October 10, 2025 • 34 mins
Tango usually evokes images of a very regal couple: a man in a suit and a woman in a tight red dress, embraced in sensual moves. But the reality of the quintessential Argentinian music genre is strikingly different. Tango, in fact, was born in the brothels and dance halls of Buenos Aires’ lower cast and is rooted in Argentina’s African and queer subcultures. In this episode we’ll take you on a journey through tango’s history. It was first condemned by the elites and the Catholic church, threatened by the worldwide phenomenon of rock n’ roll, and buried by Argentina’s last military dictatorship. But then, in the 1980s and 1990s, it saw a revival. More recently, it’s being reclaimed by the very marginalized communities that first embraced it.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
I'm Lisa and Akazawa join me on season two of
Stars and Stars with Lisa, where I sit down with
some of the most exciting stars of our time to
find out what their birth chart reveals about their life's purpose,
their relationships and their challenges. Winner of the Signal Award
for Most Inspirational Podcast, Stars and Stars will help you
make sense of today's complicated times. Even if you're an
(00:28):
astrology skeptic. You can listen to Stars and Stars with
Lisa wherever you get your podcasts. Don't forget to follow
the show so you never miss an episode.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Today, we're going to Buenos Aires, Argentina's capital and the
mecca of dango. You know, when I think about dango,
I think of something very regal, a kind of couple
that are you know, the man is in a sued
the woman is in a silky dress with a super
(01:05):
high split. But what if I told you that tango
wasn't always danced by elegant heterosexual couples. Why don't you
join us on this look at the little known and
controversial roots of the ultimate Argentinian music genre, dango. Our
Story first aired in twenty twenty two from Fuduro media,
(01:42):
It's Latino Usa, I'm Maria, no josaf and today all
things dango. Before it became the defining music of Argentina,
(02:03):
tango was actually condemned by elites and the Catholic Church
as well, which saw it as obscene and transgressive. The
dance's reign was also threatened by the worldwide phenomenon of
rock and roll, and then all but buried by Argentina's
Dirty War. When dungo began its revival in the nineteen
(02:25):
eighties and nineties, a new era of dango artists began
challenging rigid norms established in the early half of the
twentieth century, breaking from traditional gender roles and shining a
light on the black history of dungo. These artists aimed
to invoke dango's past to make way for a more
(02:46):
inclusive future. In this episode, we're going to travel to
Argentina and meet three women who are going to help
us understand the controversial roots of dungo and how they're
helping to give new life to a dance very much
rooted in tradition. Producer Jessica Bonds will lead us on
(03:09):
that journey.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
He sure Buenos Aires native entango dancer and instructor, has
had a relationship with tango for as long as she
can remember.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
My memories are from my family, my very young years,
because in the parties in the Christmas, in the New Year,
or birthdays, the family was in the party to it
and dance, So I danced on the feet of my
(03:58):
father like a doll as part of the ceremony in
the family.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
It was the nineteen forties and fifties tango's golden age.
Back then, Shushu was just a little girl, but she
remembers hearing music's building out of cafes and cabarets into
the streets of Buenos Aires. Every night it was danced
in clubs, saloons and carnivals. Tango became a reflection of Buenosidres' identity,
(04:29):
a metropolis that did not sleep, and tango was its
nocturnal news. Then, during the sixties and seventies, rock and
roll was introduced to the world. This new sound, inspired
(04:51):
by the sexual and political revolutions of the time, influenced
a new generation across the globe. Youth rejected everything that
seemed old and antiquated. For Argentines, tango fell into this category. Shushu,
who by then was well into her teenage years, remembers
that time.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
I don't want it to listen to tango for me worried,
or I changed the radio because oh that.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
Is music for old people.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
I want rock and roll, and then all the music stopped.
Argentina's last military dictatorship ruled from nineteen seventy six to
nineteen eighty three and was known for its human rights atrocities.
(05:42):
The regime also halted the evolution of art and culture
through strict curfews and extreme censorship. Shushu was in her
early twenties at the time, even though she wasn't into
the tango scene as much, she remembers how tango suffered
during this period.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
We so for many nine of different things, and one
of that was the impossibility to connect with our identity,
our roots. Many tangos was censored and many plays to
Dan's Tango was closed too, and the militars entered in
(06:23):
one place and stop all the music, or ask you documents,
or maybe you finish your night in the police office.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
The dictatorship traumatized the country. Tens of thousands were disappeared
in those seven years. Assassinations were carried out via mass shootings,
and people were drugged and thrown from airplanes into the ocean. Additionally,
twelve thousand prisoners, many of whom did not have a
fair trial, were detained in a network of secret concentration
camps located throughout Argentina. By the nineteen eighties, economic collapse,
(07:03):
public discontent, and the disastrous handling of the Falcons War
between Argentina and England resulted in the end of the
military junta. When democracy was finally restored in nineteen eighty three,
Shushoo says people were eager for new ways of expression
and they found it in tango.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
Tango always wait for you.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
Was there like a seed into very deep hole into
the ground, waiting to the winter lifts, and in that
moment start the spring of tango.
Speaker 5 (07:40):
The tango start to develop again from sero.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
The repression she and others her age experience during Argentina's
Dirty War awoke Shushoo's childhood memories her family parties when
she would dance tango on top of her dad's feet.
