Tango History Tango History Origins of the dance The origins of tango dance are not completely clear: there are different theories which vary. According to some theories, tango dance was originated in Argentina as a result of a combination of dance styles brought by French, Spanish and Italian immigrants. According to other theories, tango derivates from African dance styles. Although there is not complete certainty on exactly how this dance style was originated, it is known that it first started being practiced in Argentina and Uruguay, in the region of the Rio de la Plata, towards endings of the 19th century. Tango history in the world Tango dance soon became renown throughout the rest of the world after beginnings of the 20th century, when musicians and dancers from the Rio de la Plata brought it to Europe. This dance style and its music became very popular in many European capitals and other cities. Tango History - Trio Garufa Trio Garufa Tango Classes A brief Tango History by Murray Pfeffer The Tango, often called 'The Argentine Tango', is Argentina's contribution to the world of dance. The Tango came from the brothels and low cafes of Buenos Aires at the turn of the century.

However, at it's very beginning, it was a ballet-like dance between two men, which, just a little later, became the obscene dance of the brothels where both men and women had the opportunity to rub their bodies together. Over the years, the Tango has changed becoming an elegant and stylish dance evoking a picture of high society, with women in sleek glittering evening gowns and men in tuxedos and tails. During the last 25 years of the nineteenth century, the desperate poverty of a disintegrating Europe caused a great migration - "to make America" was the saying. Very large numbers of eastern Europeans emigrated to the New World. While New York City was a favorite desitnation, a great many landed in Buenos Aires with their few tattered belongings and a pocket full of dreams for a better life. Although a few emigres did bring their families, generally it was the men who came first to build a home and then later sent for their wives and children. Many found a new home in the outskirts of Buenos Aires during the 1880's.

Here, instead of their dreams, they found the stark reality of the meat packing houses along the Riachuelo in Buenos Aires, and near the port in Montevideo, Uruguay. In places like the Mataderos district of Buenos Aires and El Cerro in Montevideo; or along the docks on both shores of the mud colored Rio de la Plata, they worked from dawn till dusk amid the heat and the stench of spoiling meat. Many lived five and six to a room, in various housing conglomerates that came to be called "conventillos", while others lived in sewer pipes stored on an empty lot belonging to a Frenchman named A. Touraint and, in the Argentine vernacular, became known as the "atorrantes", - a slang expression which today still describes homeless 'bums'. The Conventillos housed thousands of poor immigrants, mostly from Spain and Italy, but elsewhere too, along with Argentineans from the provinces. Nights were often the worst times.

Italian, French, Turkish, Irish and German immigrants would congregate on street corners of the "arrabales" (the city's outskirts), or crowd into the bars where they could dull their desires with cheap wine and sing mournful Andalucian and Neapolitan love songs to the women left behind. In this 'male world' there was often violence as the alcohol and the cocaine took effect. Knife wielding toughs, called "compadrones," ruled the arrabales. In the beginning, the Tango was danced by two men - "the tango of the compadron". They danced not arm in arm, but in something of a ballet-like, style, expressing a tale of two men locked in symbolic mortal combat (and often ending in real combat). The expression 'ballet-style' may be confusing. In the Spanish ethos, there is a history of men dancing either alone, or in a group. Nowadays, we can conjure up a vision of modern day male Flamenco dancers dancing in bolero jackets, with a hat pulled low over one eye, and such. So too, with the early Tango.

It was danced by one man alone, -expressing his sorrows and hopes, or by two men expressing some sort of moral combat. This is the type of dancing to which 'ballet-style'makes reference. In time, women - many of them prostitutes - made their way to the ports. They too, found their way into the Tango. The "kilombos" and "enramadas" (brothels), where they plied their trade around the turn of the century, became show places for the Tango. French, Italian, Spanish, Polish, and German women were brought in to work in these bordellos. Supply very often did not meet Demand and eager men would wait in long lines. Not wishing to lose the "customers" to boredom while they were waiting, the bordello owners hired musicians - usually trios playing guitar, violin and flute -as entertainment. Mostly they would play the popular music of the time: polkas, habaneras, waltzes, and mazurkas. And, the customers, might often "dance" with a prostitute. Since these humble people had no dance training whatsoever, it must have been some very simple "walking" dance, with quite a bit of body rubbing.

(In today's ballroom, the Basic steps of the Tango are 'walks' and the dance protocol demands that the dancer's bodies be in contact.) Many men found momentary respite in these brothels of Buenos Aires. Here, both the new immigrants and the 'portenos' (men born in Bueno Aires) could find some companionship and drown their troubles in a few drinks. The grey stone and muddy streets of their barrio (neighborhoods) echoed their sadness. Only the rising sun would dull the pain of memories. It was a time when the Tango belonged to the night. This eclectic mix of cultures, the European emigres, the peasants from the Argentine hinterland, and the disadvantaged "portenos" became a new social class. They began to create their own cultural expressions. This "Tango culture", -the particular slang, usages and customs of the group, is earlier than Tango dance as an artistic expression. Today it is generally accepted that the Tango is borrowed from many nations.

