This is a journal of my interview trip to Buenos Aires December 8th to 20th, 2009. From this trip I interviewed Osvaldo y Coca, the organizers and the DJ of Sunderland club, El Flaco Dani, and Nito y Elba. Since I don’t speak the language, theses interviews were held with help of translators, which are my friends from NY, and recorded to tapes. It will need a lot of time to put together them in writing, so I am going to write my experience what I saw, what I felt, whom I met, what I found out….. all about Argentine Tango from this trip.
A lot of people ask me if I want to publish a book by this. Well, that sounds good to me, but that is not the purpose I am doing this. I want to do this, I want to keep this in more pure way. I want to do this for the history, for the culture, for the people, and for us, us who once fell in love with tango and for the future of Argentine Tango.
I am Japanese and we have a long history and we have many old cultures and traditions. Somehow in my own way, I feel tango is very similar to Japanese Tea Ceremony. Japanese tea ceremony looks very up tight, and nothing about man and woman, but the bottom line of the ceremony is about “I am making this tea for you, for this meeting, for this moment”. We do everything very beautifully to make one cup of tea to make this meeting a wonderful one.
The tea ceremony was started somewhere in 1400. It took one hundred years to make the basic shape by Rikyu, and it took another 200 years to come up with the shape of today. It says that the basic shape which Rikyu created had changed tremendously after Rikyu died and, and many different styles were created. Taking another 200 years it came back to the basic shape of Rikyu style, and it is the basic style of today. Tango has been danced about 100 years now, and I think the basic shape was made by the ones who have been dancing since the 40’s and the 50’s. I feel tango has been changing and, I think it will change more after we loose these dancers from the golden age. So I want to keep the voices of the pioneers for the dancers in the future. To know where tango came from, to know the roots and to transmit the tradition of Argentine Tango made by their people, and ancestors.
When I asked questions to the dancers “I feel tango is changing, and what is your wish for the future of tango?” I felt they were not quite ready for this question. Usually they answered “If you are talking about Nuevo, Nuevo doesn’t bather me. For me Tango Nuevo does not exist . Tango will not change”. I felt for Argentine people, dancing tango is such a daily thing, I guess they never thought about this dance in a cultural historical way. But when they hear “future of tango” they all stop once and tear their eyes.
For this trip, I started to write proposal letters for interviewing about a month ago. I wanted to interview Suzuki Avellanda (wife of Pepito Avellaneda), El Chino Perico also, but we found out Suzuki moved to south of Argentina, and El Chino, we couldn’t get in touch. I was very fortunate to get an interview the 2004 World Salon Champions, Coca y Osvaldo, by arrangements of Annatina Luck from New York and Daniel Aranda from Buenos Aires. And Osvaldo and Coca happen to live in Avellaneda! I was excited to hear Avellaneda, because Pepito was named because he was from this area. Avellaneda is located south of Buenos Aires, it is a rather humble neighborhood.
We took a train from the constitution. Beautiful train station! Like the ones I see in the old European movies.
Arrived to the Olvaldo’s town, we got off the train, I smelled grass. Kids were playing on the field. It’s countryside. Cross the bridge, by looking at the big map, and asking people, we found Osvaldo’s house. While we are walking I was told many of the famous dancers came from this neighborhood. Pepito Avellaneda of course, Carlos Gavito, Nito Garcia, Pibe Avellaneda and Pibe Sarandi. Many good dancers… it is hard to imagine this place (simple, nothing fancy neighborhood) created so many world famous dancers. So happy to be here!!