She too wanted to reclaim her identity, so at age
twenty five read she began taking tango classes, but it
wasn't enough. She wanted to become a pro ad.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
What I love is teach, So I needed to learn
how to lead. I needed to dominate both roles.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Traditionally, in tango, the leader role is assigned to the
male partner and the follower role to the female. So
when she should try to learn both roles, she faced
a lot of resistance.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
In the old times, If you, for example, take a lesson,
you say to the teacher, ah, I am here because
I want to lead.
Speaker 5 (08:37):
And the teacher say, no, you are a woman, but
I pay you.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
No, no, you are a woman. You cannot lead, or
the other women. No, I don't want to dance with you.
I am here to embrace a man. No embrace a woman.
I just feel that I was alone. I am crazy,
But she should wasn't.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
While she was reconnecting with tango for herself in young adulthood,
Mareno do Campo, as a teenager who came of age
during the Dirty War, was finding tango for the first time.
Speaker 6 (09:11):
At the end of the military process. With the beginning
of the democracy, these old milongios of the forties started
to go out again to the clubs to dance.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
A milongo is a person who dances tango in social settings.
The word comes from the term milonga, a derivative of
Bundtu language, which made its way to Argentina through enslavement.
Milonga also refers to a tango dance event.
Speaker 6 (09:36):
And the young people started to go to these class
learning from these old milangiras.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Wanting more freedom and flexibility, young dancers started clashing with
the old guard. Madana didn't grow up with tango the
way she shoot it because it wasn't around during her childhood.
Tango from Mariana was something new, almost foreign, but the
exoticness of it quickly faded for her.
Speaker 6 (10:00):
I started to take lessons in a place that called Elgachito.
The people that used to go there were very old people,
and it was in a traditional place where the men
lad and the woman followed.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Marina realized tengo's codes weren't lining up with the increasingly
gender inclusive Buenos Aires society of the nineteen nineties. While
Argentina was moving away from rigid gender expectations, an entire
generation of dango was still frozen in time.
Speaker 6 (10:33):
I wanted to dance, and I didn't want to dance
only with men. I didn't want to wait for the
men all the time, or the other thing was that
they all the knowledge in the in the classes where
it was given to the men. The women helped the
men to dance. And also I started to see the
(10:54):
old men always dancing with young women, and the old
women needn't dance or wait all the night. And I
was ribellos against this.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
The idea of reforming tango seemed like an impossible task
for both Madiana and Shushu, but that didn't seem to
stop them. In the decades after, both of them worked
tirelessly towards mantling their rigid, heteronormative and superficial elements of
antiquated and unevolved tango. Meanwhile, tango was infiltrating the foreign market,
(11:27):
and by two thousand and four it reached Shilene Oliveda
for the first time. Silena was a Brazilian college student
in Cuba. She was only seventeen when a Bolivian roommate
introduced her to the music and dance. As a black woman,
she Lena found it hard to connect with tango at first.
Speaker 7 (11:45):
For me, it was really something really unthinkable because I had,
as I guess everyone passed that image of tango, very European,
very white, very chic.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
But when she Lena started to study the lyrics, to
really look closely at the music, she gained a completely
new perspective on tango.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Stay with us, not yes, hey, we're back. She'd Lene,
a Brazilian woman, fell fast in love with dango. She
(12:39):
Juju and Marianna shared that connection to the music, and
they had started teaching it to others too. So let's
get back to the story.
Speaker 7 (12:49):
Now, we in Brazil are very like separated of the
rest of America Latina. We just don't talk of Spanish.
So when I started to heard it, I realized that
the lyrics were very, very humans, very deep, and very
close of me.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Sheilene, who was able to understand Spanish, fell hard for tango.
She wasn't a dancer, she wanted to sing. As a
young teenager, she'd been a singer in Brazil, and tango
sparked her interest in music all over again. In two
thousand and eight, after finishing college, she Lena visited her
roommate back in Bolivia. That's where she met her roommate's mother,
(13:34):
who was a tango dancer and singer. She became she
Lena's first mentor in tango.
Speaker 7 (13:40):
She was really determinated to make me understand that I
could sing, and she gave to me three different tangles
to learn, and she give to me an appointment with
a musician who was playing in the Casagentina there in
la pace. That place were descinated to Argentine tradiction, and
(14:05):
I didn't have a lot of choice, so I go,
I started to sing to learn.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
She then realized that she could turn this new passion
into an actual career. But tragedy struck. Her friend's mother
became very ill and died.
Speaker 7 (14:22):
Suddenly, my friends invite me to sing tango in her funeral.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
She learned using gua a tango classic.
Speaker 7 (14:38):
Nadasti free.
Speaker 5 (14:43):
Elvient nextra la.
Speaker 7 (14:48):
But as you.
Speaker 8 (14:53):
In la sombra me androsa yes and to.
Speaker 7 (15:04):
That were my de boots. My first time officially singing
tango done me.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
In that moment she learned it finally connected with tango passion,
overtook all those stereotypes, those rigid tropes, they didn't matter anymore.
All that mattered was the music.
Speaker 8 (15:30):
Guba sol steplacet coassong, trancia sing.
Speaker 7 (15:42):
The endo was really beautiful more than said was beautiful,
and the whole family were very happy to give this
last gift to her.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Sheilena's relationship to doango wouldn't always be this simple, though.