It took the relentless African slave rhythms -the 'Candombe' and the beat of their drums (known as tan-go), and added the popular dance music of the Pampas (Argentina's prarie land) called the 'Milonga' .(The Milonga, was an early rural dance-form that mutated into the Tango around 1880.) It combined Indian rhythms with music of early Spanish colonists. The "Candombe", was a typical Uruguayan rhythmic form, well known in the nearby port city of Buenos Aires. (As an aside, it is interesting to note that 'True' Tango music does NOT use any drums in the ensemble.) The Salon dances (mainly the Waltz), -those involving men and women embracing, were the precedent for the dance, which was refined until it became what we now know as Tango. These early immigrants and societal outcasts, seeking escape from their own emotions and feelings, would soon develop a music and a dance that epitomized their loneliness and desires. The wail of "their" Tango spoke of more than just frustrated love. It spoke of fatality and of destinies engulfed in pain. It was a dance of sorrow. "El Tango no est en los pies.

Est en el coraz¢n." (Tango is not in the feet. It is in the heart.) The Tango dance originated as an "acting out" of the relationship between a prostitute and her pimp. Tango songs and dances, often highly improvised, had no lyrics, and were generally quite obscene. Titles usually referred to characters in the world of prostitution. During this period, Tango music largely consisted of the melancholy wailing of a bandoneon, an accordion-like instrument imported to Argentina from Germany in 1886. Between 1880 and 1930, Argentina developed qjuickly. Buenos Aires was virtually entirely rebuilt during this period. The beautiful old colonial Spanish city, with it's one story buildings and narrow streets, was replaced by a metropolis of wide avenues and beautiful parks. The tall buildings were of French and Italian architecture. (Argentina became one of the ten richest nations in the world, maintaining that position until the early 1950's when it's economy began a lengthy decline, lasting for the next 30 years.) During the prosperous period, the very rich had the habit of going to Europe at least once a year. They.

maintained big homes in Paris or London, where the nobility, the famous and the very rich regularly attended their parties. The French coined the phrase "he is as rich as an Argentinean" to mean extremely rich. Some young Argentineans visiting Europe introduced their "indecent" Argentine Tango to the Parisian nobility, and the dance took Paris by storm. Tango became the craze of the time. Parties were given with Argentinean orchestras, tango lessons and milongas. Even women's fashion changed. Bulky dresses were replaced by lighter, looser ones so the ladies could adjust to the moves of Tango. Tango rapidly migrated to the other big capitals, London, Rome, Berlin, and finally New York. Now the Tango became "respectable", and was soon re-imported to the shores of the Rio de la Plata and featured in the cafes and clubs frequented by rich Argentinians. But it was no longer the Tango of the compadron - the two men in combat.

"The compadron was replaced by the "compadrito" who dressed like him; the "fungi," a wide rimmed hat thrown over one eye, a white handkerchief tied around his neck, the short coat and tight trousers and, as a last connection to the toughness of the port, the knife at his side. But it was all 'looks', he had none of the compadron's substance." By 1912, the Tango, helped by Argentina's passage of Universal Suffrage, was becoming absorbed into the larger Argentine society. While the dance lost some of it abrasiveness, it's structure remained intact, and soon the Tango developed into a worldwide phenomenon. One writer said that even the Americans were doing it, although noting that "some ladies were given to wearing "bumpers" to protect themselves from rubbing a bit too closely against their male partners". "Eventually, the evolution of the tango took it to the better dance halls closer to "el centro," (downtown) of Buenos Aires.

The "fungi" and the silk neckerchief were replaced by the black tuxedo, patent leather shoes, spats and silk top hat." In this new culture, the tango musicians were now elevated to professional composer status. Roberto Firpo, an early pioneer of the genre, created the typical Tango orchestra. The piano and double bass carried the rhythm. The melody, with strong counter melodies and variations, was played on the bandoneon and the violin. Performance stars of this era included such men as Osvaldo Fresedo and Julio de Caro. A somewhat more rigorous classification of this history, that has become widely used, includes the dates and commonly used labels for the eras: 1900 - 1920 : La Guardia Vieja (The Old Guard) 1920 - 1940 : La Guardia Nueva (The New Guard) - The Epoca de Oro of Argentine Tango.

1940 - 1960 : La Post-Guardia Nueva (The New Post-Guard), - aka: "The generation of the 40's" 1960 - present : El Nuevo Tango (The New Tango ) 1900 - 1920 : Mainly the sung and small instrumental tangos (fundamentally trios and quartets), until 'La Orquesta Tipica' arrives on the scene, with the incorporation of the bandone¢n. Musicians like: Vicente Greco, Villoldo, Arolas, etc. One of the more representative tangos is La Morocha (Saborido and Villoldo). Perhaps, the Tango "El Choclo", best exemplifies the "Guardia Vieja". In 1907, one of the very first genuine Argentine Tangueros to visit Paris (France)was the song's composer, Angel Villoldo, who wanted to do some recording.

