Tango y Cultura Popular ® English Edition TyCP Special | Page 9

One of the few who
referred to this “essence”,
investigated and defined
it, was José Gobello in his
short work entitled “The
essence of tango” (edited
in 1980 by “Cuadernos de
Tango y Lunfardo”). One
of the main conclusions
he reached in his analysis,
is that the mentioned
and shaken “essence”
is something mutant
according to each era and
the accidents of porteñidad
that tango expresses
(porteñidad understood
in a broad sense, not only
limited to the geographical
space), as influenced by
cultural changes, customs,
lifestyles, language, trends,
etc, in addition to the
predominant musical and/
or poetic influences. That
is, that such essence is not
something fixed, immobile,
but everchanging, just as
Tango has been throughout
its history’s evolution, and
so many works conclude to
demonstrate.
Perhaps the emergence of
new works in the mentioned
stages (as the style diversity
shows) provoked more one
conservative exclamation:
“This is not Tango, tangos
were those of ...” (and
here we put the names
according to personal tastes
and times). So where is the
essence if all of them are
different? There lies the key,
to understanding that the
Tango phenomenon, as it
has developed and develops
nowadays, recognizes in
the course of events
its substance, and in the
evolution its characteristic
sign. And that is its true
essence: its fidelity to the
essential characteristics of
each time (with its historical
burden), always nourishing
itself from its roots with its
springs running waters in
its sap. The 1910 city is not
the same in 2010, obviously.
If it were possible that an
inhabitant of that time, was
miraculously brought to
this day, when facing the
landscape, he would think:
“This is not Buenos Aires”.
And he would be right, it
is not his time’s, it is the
current one. And Tango being
born today is certainly not
the one that he knew, but
ours (if it is Tango, I add).
In this supposed game,
lies another key. New city,
new Tango (and therefore,
different). Let’s not deny
the inhabitants of the future
the possibility of knowing
how we were - artistically
expressed in Tango - in this
decade of the 21st century.
Let’s not freeze the essence,
let’s make it last with the
same root. And so, Tango
will maintain its validity over
time.
(*) (SADAIC Bulletin, No.
3-April 2010)
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