She decided to move to Buenos Aires to pursue her career,
but she was still an outsider entering a world that
was still largely stuck in the past when it came
to matters of race, gender, and quote unquote tradition. So
Sheilina decided to fight for a more inclusive future for dango,
a vision shared by Shushu, by Marianna, and by the
(16:26):
next generation of performers pushing the boundaries of Argentina's quintessential dance.
Shushu and other performers and instructors like Mariana and Sheilene
want to open dango to everyone. For Shushu, that means
closing your eyes literally, but it's ok. After twenty five
(16:59):
years in a ango scene, today she she was a
well regarded instructor in Buenos Aires and she's not. For
a pretty unique lesson plan, she blindfolds her students while
they dance, a technique she thought would help dispenser stereotypes.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
They cannot see if you are fat or you are short,
or if you are at all, or you are black
or you are white. It's not important if you have
a nice dress to be invited to dance, or if
you look very good you're on that, or how you
(17:36):
move with no no, no, you cannot see, so all
the things that you judge to the person through your
eyes are.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
Not there, so as much more that you can get
without your eyes.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
She s even went an extra mile to teach the
visually impaired. She says she learns from them.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
I started to experiment with the lightbeople was very emotional.
People feel something absolutely new and they was very happy
because they can dance together, move in one space with
other persons. That is something very strong.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Similarly, for Marianna, contributing to the evolution of tangle meant
breaking down gender and racial stereotypes. When I came to
her own practice and teaching, Marina focused on really finding
traditional roles in tango.
Speaker 6 (18:34):
I studied to teach in a lesbian place called like
Assael and Guentro, and the men who were forbidden men
could not enter the For me, my idea was teaching
tangle to everybody and exchange roles.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
For Mariana queer tango was an act of female empowerment.
Speaker 6 (18:54):
The queer tango is it's difficult to define when I started.
I won't need to separate the role from the sender.
Speaker 9 (19:08):
End.
Speaker 6 (19:14):
It has to do with the feminist position.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Madanna began teaching tango to queer Argentines and later in
two thousand and five, she founded Tango Queer, a weekly
party where women dance with women and men with men freely.
Approach might seem a bit radical to some hardline tango traditionalists,
but a dive into the history of dango reveals its
(19:39):
origins were quite flexible when it came to gender roles.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
We'll be right back. Hey, we're back. Let's continue with
the unknown history of tango.
Speaker 6 (20:02):
The queer tangle exists from the beginning of the history
of the tango, men dancing with men and women with
women from the very beginning, and you can see that
in the photos that you can find very easy in Internet.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
What's believed to be the first published photo of tango
dancers did it back to nineteen oh three depicts two
men made embrace. They're wearing loose fitted pants, blazers, hats,
and boots. One of them has its pants tucked into
his boots, sort of like a gaucho the Argentine cowboy.
Speaker 6 (20:34):
The history tells that the men before entering in the brathons,
they did dance two together to practice the steps. But
also there are also photographs of women dancing together, especially
foreign European prostitutes. All these environments were very queer. In
(20:58):
one way, it was not so strict. The tango was
very amoral. Then tango became famous in Paris in nineteen.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Ten, primarily danced by workers and sailors. Both Argentine and European.
Tango crossed the Atlantic Ocean at the start of the
twentieth century and entered the cabarets and brothels of France.
The dance was eventually embraced by the upper class, becoming
a sensation in Paris.
Speaker 6 (21:26):
Then when they come to Buenos Aires, in this on
it was taken by the high class and then started
all the morality around the tango. But before it was
very andmoral and it was not necessarily that they were
lesbians or gays. They just exchanged roles.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Mariana says that those very defined gender roles a man
leading a woman following, do have a basis in tango's history,
but only with respect to the nineteen forties and fifties.
Speaker 6 (21:57):
In the goldern Nags, the clubs were full of people
of middle class and in this moment the mora was
very strong. And what we receive indy, this was this tango,
not the tango of the origins. That's why when we
started with the queer tango and people say, oh, the
tango is men and women, our argument was, but the
(22:20):
tango started queer.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
But tango's origins aren't just queer. Seen as a predominantly
white dance, tango in fact has black roots. That Telenderiano
considered the first tango in history. It was composed in
eighteen ninety seven by the Afro Argentine musician Rosendo men Disabal.
(22:47):
He was known as one of the greatest local pianists
at the time and was a regular and many venues
where tango was becoming popular. Understanding tango's past is Kidra
building its future Mariano, and so does she Lenez. After
moving from her native Brasil to Buenos Aires in twenty twelve,
she Lena began exploring the history of tango. She discovered
(23:11):
its African influences and that opened a new dimension and
tango for her.
Speaker 7 (23:16):
In the beginning of the centuries, half a part of
people here was black. Here in Buenos Aires, specifically places
with marginal people, they are also doing things to have fun,
to create something to escape of the sadness to be
in this condition of slavery. Sperandos spiral after to discovery
(23:54):
the Black African origin of the style of this music
more and more and it's like, okay, this is like
a lot of music styles, like somebody, this is like
funk jazz. And the beginning was really like, oh, I
have to learn it's so outside of my culture, which
(24:17):
is true, but not that much.
Speaker 10 (24:20):
Lavina sona milong i guess bylanus Via Solan.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Tango evolved from a drum heavy music style that came
from free slaves in South America. It later fused with
other immigrant music before becoming milonga and finally tango. The
word tango itself was used to describe the place where
former slaves gathered to dance. Black musicians put tango on
the map. Composers such as Mendi Saba Kaas, Kishimo Barvieri,
(25:02):
Juaquin Mora, and more recently Oraso Salagan were instrumental in
creating the dango we know today. Their contributions to dango, however,
have been hidden over time, much like Argentina's historical black population.
