Global Tangos by Fitch Melissa A.;

Author:Fitch, Melissa A.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Bucknell University Press
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Conclusion

What I have sought to demonstrate in this brief foray into Tango Queer are the manners in which transnational networks of people, ideas and images during the 1990s and 2000s—coupled with the development of queer theory, have led to a reconceptualization of Argentine tango as it is danced both in Argentina and around the world, something that has, in turn, influenced the ways in which tango has been represented in circuits of mass media. These new iterations of the dance often playfully tweak the foundational clichés. The economic value of embracing the queer tango movement had been made apparent to the culture industries and governments alike, thus occasioning official sponsorship of queer events around the world and manifesting itself in a greater presence in global mass media of polysemic narratives, in which the viewers are able to do a “queer” reading of a text—be it a film, television commercial, or television program. The transnational queer cultural narratives discussed here also demonstrate how tango has been used as a source of art and activism, as well as a form of healing for members of LGBT communities who had been historically and systematically marginalized. By joining together in both virtual and literal senses, these global communities, each with slightly different shading, promoted a form of tango that was concerned, first and foremost, with freedom. That said, queer groups were not the only ones that connected tango to healing and activism, as we will see in our final two chapters. But first, a story:

Beijing, China, August 2008,

Lai and Ho had come from Hong Kong and mainland China and danced queer tango in Buenos Aires. Eleven years later, I am in China, in search of Argentine tango. The Hidden Dream café is exactly that: hidden. It is tucked into a complex of old buildings that appear to be abandoned. Three individuals, an Argentine, a Turk, and a Chinese own the café. They decided to open it to promote tango culture in China, and indeed, as had been the case of the milonga in Istanbul, the walls are filled with images of Buenos Aires, and a few from Turkey. I sit in a booth with the Argentine. Our conversation in Spanish is interrupted periodically with quick burst of Mandarin as he directs himself to his staff. He has lived in China for five years, coming after the economic crisis. But why China, I ask, why not follow the path of so many of your countrymen who returned to the countries of their ancestors, Spain and Italy? “They are looking backwards,” he tells me, “ I am looking forward.”[97]

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