Estampa federal: love in a time of tyranny

This stately Di Sarli vals sung by Alberto Podestá tells a rather grim story. Explanatory notes follow the English version. 

Estampa federal*
Waltz
Music: Pedro Maffia / Sebastián Piana
Lyric: Cátulo Castillo

Composer, bandleader, and teacher Pedro Maffia was one of the most important bandoneonistas in the history of tango. His mastery of technique and phrasing, widely acknowledged as a result of his performances and recordings with the Julio De Caro Sextet, set a new standard and style for players of the instrument. He is also the composer of several seminal tangos, including Abondono, Amurado, Te Aconsejo Que Me Olvides, and Ventarrón, as well as Estampa Federal.

Se enredan en la noche tus hondas pupilas, tus labios son un broche teñido de lila. Tus sueños en los míos, fríos, fríos. Murmullo de tu miedo, quedo, quedo. Qué blancas tus palabras qué oscura tu angustia, la flor de tu esperanza qué triste, qué mustia. Se anuda en esta huida tu vida y mi vida. Amada, en la alborada, me llevo tu adiós. Ríe entre las sombras Doña Encarnación. Moños federales en tu peinetón. Bailan en la fiesta de los mazorqueros, ruedan las gavotas, giran los lanceros. Y en la algarabía de la fiesta roja, junto a tu pupila bebo la congoja de mi desazón.

Your deep, black pupils are mixed with the night, your lips are a brooch tinged with lilac.*  Your dreams in mine, cold, indifferent. The whisper of your fear, soft, soft. How bright your words, how dark your anxiety. The bloom of your hope, how sad, how withered. Your life and mine united in this flight.* Beloved, at daybreak, I receive your farewell. Doña Encarnación*  laughs in the shadows. The federalist ribbons  in your peinetón* dance at the fiesta  of the mazorqueros,*  the gavottes whirl,  the lanceros turn.* And amid the hullabaloo  of this red-draped fiesta,*  along with your pupil, I drink in the heartbreak of my disgust.

Notes 

* Estampa Federal: This historical "sketch" or "impression" (estampa) refers to the struggle between the federales, who advocated a loose confederation of states without centralized leadership, and the unitarios, who advocated a unified Argentina with Buenos Aires as its center. The country was led for nearly twenty years by federale chief General Juan Manuel de Rosas, who ruled the country with an iron fist. Rosas demanded fierce, demonstrative loyalty from every citizen, and conducted a reign of terror to intimidate and in many cases exterminate the opposition. 

*lilac: Blood red was the omnipresent symbol of the Rosas regime. Citizens were compelled to wear certain articles of red clothing at all times--waistcoats and hatbands for men, for example. Wearing blue, the color of the unitarios, was not only forbidden, but punishable by death. Lilac is purple in color, that is, a mixture of red and blue. The image of lips tinged with lilac suggests conflicting sympathies. 

*flight: Many unitario families were dispossessed and forced into exile in Brazil or Uruguay. In the first verse, two lovers plan to flee the repressive regime together, but the girl changes her mind at the last minute ("I receive your farewell"). In the second verse, they both rejoin rosista society, as reflected in their attendance at the red-draped fiesta of the mazorqueros, and the narrator bitterly watches his beloved, her hair decorated with red ribbons, dancing gavottes and lanceros with the paramilitary officers. 

*Doña Encarnación: Doña Encarnación Ezcurra (portrait, above, right) was the wife of General Rosas and also the brains behind the Mazorca, a paramilitary death squad that conducted the reign of terror during her husband's regime. Note the slogans inscribed on the portrait: "Long Live the Federales. Federation or Death. Death to the Unitarios." 

*federalist ribbons in your peinetón: The peinetón was an outsized decorative comb that upper-class ladies of the rosista period wore in their hair. They also wore compulsory red hair-ribbons (moños federales) to demonstrate allegiance to the federalist cause. In the portrait above, Doña Encarnación sets the style for the women of nation.

*mazorqueros: Members of the Mazorca. 

*gavottes, lanceros: Popular dances of the era.

*red-draped fiesta: The original text merely says "fiesta roja," literally, a red party, but Rosas required that the venue of any official function be decorated with gobs of red bunting. The mazorqueros would certainly have observed this rule, and the image also underscores the blood-thirsty character of their actions.