Even though Afri descendants accounted for thirty percent of the
(25:23):
country's population at the start of the eighteenth century, Argentina
strove to present itself to the world as a homogeneously
white nation of European descent. In the late nineteenth century,
war and diseases decimated Argentina's black population. Serving in the
army and living in segregated neighborhoods were diseases such as
yellow fever and cholera spread. It was in until twenty
(25:47):
ten that Argentina's national census began counting people of African
descent for the first time. Afri descendants currently make less
than one percent of the forty one million people living
in Argentina. She Lenna says she often faces resistance and
judgment for being a black woman and Buenos Aires, and
especially for being a black tango singer.
Speaker 7 (26:10):
I guess it's always going to be some kind of
surprise to people who doesn't want to recognizing how the
city try to hide the black culture here. I have
a lot of memories and phrases of people who's very
surprising to see me just because I'm black.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
She Lena says. These interactions range from mild and easy
to dismiss to threatening or demoralizing. It's part of the job.
Speaker 7 (26:40):
She says, I was invited to sing in very undergrounds.
Mi long as I was there in the middle of
the place, without Sonido, without Mike, just with the voice
listening gas si vic. Now they econ sol.
Speaker 5 (27:07):
And me auflicks you.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
And uh.
Speaker 7 (27:13):
Some men just said, okay, now you're gonna start the
dance samba. Ha ha. He saw me as a black
woman there and the first thing that he can connected
is with the sambo and dancing. And I just said,
(27:33):
I came here to sing tango today.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
She Lena uses her platform as a tango singer to
educate people about the African roots of tango. She performs
music by black composers and explains the audiences how her
performances tie back to their black roots.
Speaker 11 (27:51):
Mil Nis Venus swear people in Sara monte pasional tangetra.
Speaker 7 (28:10):
When I do tango, I put that real part of
this history in the table, because I guess it's some
kind of interchange. The tango gives so much to me.
I am a different singer now, I am a different artist.
Now I travel singing tango. People who knows me singing
(28:33):
tango knows how how much I care about it. So
it's some kind of part of give back what tango
gives to me, recognizing those beginnings or the birth or
la jasies. It's a very large relationship and we are
(28:57):
happy to get them in the tango.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Yes, tango is slowly changing, much like its birthplace. After
living in Buenos Aires for ten years, Chilene has started
to feel more accepted.
Speaker 7 (29:09):
Two weeks ago, I sink here in Congresso Plaza. When
I finished the thing, some kind of old men past
and said, oh you you really has a good voice,
really have a good voice. You are on the way,
very Argentinian, very old men, dacsional Covin Okay. When I
(29:31):
lost she was not surprising with my look, the fact
that I'm black, and that was something that makes me
feel really happy.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Contributing to Mariennas and others efforts to make dango more
relatable for everybody, Buenos aireist's society has also become more inclusive.
Speaker 6 (29:51):
Clara happened at the same time of different political events
for the LGTV community and the women also, for example,
the equal Mattunioitario equal marriage identity law. It was a
period more than about fifteen years where we did have
(30:13):
a lot of improvement in these kind of laws, but
would change in the end of the nineties beginning of
the two thousand. What is the position and the visivility
and the political conscience. We took what was our rights,
and one of these rights we were dancing with the
(30:34):
person with whom you wanted to dance.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Mariana is also very optimistic about the future.
Speaker 6 (30:41):
It's time there are more women than sintango, more men following,
less problems with the queers, and the society is each
time more open.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Trail Plazers like Mariana she Lene and she should live
by that. Mandra Tango and the society they live in
should be open for all.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
It's not important what is your relation, what is your ideology.
Speaker 5 (31:09):
Political ideology, what is your right? What is your age?
You can dunstable and we don't need to discuss.
Speaker 4 (31:18):
Because when you doance, you need to make silence to
listen to your heart. So no discussions, don't fight More,
Rice Less, wark Less, Hate.
Speaker 9 (31:33):
Oh, Suicain Cobo, record a photos and co the bus.
(31:54):
There is your Money Go.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
That's it for today. Our story first aired in twenty
twenty two. It was produced by Jessica Bones and Alejandra Salasad.
It was edited by Andrea Lopez Cruzado, and it was
mixed by Stephanie Lebau and Julia Caruso. Fact Checking for
this episode by Elisa Baena and Andrew vignanis Special thanks
(32:25):
to Schidlene Oliveira and Finisterere Dango for sharing their music
with us for this episode. The Latino USA team also
includes Roxana Guire, Jessica Ellis, Rebecca Bara, Renando Lanos, Junior,
Luis Luna Rimad Marquez, Julieta Martimelli, Monica Morales, Garcia, j J. Grubin,
(32:46):
Adriana Rodriguez and Nancy Trujillo. Fernando Echavari is our managing editor.
Penni Leiramirez and I are executive producers. I'm Your Host
Maria j Josa. Latino USA is part of Iheart's Mike
podcast Network. Executive producers at iHeart are Leo Gomez and
Arlene Santana. Join us again on our next episode. In
(33:09):
the meantime, we'll see you on all of our social media.