(At the time, Paris had the best recording facilities and techniques.) In 1918, writing Lyrics for the tango became all the rage with singers such as the tragic Carlos Gardel and celebrated salon orchestras like Francisco Canaro's giving the music a new legitimacy and acceptance. Carlos Gardel is still revered today, five decades after his death. Another of the more representative Tangos of this period is "La Morocha" (by: Saborido and Villoldo). 1920 - 1940 : Here, besides the tango with lyrics and authors such as Discepolo, the instrumental Tango becomes prominent. There are two groups of writers. The composers most identified with the 'Traditional' Tango include Juan Darienzo, Francisco Canaro, Pugliese, D'Arienzo, Di Sarli, Troilo, Tanturi, and (early) Salgan. While such composers as Astor Piazzolla, Julio and Francisco de Caro, Juan Carlos Cobian, Elvino Vardaro, try to take Tango into a newer form. But probably the most important evolutionist was Astor Piazzolla.

"La Cumparsita", is an excellent example of a 'Golden Age' song. Another example is the Tango "Celos", ("Jealousy" is the English name). Paris, France, was first to take the Tango to her heart, and soon after, the Tango took all Europe by storm. "Tango Jalousie" is a European tango written by the Danish composer Jacob Gade, and may be the best known Tango of the "golden age".In 1930, an Argentine military coup ended universal suffrage. No longer able to vote, the citizenry became largely apathetic with a concomitant depressing effect on dancing the Tango. A rather pessimistic philosopher/singer of the Tango emerged at this time. Enrique Santos Discepolo is perhaps most famous for his lyric, "The 20th Century is a trash heap. No one can deny it."The late 1930's saw a Tango revival when Argentinean's regained a good measure of political freedom. Celebrating their social rise, the Tango again became a symbol of solidarity and a part of people's daily life. Tango musicians emerged taking the form into new paths.

Among those musicians were such men as Fresedo, de Caro, Pugliese, and Anibal Troilo. Even wealthy intellectuals, far removed from the working class "orilla", were writing new lyrics for Tango songs. Due to their influence, The Tango became more romantic, more nostalgic, and much less threatening, -"a sweet remembrance of youth in an idyllic society that never existed". 1940 - 1960 : Musicians such as Anibal Troilo, Osvaldo Pugliese, Leopoldo Federico, Osmar Maderna, Atilio Stampone, are writing, strongly influenced by Astor Piazzolla's evolutionist line with "La Ulltima Curda" being a good example of the songs then written. Such poets as Homero Manzi, Enrique Cadicamo, and Homero Exposito are writing. In 1946, Juan Peron rose to power and the Tango reached a new pinnacle of popularity in Argentina with both the generalisimo and his wife Evita embracing it wholeheartedly. But with Evita's death in 1952, the Tango again fell from public favor.

With the advent of American rock-and-roll, the Tango seemed "out of step" with the times. 1960 - To The Present: Piazzolla's influence is so very strong, that many now divide Tango into Before and After Piazzolla. Piazzolla's big hit, "Balada para un Loco", convinced many doubting Argentinians that the "New Tango" was "for real". Another example is "La Bestia Potenciada", a big hit from the Tango heartland, Buenos Aires.The Tango still enjoys wide favor. Immensely popular (it is virtually the "national" dance of Finland), the Tango is again enjoying a world-wide renaissance. Several shows have already appeared on New York's Broadway stages, and another version is still a very popular and required ballroom dance in international DanceSport Competitions. . Many attempts have been made to trace the history of Tango, but nobody has ever found the exact root of its origins. It suffices to say that that Tango was the music of the "portenos", - the inhabitants of the city of Buenos Aires.

It is a "rags to riches" story that began in the late 1800s, when poor immigrants danced in Argentine brothels, and continued on to the glittering evening Galas of high society. Tango is still sexy and elegant, and danced with passion not only in Buenos Aires, but in London, Berlin, Tokyo, Paris, and New York, - but in fact, in every nation of the world, including Zambia. . TANGO GLOSSARY Culture from Uruguay - Tango Tango is originally 'made in Uruguay' - although the Argentinians, from the other side of the River Plate, surely will claim that t h e m brought up this erotic and sensual music and dance. (This discussion shall never end. But the important thing is, that TANGO h a s been invented, and that you can enjoy it with us in Uruguay, if you please to do so, or wherever you wish.) TANGO needs no mayor description. Everybody associates it with elegant dancers, beautiful women in tight dresses and sensual movements.

