Before the beginning of Uruguay's Carnival season--which lasts for 40 or more days from February to mid March, making it the longest celebration in the world--we were invited to El Milongon, a first class milonga, for a steak dinner and tango show. The words "tango" and "milonga" both derive from African languages, much like the origins of carnival. The musical style itself is a fusion of Native American and European influences set to an uptempo 2/4 beat that is shrouded in syncopation. This genre developed simultaneously around the Rio de la Plata in the 1800's, in both Uruguay and Argentina. The most famous tango, "La Cumparsita", was written by in Montevideo by Gerardo Rodríguez Sotelo, although the lyrics were later added by poets from Argentina. We all recognize this song after the first few notes--it's just another way that unknown Uruguay is a bit more historically ubiquitous than you might know...
Both inside and out, the restuarant and theater were adorned in soft colors, cursive script, and wrought iron sculptures of old men from days gone by...
Candles filled the niches of the rubble and concrete walls. A tannat wine--the specialty of the growing Uruguayan wine industry--was the only choice of accompaniment for dinner...
Singers appeared first, crooning about the love of their life that was lost to another lover, or some other variant on the traditional tragedy...
Tango couples, in fishnet stockings and slick hats, appeared through doors and down staircases, stopping to stare into each other's eyes, posing like stautes, before bursting into the kicks and spins that characterize this passionate style...
Live music of Spanish stings, horns, accordion and piano cascaded from the upper corner...
After a half dozen tango numbers of song and dance, we were surprised to see another genre emerge on stage: the musical traditions of gauchos. We learned that this famous South American cowboy culture, renowned for it's proud dress and horse handling prowess, also has strong musical heritage. The dance style involved more clapping and stomping to a steady rhythm, and most reminiscent of an older style of Spanish baroque, folk, or even square dance. It was very percussive, and part was performed with both men and women taking turns beating some big drums while the others performed...
And then, the Carnival history lesson began. Throughout the lively performance the leader explained the history of the traditional parade characters in Uruguay's celebrations. First, came the flag bearer--one of many who leads each neighborhood's group of performers--waving his flag, tossing it and catching it, to the delight of the outstretched hands of children. Second come at least four types of dancers: the baton twirler, the old woman, the old man, and the exotic girls. And third, the candombe drummers, pounding out a rhythm as they march and move the troupe forward like a musical army...
While the old African woman dances gently, waggling her well dressed behind, fanning her broad smile...
The bearded old man moves like a rickety rocking chair, regularly planting his cane while putting a hand on an apparently arthritic hip...
The candombe players are called a "cuerda". They have four drums: chico (small, high timbre, marks the tempo), repique (medium, syncopation and improvisation) and piano (large, low timbre, melody), and bajo or bombo (very large, very low timbre, accent on the fourth beat). Again, the origins of this tradition are African, but unlike carnival and tango, the candombe style is unique to Uruguay...And, of course, the scantily clad women, in glittering outfits of sequins and feathers, wiggle and giggle all around, waving and blowing kisses to the crowds...
We always learn more and more about this amazing country...
"Experience, travel--these are as education in themselves" ~Euripedes
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