And don't forget, dear listener, Join futuro Plus. It's our
new membership program. You get to listen to everything ad
free and you get.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
Who bonus content. What's not to love.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Join futuro Plus and you'll be happy you did. Astapproxima Child.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Latino USA is made possible in part by the Heising
Simons Foundation, unlocking knowledge, opportunity and possibilities more at hsfoundation
dot org, the Ford Foundation, working with visionaries on the
frontlines of social change worldwide, and the John D.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
I'm Lisa and Akazawa join me on season two of
Stars and Stars with Lisa, where I sit down with
some of the most exciting stars of our time to
find out what their birth chart reveals about their life's purpose,
their relationships and their challenges. Winner of the Signal Award
for Most Inspirational Podcast, Stars and Stars will help you
make sense of today's complicated times. Even if you're an
(00:28):
astrology skeptic. You can listen to Stars and Stars with
Lisa wherever you get your podcasts. Don't forget to follow
the show so you never miss an episode.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Today, we're going to Buenos Aires, Argentina's capital and the
mecca of dango. You know, when I think about dango,
I think of something very regal, a kind of couple
that are you know, the man is in a sued
the woman is in a silky dress with a super
(01:05):
high split. But what if I told you that tango
wasn't always danced by elegant heterosexual couples. Why don't you
join us on this look at the little known and
controversial roots of the ultimate Argentinian music genre, dango. Our
Story first aired in twenty twenty two from Fuduro media,
(01:42):
It's Latino Usa, I'm Maria, no josaf and today all
things dango. Before it became the defining music of Argentina,
(02:03):
tango was actually condemned by elites and the Catholic Church
as well, which saw it as obscene and transgressive. The
dance's reign was also threatened by the worldwide phenomenon of
rock and roll, and then all but buried by Argentina's
Dirty War. When dungo began its revival in the nineteen
(02:25):
eighties and nineties, a new era of dango artists began
challenging rigid norms established in the early half of the
twentieth century, breaking from traditional gender roles and shining a
light on the black history of dungo. These artists aimed
to invoke dango's past to make way for a more
(02:46):
inclusive future. In this episode, we're going to travel to
Argentina and meet three women who are going to help
us understand the controversial roots of dungo and how they're
helping to give new life to a dance very much
rooted in tradition. Producer Jessica Bonds will lead us on
(03:09):
that journey.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
He sure Buenos Aires native entango dancer and instructor, has
had a relationship with tango for as long as she
can remember.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
My memories are from my family, my very young years,
because in the parties in the Christmas, in the New Year,
or birthdays, the family was in the party to it
and dance, So I danced on the feet of my
(03:58):
father like a doll as part of the ceremony in
the family.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
It was the nineteen forties and fifties tango's golden age.
Back then, Shushu was just a little girl, but she
remembers hearing music's building out of cafes and cabarets into
the streets of Buenos Aires. Every night it was danced
in clubs, saloons and carnivals. Tango became a reflection of Buenosidres' identity,
(04:29):
a metropolis that did not sleep, and tango was its
nocturnal news. Then, during the sixties and seventies, rock and
roll was introduced to the world. This new sound, inspired
(04:51):
by the sexual and political revolutions of the time, influenced
a new generation across the globe. Youth rejected everything that
seemed old and antiquated. For Argentines, tango fell into this category. Shushu,
who by then was well into her teenage years, remembers
that time.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
I don't want it to listen to tango for me worried,
or I changed the radio because oh that.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
Is music for old people.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
I want rock and roll, and then all the music stopped.
Argentina's last military dictatorship ruled from nineteen seventy six to
nineteen eighty three and was known for its human rights atrocities.
(05:42):
The regime also halted the evolution of art and culture
through strict curfews and extreme censorship. Shushu was in her
early twenties at the time, even though she wasn't into
the tango scene as much, she remembers how tango suffered
during this period.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
We so for many nine of different things, and one
of that was the impossibility to connect with our identity,
our roots. Many tangos was censored and many plays to
Dan's Tango was closed too, and the militars entered in
(06:23):
one place and stop all the music, or ask you documents,
or maybe you finish your night in the police office.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
The dictatorship traumatized the country. Tens of thousands were disappeared
in those seven years. Assassinations were carried out via mass shootings,
and people were drugged and thrown from airplanes into the ocean. Additionally,
twelve thousand prisoners, many of whom did not have a
fair trial, were detained in a network of secret concentration
camps located throughout Argentina. By the nineteen eighties, economic collapse,
(07:03):
public discontent, and the disastrous handling of the Falcons War
between Argentina and England resulted in the end of the
military junta. When democracy was finally restored in nineteen eighty three,
Shushoo says people were eager for new ways of expression
and they found it in tango.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
Tango always wait for you.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
Was there like a seed into very deep hole into
the ground, waiting to the winter lifts, and in that
moment start the spring of tango.
Speaker 5 (07:40):
The tango start to develop again from sero.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
The repression she and others her age experience during Argentina's
Dirty War awoke Shushoo's childhood memories her family parties when
she would dance tango on top of her dad's feet.
She too wanted to reclaim her identity, so at age
twenty five read she began taking tango classes, but it
wasn't enough. She wanted to become a pro ad.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
What I love is teach, So I needed to learn
how to lead. I needed to dominate both roles.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Traditionally, in tango, the leader role is assigned to the
male partner and the follower role to the female. So
when she should try to learn both roles, she faced
a lot of resistance.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
In the old times, If you, for example, take a lesson,
you say to the teacher, ah, I am here because
I want to lead.