Daniel rings the doorbell, Coca and a happy dog invite us in. There is a big painting of Coca and Osvaldo in the room, and many photos of them on the walls. The painting was done by a friend from many years, a teacher of painting and it was given to them when they won the world championship as a present. I saw photos of Osvaldo on a horse and ornaments of a carriage with a horse. Coca said Osvaldo loves horses and he used to join horse shows and the ornaments were all made by him. As soon an I saw the ornaments, I said to myself “ahhh, Mano Blanca!” Mano Blanca is one of my very favorite songs, and I have many personal stories with this song. It is about a guy who rides a carriage with horses. I wanted to see something related with this song in this trip. I found it in Osvaldo’s home! Perfect :) Osvaldo says when he lost his mother, he went into heavy depression, and he made many of these, which helped him a lot.
and pointed other way, “there was one too”. Sounds like in ten blocks there were about 5~6 Milongas plus many small practicas in the 50’s. In that time, people danced on the street too. In the Carnival, (they say it’s like Halloween in America, and I think it’s like a street fair or Fiesta in little Italy), they had a Pasa Disco (Music player, the DJ for nowadays) came to play music on the street and people in the neighborhood gathered and danced. It happened right in front of Pepito’s house.
This is Pepito’s house. While I was taking photos of his house, one elderly man came out,
looking “not understanding what’s going on at all”, probably Coca gave him a phone call that we headed there. He was Pepito’s brother, he still lives there. Osvaldo explains the situation, then he went back into the house and brought one photo with Pepito and a paper looks like a certificate. (later on I asked Annatina about this paper, it is a certificate given to Pepito by the municipal because he is exceptional in the tango world). Mosquitoes were flying all around us, maybe there were like 20, I couldn’t think very well from trying 
to avoid mosquitoes. And looks like these mosquitoes don’t bite the locals. I was told this house has an oven from Italy, a special oven to make pizza. Then I remembered that YES! I read it in Todo Tango, Pepito’s father had a pizza shop and Pepito delivered Pizza. When he delivered pizzas to dancing places and he didn’t come home ‘til 6 in the morning, then he continued to work without any sleep. He was crazy with dancing. I couldn't believe myself I was actually looking at the real place with my eyes, in front of me. Pepito’s brother kindly told us to come back anytime to visit.
Osvaldo took us back to his house, while he was driving he said Suzuki comes back every year. When she comes back next year, I should come back here, he will introduce her to me. Inside the car, he was playing “Poema”. What a pleasure listening to “Poema” in Osvaldo’s car! Played by Osvaldo, in Avellaneda, returning from Pepito’s home....nmmmm I am happy. Of course I got bitten by many mosquitoes all over my legs and arms. They are still itching today, even in this freezing weather in New York, after 3 weeks.
The following day we went to Sin Rumbo. Osvaldo and Coca were there. We didn’t know they were performing that night. It was a very nice coincidence, meeting them again! When they were leaving, they kindly asked us if we would like to leave together, and Osvaldo offered us for a ride. It was a cold night. It was pretty hot in daytime, but at night it gets cold. Annatina said this is so strange getting this cold in this season. I wanted a jacket. While driving on Corrientes, Annatina pointed out “this is Chacarita, where Carlos Gardel’s grave is”. When I was here last time I tried to visit the grave of Gardel, but couldn’t find. Instead I went to Abasto, did shopping at Carlos Gardel street. How nice to be with the locals! Makes everything so easy! I have to visit this time, and it’s right in front of the subway. While we were talking, now Osvaldo says, “Do you know this statue of Pugliese?” I said “no?” then he stops the cars and told us to get out, started to show us the statue. Buenos Aires tour, 2:30 am in the morning! He took my arm and made me stand in one place, then handed my camera to Annatina and took her to the middle of the street, saying “take her from here”. We took many photos by Osvaldo’s directions.
I told this story to my friend after I came back to New York, then she told me that once this Puguliese’s statue was stolen one night and it became a national news. When I was there, the statue Pugliese was there. They put a new a one. Pugliese was a communist and he got arrested many times while he was performing. A red rose was placed on his piano while he was taken away, and his orchestra continued to play.
For the actual interview with Osvaldo y Coca, I will post it when I am ready. I need a lot of help with translation. If there’s anybody in New York area who would be interested in helping me, please let me know. My e-mail is kumiueki@gmail.com
My journal will continue more. I have more stories to tell. Hope you are enjoying it. Kumi
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