Argentine Tango and Chilean Spanish

We had to renew our tourist visas, so had no choice but to go to Buenos Aires for a week. Our hostel was next door to the Confiteria Ideal, a historic cafe and dance hall, so we really had no choice but to get some tango shoes and hit the dance floor. On any other trip to Buenos Aires, I might have simply taken some tango lessons. On this trip, because it was the first break I took from studying Spanish in Chile in a few months, the tango lessons and dances were metaphors.

Tango is like Spanish

The first steps are easy, and you have to enjoy them in order to want move on. It is easy to learn the first eight steps they teach in tango just as it is easy to learn some beginner phrases in Spanish. For me, it was really fun to dance the basic eight steps and then the next few turns (ocho adelante) just as it was really fun to have basic conversations in Spanish with patrons at the library or with other travelers when we first arrived in Chile a few months ago. Enjoyable experiences are necessary, because when it gets difficult it helps to have something to remind you why you are even bothering to learn or to practice. 

The first steps are easy, but it takes time and practice to internalize. Although it is easy to learn where to put your feet within a short amount of time, it takes longer to learn how and when to shift your weight and how to take cues from your dance partner. (After our third lesson we went to a dance hall and each "tangoed" with a few people. I put "tango" in quotes for my part, because at that point I really had not internalized my center of gravity or ability to interpret what he was telling me to do). Although it is easy to learn the basic phrases in Spanish, it takes a lot of practice to know when something sounds wrong to a Spanish-speaking ear. 

There is a structure, but no one way to do it correctly. There are steps and moves in tango, but it is largely based on improvisation. For example, although the man makes the decisions of where to turn and how quickly to move, the woman can take her time with a turn, and each partner has to know how to listen to the other's body and know how to respond to the cues. Likewise, conversations in Spanish do not follow a script. You have to know the structure, the vocabulary, etc., in order to have a genuine conversation.

Remember to practice with a variety of people as a way to improve. At the milonga, we were seated next to a woman whose husband was sitting across the hall. They intentionally sat separately so that they could dance with other people as a way to improve their dancing. It seems obvious, but it can be very easy for me to forget to go out of my way to talk with a variety to people as a way to learn Spanish accents, words, etc. 

I could go on, but it would start to feel a bit too Doogie Howser's Journal. 

One of the main differences is that I had to slow waaaayyyyyyyy down in tango, and I have to speed waaayyyyyyy up in Spanish.

Cambio?

More than one person told me that the first word that came to their mind when they thought of Chile in relation to South America was "stable." I had forgotten that economic stability was on the "pro" list for Chile until I got to Buenos Aires a few weeks ago. Although we saw quite a few signs of economic instability, and experienced it in more ways than one, the attitude toward cash and/or credit was an aspect of the Argentine economy that I encountered on a daily basis.   

Argentine Pesos. Really pretty. Not exactly stable.

Avenida Florida is a long pedestrian shopping strip in the heart of downtown Buenos Aires. We passed by our first night in town, and started to notice various people lined up and down the avenue asking us and others "cambio?" They wanted to change their Argentine pesos for American dollars, Chilean pesos, Brasilian reals -- any currency that was more stable than their own. (They were actually masters at being subtle and persistent. They had wads of cash that they didn't necessarily want to advertise, but also had wads of cash that they wanted to change).

It wasn't just the hecklers on Avenida Florida that showed a preference for foreign currencies. Restaurants, for example, showed their preference by giving a slightly better exchange to those who paid in dollars or real. 


In other cases the preference was for Argentine pesos, though, as opposed to credit. Credit or debit cards were accepted in larger/chain stores and restaurants, but several of the smaller or independent businesses would only accept cash. Sometimes it had to do with the costs and fees that Visa or MasterCard (or whoever) charge, but more often than not it had to do with complete lack of trust in the banks.

I noticed this most with tango-related businesses. I could only pay with cash for the shoes, the shows, the lessons, the milonga cover charge...

Don't cry for me Argentina, and all that

I knew that Eva Perón was loved. I knew that she was controversial. I didn't know that she was so hated that her detractors celebrated her death in 1952 by writing "hurray, cancer!" in the streets, or that she was so loathed and feared by the anti-Peronist government that they would go to such lengths as stealing her remains and shipping them off to Italy.

When, in 1955, Juan Perón's government was overthrown by a military dictatorship, images of the Peronist era were seen as a threat to the new regime and systematically removed. Perón himself was sent into exile, their private home in the Recoleta neighborhood was razed (it's now the site of the public library) and Evita's beautifully preserved and iconic body was relocated so that it could not be used to rally support against them. 

The site where Eva actually died is now a public library

...with a cat

The same officers who helped overthrow the Peronist government stole Evita's remains, kept them in the offices of Military Intelligence for about a year, until (with help from the Vatican) they were buried in Milan under a decoy name. Fast forward about 15 years to another military coup. That dictator got Juan Perón, then living in Spain, to support the new government by (among other things) giving Evita back to him. Her body was with him in Spain for a few more years until he was re-elected to the presidency in Argentina. When he died, his third wife (president Isabel Perón) brought the body back to Argentina to help boost the image of her presidency. 

Images of Evita are allowed again

It didn't work. Another military coup happened in 1976, and Evita was finally buried 26 years after her death. She is in the Duarte family mausoleum at the beautiful Recoleta Cemetery.

Evita´s grave

The ironic part there is that some of the most wealthy families of Buenos Aires (read: Evita haters) are buried there as well. They say that she is buried among some of the people who hated her most.

Memorial to las Malvinas

Look at any world map from Argentina and you will not be able to find the Falkland Islands. You will find the Malvinas. 

La Guerra de las Malvinas was a 10-week war initiated by a military dictatorship to reclaim the islands for Argentina. The dictators were banking on Great Britain not responding with military action. They guessed wrong, and the islands are still British territory.  

There is a memorial to the young, ill-equipped conscripts who were killed during the war in the Retiro neighborhood of Buenos Aires. 

Monumento a los Caídos en Malvinas

Given that the war was just a little over 30 years ago, reference to Great Britain can bring out some strong emotions among some of the older generations of Argentines. So it is ironic that when you turn around to leave the monument to the fallen soldiers, this is what you see across the street:

Hiding behind trees, that´s a replica of Big Ben.
The clocks chime  na na na na boo boo.