Speaker 5 (08:37):
And the teacher say, no, you are a woman, but
I pay you.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
No, no, you are a woman. You cannot lead, or
the other women. No, I don't want to dance with you.
I am here to embrace a man. No embrace a woman.
I just feel that I was alone. I am crazy,
But she should wasn't.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
While she was reconnecting with tango for herself in young adulthood,
Mareno do Campo, as a teenager who came of age
during the Dirty War, was finding tango for the first time.
Speaker 6 (09:11):
At the end of the military process. With the beginning
of the democracy, these old milongios of the forties started
to go out again to the clubs to dance.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
A milongo is a person who dances tango in social settings.
The word comes from the term milonga, a derivative of
Bundtu language, which made its way to Argentina through enslavement.
Milonga also refers to a tango dance event.
Speaker 6 (09:36):
And the young people started to go to these class
learning from these old milangiras.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Wanting more freedom and flexibility, young dancers started clashing with
the old guard. Madana didn't grow up with tango the
way she shoot it because it wasn't around during her childhood.
Tango from Mariana was something new, almost foreign, but the
exoticness of it quickly faded for her.
Speaker 6 (10:00):
I started to take lessons in a place that called Elgachito.
The people that used to go there were very old people,
and it was in a traditional place where the men
lad and the woman followed.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Marina realized tengo's codes weren't lining up with the increasingly
gender inclusive Buenos Aires society of the nineteen nineties. While
Argentina was moving away from rigid gender expectations, an entire
generation of dango was still frozen in time.
Speaker 6 (10:33):
I wanted to dance, and I didn't want to dance
only with men. I didn't want to wait for the
men all the time, or the other thing was that
they all the knowledge in the in the classes where
it was given to the men. The women helped the
men to dance. And also I started to see the
(10:54):
old men always dancing with young women, and the old
women needn't dance or wait all the night. And I
was ribellos against this.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
The idea of reforming tango seemed like an impossible task
for both Madiana and Shushu, but that didn't seem to
stop them. In the decades after, both of them worked
tirelessly towards mantling their rigid, heteronormative and superficial elements of
antiquated and unevolved tango. Meanwhile, tango was infiltrating the foreign market,
(11:27):
and by two thousand and four it reached Shilene Oliveda
for the first time. Silena was a Brazilian college student
in Cuba. She was only seventeen when a Bolivian roommate
introduced her to the music and dance. As a black woman,
she Lena found it hard to connect with tango at first.
Speaker 7 (11:45):
For me, it was really something really unthinkable because I had,
as I guess everyone passed that image of tango, very European,
very white, very chic.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
But when she Lena started to study the lyrics, to
really look closely at the music, she gained a completely
new perspective on tango.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Stay with us, not yes, hey, we're back. She'd Lene,
a Brazilian woman, fell fast in love with dango. She
(12:39):
Juju and Marianna shared that connection to the music, and
they had started teaching it to others too. So let's
get back to the story.
Speaker 7 (12:49):
Now, we in Brazil are very like separated of the
rest of America Latina. We just don't talk of Spanish.
So when I started to heard it, I realized that
the lyrics were very, very humans, very deep, and very
close of me.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Sheilene, who was able to understand Spanish, fell hard for tango.
She wasn't a dancer, she wanted to sing. As a
young teenager, she'd been a singer in Brazil, and tango
sparked her interest in music all over again. In two
thousand and eight, after finishing college, she Lena visited her
roommate back in Bolivia. That's where she met her roommate's mother,
(13:34):
who was a tango dancer and singer. She became she
Lena's first mentor in tango.
Speaker 7 (13:40):
She was really determinated to make me understand that I
could sing, and she gave to me three different tangles
to learn, and she give to me an appointment with
a musician who was playing in the Casagentina there in
la pace. That place were descinated to Argentine tradiction, and
(14:05):
I didn't have a lot of choice, so I go,
I started to sing to learn.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
She then realized that she could turn this new passion
into an actual career. But tragedy struck. Her friend's mother
became very ill and died.
Speaker 7 (14:22):
Suddenly, my friends invite me to sing tango in her funeral.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
She learned using gua a tango classic.
Speaker 7 (14:38):
Nadasti free.
Speaker 5 (14:43):
Elvient nextra la.
Speaker 7 (14:48):
But as you.
Speaker 8 (14:53):
In la sombra me androsa yes and to.
Speaker 7 (15:04):
That were my de boots. My first time officially singing
tango done me.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
In that moment she learned it finally connected with tango passion,
overtook all those stereotypes, those rigid tropes, they didn't matter anymore.
All that mattered was the music.
Speaker 8 (15:30):
Guba sol steplacet coassong, trancia sing.
Speaker 7 (15:42):
The endo was really beautiful more than said was beautiful,
and the whole family were very happy to give this
last gift to her.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
Sheilena's relationship to doango wouldn't always be this simple, though.
She decided to move to Buenos Aires to pursue her career,
but she was still an outsider entering a world that
was still largely stuck in the past when it came
to matters of race, gender, and quote unquote tradition. So
Sheilina decided to fight for a more inclusive future for dango,
a vision shared by Shushu, by Marianna, and by the
(16:26):
next generation of performers pushing the boundaries of Argentina's quintessential dance.