(And we hope youï¿½ll agree with us that our tango performers fit perfectly well into this overall categorization.) But there is although another kind of Tango, which is the original one: It is heavier, sader (you could call it the 'River Plate Blues'). It sounds more like classical music. Here in Uruguay you will get to know both of them: the romantic one (take care of your spouses or lovers, because our singers are pretty cute!), and the original one. The Tango lyrics always deal about 'life problems': Jealous women swearing revenge to the men who 'betrayed' them; abandoned men yelling for their lost beloveds. Love, hate, passion and madness are predominant - and also lyrics about lost hopes, broken lifes and existences. But the power of TANGO lays in transforming all those existential problems in pure energy and joy of life. And, of course: You never dance Tango alone ... IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF CARLOS GARDEL The unforgotton idol of many is Carlos Gardel , a kind of Uruguayan James Dean, who had a brilliant career and died young in an accident.

In the late twenties and early thirties, he did movies with Paramount Pictures, being the first 'Latin Lover' and heartbreaker in the upcoming film industry. Always smart, always perfectly dressed and styled, that was his trademark. Our modern sons and grandsons of Carlos Gardel are doing their best to make up with him, and judging by the applause they earn during every performance, it seems they are not too far behind him. Well known Tango musicians are for example the "Tango Trio Edison Bordï¿½n", which is integrated by the cream of the cream. When their leader, Mr. Bordï¿½n, travels abroad to play somewhere else, this is declared of "national interest" by the government. (No joke, that really did happen when he was invited to act during the celebrations of "3000 Years of Jerusalem"!). TANGO - FOREVER YOUNG Tango is more than 100 years old. The first Tango was composed in 1886. What is said to be the 'hymn' of Tango - "La Cumparsita" (download it here ) was written in 1917.

As happened with almost all popular dances, Tango during its first decades was considered as 'dirty' and 'not suitable' by the upper social classes. It was first danced in (well, what comes now is not for minors of age ...) whorehouses, where the therein working ladies used the erotism of Tango as a powerful marketing strategy to increase the sales probabilities of their distinguished services. 'Honest' women were not supposed to dance Tango. Therefore, men danced Tango - with other men. They did this to 'practice' (and to teach the unexperienced) for their late night adventures. This changed in the twenties, when Tango became socially accepted and conquered all the dancing halls. The 'Golden Decade' of Tango were the fourties, when Tango was - here in the region, Uruguay and Argentina - really everywhere. Tango never died. On the contrary: In the 80ies and 90ies, he had a strong comeback, finding also many followers in Europe and Northamerica where Tango schools spread like mushrooms. Here in Uruguay you can see every night people of all ages dancing Tango. This is because human nature never changes.

And Tango touches the very center of human existence: EMOTIONS AND EROTISM Argentine Tango -- A Brief History Archive of tejastango.com from 2000-2014 Argentine Tango -- A Brief History by Susan August Brown The exact origins of tango—both the dance and the word itself—are lost in myth and an unrecorded history. The generally accepted theory is that in the mid-1800s, the African slaves who had been brought to Argentina or their descendants began to influence the local culture. The word “tango” may be straightforwardly African in origin, meaning “closed place” or “reserved ground.” Or it may derive from Portuguese (and from the Latin verb tanguere, to touch) and was picked up by Africans on the slave ships. Whatever its origin, the word “tango” had acquired the standard meaning of the place where African slaves and free blacks gathered to dance by the time Argentina banned slavery in 1853. During the later part of the 1800s and early 1900s, Argentina was undergoing a massive immigration. In 1869, Buenos Aires had a population of 180,000.

By 1914, its population was 1.5 million. The intermixing of African, Spanish, Italian, British, Polish, Russian and native-born Argentines resulted in a melting pot of cultures, and each borrowed dance and music from one another. Traditional polkas, waltzes and mazurkas were mixed with the popular habanera from Cuba and the candombe rhythms from Africa. Most immigrants were single men hoping to earn their fortunes in this newly expanding country. They were typically poor and desperate, hoping to make enough money to return to Europe or bring their families to Argentina. The evolution of tango reflects their profound sense of loss and longing for the people and places they left behind. Most likely, rudimentary dance forms that may have been known as “tango” were developed in African-Argentine dance venues. These venues were frequented by compadritos, young men—mostly native born, poor and of mixed ancestry—who liked to dress in slouch hats, loosely tied neckerchiefs and high-heeled boots with knives tucked casually into their belts.

The compadritos took the dance to the Corrales Viejos—the slaughterhouse district of Buenos Aires—and introduced it in various low-life establishments where dancing took place: bars, dance halls and brothels. It was in these tenements where the African rhythms met the Argentine milonga music (a fast-paced polka). Soon new steps were invented and took hold as a new form of dance that combined traditions from many cultures. Exactly when and where the various forms of dance and music combined to create what became widely understood as tango is unclear. What is clear was that tango was considered a dance from the poor barrios. Although high society looked down upon the activities in the barrios, well-heeled sons of the porteño oligarchy were not averse to slumming. Eventually, everyone found out about the tango and, by the beginning of the twentieth century, the tango as both a dance and as an embryonic form of popular music had established a firm foothold in the fast-expanding city of its birth. It soon spread to provincial towns of Argentina and across the River Plate to Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, where it became as much a part of the urban culture as in Buenos Aires.

