This absurdly venomous article from 1911 describes the Argentine backlash against the Parisian epidemic of Tango Fever.
[Photo: Maurice Mouvet and Florence Walton, Paris 1911.]
"In [Paris,] the city of all things new, the same thing happened to our poor tango that happened to our poor gaucho: Progress killed it," opines the Argentine newspaper Santa Fe in October of 1911. It continues:
"The chanteuses of the Moulin Rouge have introduced such a variety of quebradas into their repertoire that the indignant Argentine residents of Paris are denying their nationality, and what's worse, they register the following complaints:
"We protest in the name of Argentine culture the criollo label that has been hung upon the tango, a thing originally African and unworthy of belonging in any decent salón, like the dance of the Apaches and the "cakewalk," which belong to the same category.
"In our eagerness to have characteristically Argentine things, we must not fall into the error of attributing an indigenous identity to a dance that is a despicable amalgam and hybrid of the candombe of the slaves of the colonial period and the zamba of Africa.
"[The tango] lacks elegance and grace and its character of brutal sensuality springs into view, stupidly silent. The quebradas and the cortes that disgracefully accentuate the rudimentary rhythm of the tango and emphasize its inferiority are announcing their affiliation and identifying their origin: the muddy arrabal, that clandestine center of debauchery, the underworld, and the social outcasts."
"If, after a vigorous chewing out like that," the anonymous author concludes, "the tango doesn't fall to the ground in a quebrada [LOL. Ed.], it is because the contact with the Apaches has abased it completely and it has now forgotten about the conventillos and the girls of the starched petticoats that are impossible to mistake for those of the chapeau á la dernier cris."
From the newspaper SANTA FE, Santa Fe, Argentina, Sunday, 8 October 1911
Transcribed and translated by Tango Decoder, emphases ours.
Original text in castellano:
Lo ha pasado a nuestro pobre tango en la ciudad de todas las novedades lo que le ha pasado a nuestro pobre gaucho: el progreso mató.
Son tantas y tan variadas las quebradas que las chanteuses del <Moulin Rouge> le han introducido en su indumentaria que indignados los argentinos residente en Paris se han negado a conocerle con nacionalidad y no sería eso lo peor, sino se le apuntaran con defectos como este:
“Protestamos en nombre de la cultura argentina del calificativo (qualification) de criollo que se ha colgado al tango, pieza originariamente africana é indigna de figurar en cualquier salón decente, como el baile de los apaaches y el <cakewalk>, a cuya categoria pertenece.”
“En nuestro afán de tener cosas propias características, no debemos incurrir en el error de atribuir fisionomia auctótona (indigenous) a una danza que es una amalgama canallesca (despicable) é híbrida del candombe de los esclavos del coloniaje (colonial period) y de las zambas (mixed race, also an Argentine dance) de Africa.”
“Carece de elegancia de gracia y salta á la vista su carácter brutalmente sensual es estúpidamente silencioso. Las quebradas y los cortes que acentúan desgraciadamente el ritmo rudimentario del tango y recalan su inferioridad, están estableciendo su filiación y denotando su procedencia: el arrabal turbio, el centro clandestino de libertinaje, bajos fondos y las capas extrasociales.”
Si después de esta samarriada de vigilante tipo <caiés no más> el tango no se cae al suelo de una quebrada es porque el contacto con los <appaches> lo ha degradado del todo, y se ha olvidado ya hasta de los conventillos, y de las meregildas de anaguas almidonadas inconfundibles con las del <chapeau á la dernier cris.>
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