Shushu and other performers and instructors like Mariana and Sheilene
want to open dango to everyone. For Shushu, that means
closing your eyes literally, but it's ok. After twenty five
(16:59):
years in a ango scene, today she she was a
well regarded instructor in Buenos Aires and she's not. For
a pretty unique lesson plan, she blindfolds her students while
they dance, a technique she thought would help dispenser stereotypes.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
They cannot see if you are fat or you are short,
or if you are at all, or you are black
or you are white. It's not important if you have
a nice dress to be invited to dance, or if
you look very good you're on that, or how you
(17:36):
move with no no, no, you cannot see, so all
the things that you judge to the person through your
eyes are.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
Not there, so as much more that you can get
without your eyes.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
She s even went an extra mile to teach the
visually impaired. She says she learns from them.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
I started to experiment with the lightbeople was very emotional.
People feel something absolutely new and they was very happy
because they can dance together, move in one space with
other persons. That is something very strong.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Similarly, for Marianna, contributing to the evolution of tangle meant
breaking down gender and racial stereotypes. When I came to
her own practice and teaching, Marina focused on really finding
traditional roles in tango.
Speaker 6 (18:34):
I studied to teach in a lesbian place called like
Assael and Guentro, and the men who were forbidden men
could not enter the For me, my idea was teaching
tangle to everybody and exchange roles.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
For Mariana queer tango was an act of female empowerment.
Speaker 6 (18:54):
The queer tango is it's difficult to define when I started.
I won't need to separate the role from the sender.
Speaker 9 (19:08):
End.
Speaker 6 (19:14):
It has to do with the feminist position.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Madanna began teaching tango to queer Argentines and later in
two thousand and five, she founded Tango Queer, a weekly
party where women dance with women and men with men freely.
Approach might seem a bit radical to some hardline tango traditionalists,
but a dive into the history of dango reveals its
(19:39):
origins were quite flexible when it came to gender roles.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
We'll be right back. Hey, we're back. Let's continue with
the unknown history of tango.
Speaker 6 (20:02):
The queer tangle exists from the beginning of the history
of the tango, men dancing with men and women with
women from the very beginning, and you can see that
in the photos that you can find very easy in Internet.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
What's believed to be the first published photo of tango
dancers did it back to nineteen oh three depicts two
men made embrace. They're wearing loose fitted pants, blazers, hats,
and boots. One of them has its pants tucked into
his boots, sort of like a gaucho the Argentine cowboy.
Speaker 6 (20:34):
The history tells that the men before entering in the brathons,
they did dance two together to practice the steps. But
also there are also photographs of women dancing together, especially
foreign European prostitutes. All these environments were very queer. In
(20:58):
one way, it was not so strict. The tango was
very amoral. Then tango became famous in Paris in nineteen.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Ten, primarily danced by workers and sailors. Both Argentine and European.
Tango crossed the Atlantic Ocean at the start of the
twentieth century and entered the cabarets and brothels of France.
The dance was eventually embraced by the upper class, becoming
a sensation in Paris.
Speaker 6 (21:26):
Then when they come to Buenos Aires, in this on
it was taken by the high class and then started
all the morality around the tango. But before it was
very andmoral and it was not necessarily that they were
lesbians or gays. They just exchanged roles.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Mariana says that those very defined gender roles a man
leading a woman following, do have a basis in tango's history,
but only with respect to the nineteen forties and fifties.
Speaker 6 (21:57):
In the goldern Nags, the clubs were full of people
of middle class and in this moment the mora was
very strong. And what we receive indy, this was this tango,
not the tango of the origins. That's why when we
started with the queer tango and people say, oh, the
tango is men and women, our argument was, but the
(22:20):
tango started queer.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
But tango's origins aren't just queer. Seen as a predominantly
white dance, tango in fact has black roots. That Telenderiano
considered the first tango in history. It was composed in
eighteen ninety seven by the Afro Argentine musician Rosendo men Disabal.
(22:47):
He was known as one of the greatest local pianists
at the time and was a regular and many venues
where tango was becoming popular. Understanding tango's past is Kidra
building its future Mariano, and so does she Lenez. After
moving from her native Brasil to Buenos Aires in twenty twelve,
she Lena began exploring the history of tango. She discovered
(23:11):
its African influences and that opened a new dimension and
tango for her.
Speaker 7 (23:16):
In the beginning of the centuries, half a part of
people here was black. Here in Buenos Aires, specifically places
with marginal people, they are also doing things to have fun,
to create something to escape of the sadness to be
in this condition of slavery. Sperandos spiral after to discovery
(23:54):
the Black African origin of the style of this music
more and more and it's like, okay, this is like
a lot of music styles, like somebody, this is like
funk jazz. And the beginning was really like, oh, I
have to learn it's so outside of my culture, which
(24:17):
is true, but not that much.
Speaker 10 (24:20):
Lavina sona milong i guess bylanus Via Solan.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Tango evolved from a drum heavy music style that came
from free slaves in South America. It later fused with
other immigrant music before becoming milonga and finally tango. The
word tango itself was used to describe the place where
former slaves gathered to dance. Black musicians put tango on
the map. Composers such as Mendi Saba Kaas, Kishimo Barvieri,
(25:02):
Juaquin Mora, and more recently Oraso Salagan were instrumental in
creating the dango we know today. Their contributions to dango, however,
have been hidden over time, much like Argentina's historical black population.
