Tango is the quintessential essence of Argentinian culture.  That claim could easily be misinterpreted to suggest that Argentinian culture is one dimensional and constant, as the perception of Tango is that it consistently involves a machismo man and a graceful woman. However, the reality is that Tango and it’s array of forms are as diverse as the people in it’s founding country.  After going to the Tango bar, I have learned how different one Tango dance can be from another. Each dance seemed to tell it’s own story, with it’s own unique emotions.

For example, one of the first dances involved three men and one woman. The woman began the dance with her partner, a stereotypical and unaffectionate machismo man. When he grew tired of her, he flung her away and left her alone on stage.  Two new men entered the fold, with dirty looks on their faces.  They grabbed the woman and forced her to dance with them, flinging her about about.  She, much smaller, remained graceful, with a sad face showing her despair despite her elegance.  I felt as though she was being raped in a sense, her dancing with them was certainly not consensual.  Later, her man returns, and his anger is not only directed at the men dancing with his girl, but at his girl for dancing with them.  The machismo man fights of the two men, and whisks his woman away, as cold as ever, blaming her for what was really his own fault. The dance was hard to watch, and it made me very upset at the male characters involved.

The next dance however, offered some redemption.  From the start, it was apparent that this dance would be different.  The man was heavy set, sturdy, not the typical skinny man we are used to seeing dance the tango. His partner, a slender blonde woman, was clearly out of his league.  But when the dance started, the man gave an uncanny display of his dexterity, his ability to dance and move were beyond anything I could have imagined for a man of his body type.  More importantly however, was that he was smiling, always smiling, at his partner.  It was obvious he wanted her.  But not in the aggressive machismo way displayed earlier,  but rather in a sweet and humorous way.  He was a gentleman, inviting his partner to dance, not taking her by force.  The woman, amused by his interest, played with him.  She would indulge him for a little, then push him away, with a coy smile saying “try harder.”  The man however, never lost his smile. He never became discouraged, and continued to try his best to impress the woman of his dreams.  He remained confident, never doubting his ability to win her over. However much she teased him, it was obvious to everyone involved what the end result would be.  When she finally relented,  and the two happily embraced, I could feel myself smiling, just like him.

If there is anything I learned from watching a Tango show, it is that every dance is different, each story it’s own.  There is no one way to do Tango, there is not one way a Tango dancer should look.  Tango is a diverse dance, capable of inflicting it’s admirers with a myriad of emotions; it is of little surprise that the dance is so loved.

The Jewish neighborhood was going to be special for me no matter what.  I was eager to explore the history of my Jewish-Argentinian grandfather.  I also was curious to see what the Latino-Jewish neigherhood would look like in the modern day. Some parts of the neighborhood I found familiar, other aspects were a little surprising. The Mizuzot on the doorway of each business was a common connection to Jews around the world, and showed that the community had many religious Jews running their businesses in the district.  On the other hand,  I had never expected the primary business of the area to be textiles. I suppose I had heard stories of tailors in the shtettles of Russia. However, the sheer number of stores, lined up next to each other (for what seemed like miles) of essentially the same thing, made me wonder how there could possibly be a consumer market large enough for such a huge quantity of textile stores.

The visit to AMIA was another part of the tour with which I could relate.  Even back home in Cleveland, we have our own Jewish Federation, and the concept was very familiar to me.  Usually in the United States there is a separate Jewish Federation for each city with a major Jewish population.  Interestingly, Argentina only has AMIA, as 80% of Argentina’s 300,000 Jews live in Buenos Aires.  AMIA provides many of the same services for the Jewish community in Argentina that our Federations do back home.

The terrorist attacks against AMIA and the Israeli Embassy truly hit home for me. Seeing the memorials for each made me feel for the victims of terror, and shows that the world still has a ways to go when dealing with anti-semitism.  What amazes me, however, is that more than 20 years later, the Argentinian government still has not found the culprit.  I can only imagine the public outcry if America simply took no action and had no response to 9/11. While justice still has yet to be served, I was happy to see such a thriving Jewish community, and that even through adversity the Jewish community still took pride in their culture and country.