The worldwide spread of the tango came in the early 1900s when wealthy sons of Argentine society families made their way to Paris and introduced the tango into a society eager for innovation and not entirely averse to the risqué nature of the dance or dancing with young, wealthy Latin men. By 1913, the tango had become an international phenomenon in Paris, London and New York. There were tango teas, tango train excursions and even tango colors—most notably orange. The Argentine elite who had shunned the tango were now forced into accepting it with national pride. The tango spread worldwide throughout the 1920s and 1930s. The dance appeared in movies and tango singers traveled the world. By the 1930s, the Golden Age of Argentina was beginning. The country became one of the ten richest nations in the world and music, poetry and culture flourished. The tango came to be a fundamental expression of Argentine culture, and the Golden Age lasted through the 1940s and 1950s.

Tango’s fortunes have always been tied to economic conditions and this was very true in the 1950s. During this time, as political repression developed, lyrics reflected political feelings until they started to be banned as subversive. The dance and its music went underground as large dance venues were closed and large gatherings in general were prohibited. The tango survived in smaller, unpublicized venues and in the hearts of the people. The necessity of going underground combined with the eventual invasion of rock and roll sent the tango into decline until the mid-1980s when the stage show Tango Argentino opened in Paris. Once again Paris was ground zero for igniting tango excitement worldwide. The show toured the world and stimulated a revival in Europe, North America and Japan that we are part of today. History of Argentine Tango | Dance of the Heart History of Argentine Tango / Deb Sclar / Tango History / 16 Comments In the late 1800’s, millions of European immigrants arrived on the shores of the Rio de la Plata in South America, in the two port cities of Montevideo, Uruguay and Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Most of them were Italian and Spanish, and the vast majority were single young men looking to make their fortunes in America. They brought their music: the sweet sounds of the violin, the driving flamenco guitar, the strange mournful wail of the bandoneon – and their dances: the waltz, the mazurka, the polka – and mixed them with the Argentine folk music and dance, with the Cuban habanera, with the African candombe rhythms from the freed slaves’ street parties. With very few women around, many of these young men found themselves looking for excitement in the bordello districts of the burgeoning port cities. The tango dance arose in these seedy waterfront areas from this turbulent mix, becoming a “mating dance” between barmaids and their customers in shady nightclubs. Shunned by the upper and middle classes in Argentina, it nevertheless became a sleazy fixture of urban nightlife in Buenos Aires. Young men in neighborhood gangs would practice the steps with each other in order to become skilled enough to win the attentions of a woman. A beginner would often dance the follower’s part for six months to a year before being shown how to lead.

As Argentina became very wealthy around the turn of the century, the sons of rich families would often look for adventure and excitement in the rougher parts of town, and learned the tango as part of their escapades. Some of these young men of privilege would show off the tango as a treat for their friends on their sojourns to Paris, then the cultural capital of the world. The Parisians were shocked and titillated by this raw, sensuous dance. This led to a “tango craze” that swept all of Europe, and reached America in the years just prior to World War I. New York newspapers in 1916 feature ads from over seven hundred tango establishments. While the original tango was disturbing to many arbiters of good taste, a heavily sanitized version of tango found its way into the European and American dance academies, where it remains a fixture in ballroom competitions today. But in Argentina, the blessings of the tango-mad people of Paris led to an acceptance of the original homegrown tango in all classes of society. Tango musicians found themselves elevated from roughneck street performers to respected and adored composers. The tango dance became the courtship ritual of the middle class.

In the ’40’s, the “Golden Age” of tango, every night found half a million people dancing from midnight until 3 or 4 in the morning. The best tango orchestras would be booked for more than a year in advance. Each neighborhood would feature its own variation of tango, and intense rivalries often turned dance competitions into riots ended by the police. Elaborate unwritten codes of behavior in the “milongas” or dance gatherings became as much a part of tango as the dance itself. Influenced by the rise of repressive military dictatorships in Argentina after World War II, tango dancing slowly declined in the face of curfews and clampdowns on public gatherings. Tango music developed a rich new concert-hall tradition, more and more removed from the dance. The culture of late-night dancing went underground, and nearly all the regular milongas closed their doors. Accompanying the return of democracy and social liberalization after the Falklands War of 1982-83, a groundswell of interest in learning to tango surfaced throughout Argentine society.

A younger generation of dancers and teachers began reclaiming their tango heritage while re-examining the structural underpinnings of the dance they had inherited. Simultaneously and independently, the Paris debut of “Tango Argentino”, a large tango touring stage production, brought the dance back to worldwide awareness. In theatrical reviews reminiscent of the shocked Parisians of two generations before, Broadway, London, and Paris again became enraptured by the smoldering passion in this exotic dance and music, cultivated in far-off Buenos Aires. A new generation of Argentine tango dancers, tango teachers, and tango musicians found receptive audiences for their country’s primary cultural export. Audiences first enraptured by the stage spectacle of the bit tango shows discovered for themselves the passionate pleasures of the social dance connection, available to anyone willing to invest a minimum of time in learning the silent vocabulary of the dance.