Even though Afri descendants accounted for thirty percent of the
(25:23):
country's population at the start of the eighteenth century, Argentina
strove to present itself to the world as a homogeneously
white nation of European descent. In the late nineteenth century,
war and diseases decimated Argentina's black population. Serving in the
army and living in segregated neighborhoods were diseases such as
yellow fever and cholera spread. It was in until twenty
(25:47):
ten that Argentina's national census began counting people of African
descent for the first time. Afri descendants currently make less
than one percent of the forty one million people living
in Argentina. She Lenna says she often faces resistance and
judgment for being a black woman and Buenos Aires, and
especially for being a black tango singer.
Speaker 7 (26:10):
I guess it's always going to be some kind of
surprise to people who doesn't want to recognizing how the
city try to hide the black culture here. I have
a lot of memories and phrases of people who's very
surprising to see me just because I'm black.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
She Lena says. These interactions range from mild and easy
to dismiss to threatening or demoralizing. It's part of the job.
Speaker 7 (26:40):
She says, I was invited to sing in very undergrounds.
Mi long as I was there in the middle of
the place, without Sonido, without Mike, just with the voice
listening gas si vic. Now they econ sol.
Speaker 5 (27:07):
And me auflicks you.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
And uh.
Speaker 7 (27:13):
Some men just said, okay, now you're gonna start the
dance samba. Ha ha. He saw me as a black
woman there and the first thing that he can connected
is with the sambo and dancing. And I just said,
(27:33):
I came here to sing tango today.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
She Lena uses her platform as a tango singer to
educate people about the African roots of tango. She performs
music by black composers and explains the audiences how her
performances tie back to their black roots.
Speaker 11 (27:51):
Mil Nis Venus swear people in Sara monte pasional tangetra.
Speaker 7 (28:10):
When I do tango, I put that real part of
this history in the table, because I guess it's some
kind of interchange. The tango gives so much to me.
I am a different singer now, I am a different artist.
Now I travel singing tango. People who knows me singing
(28:33):
tango knows how how much I care about it. So
it's some kind of part of give back what tango
gives to me, recognizing those beginnings or the birth or
la jasies. It's a very large relationship and we are
(28:57):
happy to get them in the tango.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Yes, tango is slowly changing, much like its birthplace. After
living in Buenos Aires for ten years, Chilene has started
to feel more accepted.
Speaker 7 (29:09):
Two weeks ago, I sink here in Congresso Plaza. When
I finished the thing, some kind of old men past
and said, oh you you really has a good voice,
really have a good voice. You are on the way,
very Argentinian, very old men, dacsional Covin Okay. When I
(29:31):
lost she was not surprising with my look, the fact
that I'm black, and that was something that makes me
feel really happy.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Contributing to Mariennas and others efforts to make dango more
relatable for everybody, Buenos aireist's society has also become more inclusive.
Speaker 6 (29:51):
Clara happened at the same time of different political events
for the LGTV community and the women also, for example,
the equal Mattunioitario equal marriage identity law. It was a
period more than about fifteen years where we did have
(30:13):
a lot of improvement in these kind of laws, but
would change in the end of the nineties beginning of
the two thousand. What is the position and the visivility
and the political conscience. We took what was our rights,
and one of these rights we were dancing with the
(30:34):
person with whom you wanted to dance.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Mariana is also very optimistic about the future.
Speaker 6 (30:41):
It's time there are more women than sintango, more men following,
less problems with the queers, and the society is each
time more open.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Trail Plazers like Mariana she Lene and she should live
by that. Mandra Tango and the society they live in
should be open for all.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
It's not important what is your relation, what is your ideology.
Speaker 5 (31:09):
Political ideology, what is your right? What is your age?
You can dunstable and we don't need to discuss.
Speaker 4 (31:18):
Because when you doance, you need to make silence to
listen to your heart. So no discussions, don't fight More,
Rice Less, wark Less, Hate.
Speaker 9 (31:33):
Oh, Suicain Cobo, record a photos and co the bus.
(31:54):
There is your Money Go.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
That's it for today. Our story first aired in twenty
twenty two. It was produced by Jessica Bones and Alejandra Salasad.
It was edited by Andrea Lopez Cruzado, and it was
mixed by Stephanie Lebau and Julia Caruso. Fact Checking for
this episode by Elisa Baena and Andrew vignanis Special thanks
(32:25):
to Schidlene Oliveira and Finisterere Dango for sharing their music
with us for this episode. The Latino USA team also
includes Roxana Guire, Jessica Ellis, Rebecca Bara, Renando Lanos, Junior,
Luis Luna Rimad Marquez, Julieta Martimelli, Monica Morales, Garcia, j J. Grubin,
(32:46):
Adriana Rodriguez and Nancy Trujillo. Fernando Echavari is our managing editor.
Penni Leiramirez and I are executive producers. I'm Your Host
Maria j Josa. Latino USA is part of Iheart's Mike
podcast Network. Executive producers at iHeart are Leo Gomez and
Arlene Santana. Join us again on our next episode. In
(33:09):
the meantime, we'll see you on all of our social media.
And don't forget, dear listener, Join futuro Plus. It's our
new membership program. You get to listen to everything ad
free and you get.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
Who bonus content. What's not to love.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Join futuro Plus and you'll be happy you did. Astapproxima Child.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Latino USA is made possible in part by the Heising
Simons Foundation, unlocking knowledge, opportunity and possibilities more at hsfoundation
dot org, the Ford Foundation, working with visionaries on the
frontlines of social change worldwide, and the John D.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
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