OK, so two photos today and not of anyone actually tangoing either but two iconic tango places in Buenos Aires.
Carlos Gardel's Tomb, Buenos Aires
Carlos Gardel is to Tango what Maradona is to Football. Except more so. And he’s dead. The world’s greatest ever Tango singer, Gardel was killed in a plane crash in Medellin, Colombia in 1935. This is his tomb in La Chacarita cemetery. Recoleta may attract all the tourists, but I like La Chacarita better – it is much more attractive, with much more space and it has Gardel. What more do you need?
Boedo y San Juan, Boedo
Keeping with tango songs, the opening line of the best-loved one is “Sur” an elegy to Lost Love set in the southern barrios of Buenos Aires. The first line namechecks the corner of Boedo & San Juan, which is now known as Esquina Homero Manzi in tribute to the song’s author and, like Gardel’s tomb has become a shrine to all things tango.
Gardel is possibly overrated. Collier wrote a good biography of the man. He used to know the good places, Gardel. Avenida Alvear, there were a couple of tango places in that area, which no longer stand. The book details them all. Then he left for Paris, and New York, and left Buenos Aires to her own tangoistic devices.