Today, major cities around the world (including the Denver/Boulder metro area) feature active tango communities where strangers and acquaintances can once again meet to share the sweetness of “the three minutes that can last a lifetime.” Copyright (c) 2006 Brian Dunn & Deborah Sclar, Dance of the Heart – All Rights Reserved Culture of Uruguay Some main aspects of Uruguay's culture and traditions. Uruguay has a strong sense of nationalistic culture, despite its small size. The contribution of its alternating conquerors and diverse immigrants has resulted in native traditions that integrate this diversity. Uruguay has centuries old remains, fortresses of the colonial era. Its cities have a rich architectural heritage and an impressive number of writers, artists, and musicians. Here are some cultural traditions unique to Uruguay: Food Some of the typical Uruguayan food and dishes are part of the country's traditions and an element which often unites Uruguayans no matter in what place of the world they are. This way, one of the main aspects Uruguayans miss while being away from their country are these typical meals and flavors which are not easy to find at other places. The national dish and maybe the most worldwide known Uruguay food is the "asado" . ( read more...

) Family To the Uruguayos, Family is very important, and is the central part of daily life. Christmas, New Year's, King's Day, and birthdays are all reasons for families to get together, eat BBQ, drink a bit, and share each other's company. But it doesn't stop there. Sundays are huge family days, and the majority of people have a large lunch each Sunday at the house of their parents or grandparents. It is a natural part of daily life that they meet on these days, and families genuinely enjoy each other's company. ( read more... ) Asados Asados are social activities. It's a time consuming process, and while someone is preparing the fire (el asador) everyone else gets to eat snacks, and play cards. This Uruguayan food owes its magic not only due to the meal itself, but to the way Uruguayans use to meet, cook it and eat it together, many times playing "truco", a typical Uruguayan playing-cards game. ( Read more...

) Mate The drinking of Mate (pronounced Mah-teh) in Uruguay is a cultural ritual which is often shared with friends and family, and is a massive part of the culture in Uruguay, comparable to the popularity of coffee drinking in the U.S.; In Uruguay and Argentina it is common to see people walking around the streets toting a mate and a thermos with hot water. People who drink yerba mate do it as a social activity. Part of the new, more informal way of life in Uruguay includes drinking Mate while on walks, sporting events, at work, and is extremely popular among many student activities. ( Read more... ) Gauchos Inland, we find the culture of the gaucho , the cowboys of South America. To this day, gauchos wear the same traditional dress as generations ago. Complete with its own music and dance; gaucho is about pride and dignity, individual integrity, and national identity.The gaucho is intimately linked to the birth of the nation. His values and sense of liberty were a determining factor in the fight for Uruguayan independence. ( Read more... ) Carnival Uruguay attaches a lot of importance to carnival and the origins are European and African.

During carnival in the times of the Spanish colony, African slaves covered themselves with robes of vivid colors and walked through the streets toward the city walls of Montevideo, where they were allowed to sing and dance. The “Candombe” is derived from African rhythms performed by the Negro slaves of the colony. ( Read more... ) Tango The tango has an entire sub-culture centered on movement, music, and lyrics. Tango is love, hate, and passion. Tango transforms one’s existential problems into pure energy and joy. And in Uruguay, people love to Tango and they Tango well! Football (Soccer) Uruguay was the first football (Soccer) world champion ever. But did you also know that Uruguay won the world championship once more in 1950 in the enormous Maracaná stadium, in Brazil, where Uruguay won a historic match against Brazil 2:1? This mythical match is referred to as the Maracanazo and is part of the national myth of Uruguay.

10 Fascinating Facts About Argentina - Listverse 10 Fascinating Facts About Argentina Kristance Harlow December 5, 2013 Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, is the fourth biggest city on earth, but the rest of the world has surprisingly little knowledge of this vast and populated land. There is definitely more than meets the eye when it comes to Argentina. This list introduces you to Argentina by presenting 10 facts most outsiders don’t know. 10 The Tango The tango is a sultry and intimate dance for two people. Its moves and music are seductive and passionate. Easily recognized by the close embrace between dance partners and its quick decisive movements, Argentina lays claim to inventing the world-famous dance. Tango took its first steps by the Rio de la Plata, the river that separates Argentina from Uruguay. It spread to the working-class port communities of the city until it caught on in dance halls. It was the first couple dance that called for improvisation. In 1912, Paris fell in love with the dance, marking the beginning of its rise to international fame.

