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Ethnographic Rendez-vous
marker for Argentines living abroad and as a metonymic expression
of our lost urban environment. Finally, I examine my personal expe-
rience as a tango ethnographer, from my initial problematic represen-
tation as a non-dancing observer to my successful personification of
a trusted conversation partner.
Tango Milongas and the Argentine Tango Trade
The tango, a centennial musical and dancing form born in the Rio de
la Plata region (Buenos Aires and Uruguay) has achieved an unusual
degree of international attention in recent years as a result of the glo-
balization of entertainment industries, the transnationalization of eth-
nic trends, the increasing demand for ethnic tourism, and the renais-
sance of Buenos Aires as the “Tango Capital.” For the past fifteen
years, Argentine tango has become a traded icon of for-export artis-
tic spirit ready to be consumed by varied audiences around the world
(Pelinski 2000 , Viladrich 2004 b).
Tango became most visible in Manhattan in the mid- 1990 s, when
it left its hidden place in the inventory of the ballroom dances and at-
tained a social identity of its own, partly as a result of the talent of
local entrepreneurs who foresaw its potential amid an international
New York clientele. Thereafter, middle-class Argentine immigrants
and international entrepreneurs made tango a centerpiece of Man-
hattan dancing salons, cafés, and restaurants. The booming tango fe-
ver (tangomanía) has been accompanied by the arrival of a new gen-
eration of Argentine immigrants and amateur artists encouraged by
promising job prospects in New York City.
In recent years, Manhattan has become milongas’ ultimate hub to
bring together Argentines from different professions, generations, and
interests with an international community of tango aficionados (Vilad-
rich 2003 ). It is only natural for Argentines to become tango fans when
they are away from their country for a considerable time (see Savi-
gliano 1995 ).^2 Argentines from middle-class backgrounds dream of
home when listening to tango tunes, since most of these songs refer
to a “missing other” in the urban world: the old neighborhood, the
lost friendship, the abandoned lover. Even if passionate, tango never
