To the city's poet laureate, Jorge Luis Borges,
Buenos Aires was as eternal as air and water. To many Argentines,
their capital city is synonymous with the country itself, and indeed
40% of the population lives in the city's massive, sprawling suburbs.
Buenos Aires is situated on the banks of the Río de la
Plata in the Federal Capital district, and not, as one would
expect, in Buenos Aires province. A city transported from its European
parent, its compact and regular center is reminiscent of Paris,
but its tree-lined avenues and frequent plazas have a beguiling,
faded elegance. The city throngs with bankers on the make and sophisticated
dressers mingling with the gaunt beggars and unemployed from the
surrounding shanty-town suburbs. Downtown, the Plaza de Mayo is
the traditional focus of activity, while nearby Avenida 9 de Julio
is popularly known as the world's widest thoroughfare and is truly
a pedestrian's nightmare. Avenida Santa Fe is the most fashionable
shopping area.
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Originating around 1880, the tango was the vulgar dance
and music of the capital's arrabales, or fringes, blending gaucho
verse with Spanish and Italian music. Carlos Gardel created the
tango cancion, taking it out of the brodels and tenements to New
York and Paris. Only after Gardel had won over audiences in North
America and Europe did the Argentine elite deign to allow it into
their salons.
It was no accident that the tango grew to popularity when it did.
In the late 19th century, the Gran Aldea (Great Village) of Buenos
Aires was becoming an immigrant city where frustrated and melancholic
Europeans displaced gaucho rustics, who retreated gradually to the
ever more distant country-side. The children of those immigrants
would become the first generation of porteños, and the tango
song summarized the new urban experience.
Permeated with nostalgia for a disappearing way of life, the melancholic
tango-song expressed the apprehensions and anxieties of individuals.
Its themes ranged from mundane pastimes like horse racing and other
popular diversions to more profound feelings about the changing
landscape of neighborhood and community, the figure of the mother,
betrayal by women, and friendship or other personal concerns.
The cozy Bar Sur,
whose walls are decorated with old masks and posters, is located
on a deserted street in a once-fashionable neighborhood. Instead
of the stage show and full meal offered by some of the glitzier,
more tourist-oriented establishments, it charges a $15 cover that
includes two slices of pizza.
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