While the tango is now one of the most popular dances in the world, it started out as a risqué improvisation in the brothels of Buenos Aires . Before the tango craze spread through Europe in the early 20th century, it may have been a dance reserved for prostitutes who shook their tail feathers with clients. This theory of the history of the tango doesn’t take into account the other places where working-class men and women went to dance in the working-class neighborhoods of Buenos Aires. Regardless, what is known is that the tango is a dance whose early days were all about sex and gender relation s. The women and men who danced were playing out social roles through their movements. It isn’t called the “dance of love” for nothing. 9 Friend’s Day Most countries celebrate the ubiquitous Mother’s Day, which falls on different days in different countries. Paraguay celebrates Día de la Madre on May 15th, while Argentina celebrates in October . We can also find Father’s Day around the world, although it’s not celebrated as feverishly as its counterpart. What you won’t find everywhere is Friend’s Day , a day dedicated entirely to friendships.

In the early 1970s, an Argentinian scholar founded Dia del Amigo after he felt connected to everyone on Earth when Apollo 11 landed on the moon. Friend’s Day is an official holiday in Buenos Aires, although it is not a national public holiday. Friends gather, parties are held, and everyone gets together late at night to celebrate friendship on July 20th of every year. On Friend’s Day in 2005, a record number of people were celebrating their friendships. There were so many people calling their amigos that cellular networks went down in multiple cities and so many were in the festive mood that hotels and restaurants had no space to hold them all. 8 Dinosaurs In the last decade, Argentina has been home to multiple discoveries of gigantic dinosaurs. Giganotosaurus is a dinosaur genus found in Argentina . As the name confers, members of this genus are some of the biggest land carnivores to roam the earth. Roaming the earth on two legs and similar in look to the famed T. rex, Giganotosaurus was taller than its similar-looking cousin and had three “fingers” instead of two.

It lived some 90–112 million years ago and may have fed on another large dinosaur called the Argentinosaurus. Argentinosaurus was one of the biggest known dinosaurs. It was an herbivore named after the country in which it was found and is believed to have been as large as 38 meters (125 ft) in length and weighed over 75,000 kilograms (160,000 lbs). Recently, scientists studied how such a large animal was able to walk on land. They scanned the skeleton and digitally reconstructed its movements to study its locomotion. Turns out these gigantic dinosaurs were able to reach speeds of more than 2 meters per second (5 mph). Not only was Argentina a playground for huge dinosaurs, the oldest predator dinosaur found to date was also discovered here in 1993. This oldest carnivore stood on two legs with small arms and big legs. Called the Eoraptor, it was a little dog-sized guy measuring only 1 meter (3.2 ft) in length. Eoraptor was likely carnivorous, munching on animals 230 million years ago in the northwest of what is now Argentina.

7 Fingerprinting On June 19, 1892, Francisca Rojas’s two children were found stabbed to death in their rural home in the Province of Buenos Aires. The 27-year-old claimed that her neighbor broke in and committed the terrible double homicide. The neighbor was cleared after over a week of torture and a city detective was brought in to help with the investigation. Inspector Alvarez looked over the scene of the crime and noticed a bloody fingerprint on the door, which he removed the and brought it in for examination. He had Rojas’s fingerprints taken and compared them with the print on the door. After determining they were a match, she immediately confessed to the horrific crime. Rojas became the first person in the world to be found guilty through fingerprint evidence. Prior to her conviction, an anthropologist who immigrated to Argentina named Juan Vecutich had begun work on the first filing system for fingerprints. He was a pioneer in fingerprinting evidence and his filing system was the first in the world of its kind. After Rojas’s guilty verdict, Argentina became the first country to use fingerprinting as the primary form of identification in criminal records.

6 Southernmost Inhabited City Depending on whether you believe the Chileans or Argentines, Argentina just may be home to the southernmost city in the world. Chile’s naval base settlement, Puerto Williams, markets its tourism efforts on the slogan and the two towns are fierce rivals over who is actually the most southern city. While the official title is up for debate, Ushuaia lays claim to this tourist-drawing tagline. Ushuaia is the capital of the Tierra del Fuego province in southern Argentina. Home to around 57,000 people and covering 23 square kilometers (9 sq mi), the area has been settled for the past 7,000 years. Temperatures range throughout the year from -1 degrees Celsius (30 °F) to average highs of 15 degrees Celsius (59 °F). Tourists flock here to see arctic wildlife such as penguins, seals, and killer whales. Visitors can take a ride on the End of the World Train to the Tierra del Fuego National Park, where many of these animals live.

5 Animated Film Walt Disney is usually associated with early animated films, but Disney is said to have been inspired by the Argentine filmmaker Quirino Cristiani . An Argentine born in Italy, Cristiani was a young and enthusiastic animator who pioneered the animation technique of cardboard cutouts. Cutout animation is a faster and easier way to create animation by using cutouts of figures rather than individual drawings for each frame. Collaborating with producer Frederico Valle, the two of them ambitiously took on the task of creating the very first feature-length animated film. Called El Apóstol, the film was a political satire and premiered to rave reviews on November 9, 1917. Just nine years later, all known copies of the first feature-length animated film were destroyed when Valle’s film studio burnt to the ground in 1926. However, Cristaini continued to pioneer work in animation. In 1931, he created the very first animated film with sound . Peludópolis was another political satire made with Cristiani’s trademark cardboard cutout technique.

