), program notes:
Yet the tango is not a folk song, not a folk dance. It is
pure in both music and movement, with a surprising
wealth of choreographic vocabulary. This expressive,
descriptive music seeks to express a state of being. It’s
a question of the authenticity of the elements.
VII
My abstract for this conference:
The emergence of tango, its criollo roots, and its worldwide circulation and
success through tango shows offer a compelling example of “moving folklore.”
Nostalgia, ideology, utopia, fantasy, and tradition all come into play as exiles attempt to
connect with a homeland and re-inscribe themselves elsewhere through the manipulation
of expressive forms addressed to diverse audiences. The national imaginary is evoked
and revoked in recreated and new performances abroad, charged with coded political
energy and modeled to suit marketing tropes that threaten cultural stereotypes.
In parallel fashion, the tourist industry at home must lure the stranger to one’s place and
display local culture in a packaged, consumable and digestible portion that both appeals
to the outsider but does not betray the identity of a people. The “exotic” must also be
“authentic.”
Whether a host or a guest, the ideas of home and place are altered in the dynamics of
these relationships. Tourists and exiles, as well as the host culture, must therefore
negotiate the notions of real and idealized sites through cultural enactments in which
traditional culture and conceptions of folklore play central roles.
Among the questions considered: What is the role of the “outsider” in the production of
aesthetic ecologies? How is “home” recreated and locality reproduced through the arts
across political and spacial boundaries? How are stage and place aesthetically and
politically reconciled? What is the relationship between cultural and economic currencies
in the preservation of aesthetic ecologies? How are cultural “roots” kept alive away
from the native land?