4 Che Guevara Photo credit: Alberto Korda Ernesto “Che” Guevara’s face has been adopted as iconography in popular culture for all kinds of counterculture and revolutionary movements and ideologies. His image is printed on t-shirts, splashed on murals, and hung on posters in the dorm rooms of inspired college students. The photograph most of these prints are based on was taken by Alberto Korda and named the most famous photograph in the world by Maryland Institute College of Art. It’s become such a popular image that, decades after his death, many young people walk around sporting his shirts just in the name of being trendy. He represents rebellion and individuality , his iconography becoming a romanticized vision of revolution. Guevara was a revolutionary for Marxism and is widely recognized as a central player in the Cuban Revolution. After medical school, he traveled throughout Latin America, and the poverty he saw inspired him to become a scholar of Marxism. The movie The Motorcycle Diaries was made about Guevara’s Latin American excursion, where he traveled with a friend who was also a medical student. In their travels, they saw extreme poverty and structural inequalities amongst the people.

Although his legacy is tied to his part in the Cuban Revolution, Guevara did not hail from Cuba. He was born in Rosario, Argentina, south of Buenos Aires. He grew up in Argentina and it was after he became a trained medical doctor that he began his revolutionary activities. Guevara died in Bolivia , executed by the Bolivian military in 1967. 3 Same-Sex Marriage Canada became the first country in the Americas to legalize same-sex marriage in 1999 and Argentina followed suit nearly a decade later. The social progress in this strongly Catholic country have been attributed to changing ideas about freedom and identity in a post-dictatorship government. Beginning with regional legalization of civil unions in 2002, Argentina quickly made strides towards legalizing same-sex marriage. In 2008, same-sex couples who had lived together for five years or more were granted the right to collect death benefits if their partner passed away. A mere two years later, the country legalized same-sex marriages nationwide . It was a dramatic statement for a country that is still extremely divided on the issue. Argentina is the birthplace of the first child in the world to be legally recognized as having two fathers .

Born to a couple in Buenos Aires in July 2012, this child is the first ever to have two dads listed on his birth certificate. 2 Cosmetic Surgery At least 1 in 30 Argentines undergo cosmetic surgery , and due to the low costs of the procedures, it’s become a hub for cosmetic surgery tourism. A less-than-awesome phenomena is occurring in Argentina called the “fashion model syndrome” due to the high number of women who are striving for an idealized body at any cost. Anorexia rates have soared in recent years and the country has the highest per capita rate of anorexia in the world. This sad trend isn’t reserved for females—one-eighth of patients being treated for eating disorders are men. Buenos Aires has a huge population of cosmetic surgeons, due to the local demand as well as the medical tourists who come from all over the world. Buenos Aires boasts some of the best plastic surgeons in the world, but due to the large number of procedures and the large number of surgeons, complications can occur in any number of surgeries. People are privately and publicly obsessed with their looks.

In 2009, the former Miss Argentina went under the knife for a procedure called a gluteoplasty, which is a butt augmentation meant to lift and firm the derriere. She suffered severe complications during the procedure and died from a pulmonary embolism just three days post-surgery. Maybe this is part of the reason for the growing number of psychiatrists in Buenos Aires. There are so many in fact that an area of the city has been dubbed “Villa Freud” due to its high number of psychoanalysts. 1 Natural Wonders Argentina’s diverse landscape and large land area set the stage for the extreme temperatures and even more extreme landscapes. It’s home to some of the most spectacular waterfalls on the planet and sets records in extremes for huge rivers and wildlife diversity. The Iguazú Falls are comprised of over 275 cascades in the north of the country, on the border between Brazil and Argentina. The water tumbles over heights of 80 meters (262 ft) and 3 kilometers (1.9 mi) wide. Many consider them the most amazing waterfalls in the world.

The falls are surrounded by a subtropical rainforest and countless species of rare animals, including the endangered Vinaceous-breasted Amazon, a wild green parrot. Moving south to Patagonia brings us up against another extreme in landscape, the glaciers of Patagonia. One such glacier is the Perito Moreno Glacier , which is the third-largest reserve of fresh water in the world and one of only three glaciers in Patagonia that are growing and not shrinking. Most people don’t associate Argentina with glaciers, but this one is one of the most accessible glaciers in the world and tourists flock here to see the power of ice up close and personal. The hottest and coldest temperatures in South America have been recorded in Argentina. On June 6, 1907, a small town in the heart of Patagonia called Sarmiento recorded a temperature of -32.8 degrees Celsius (-27 °F). Thirteen years later, Villa de Maria in the Cordova province experienced the highest recorded temperature in South America on January 2, 1920. The thermometer reached a sweltering 49.1 degrees Celsius (120.4 °F). It also has the highest and lowest elevations.

Santa Cruz is a southern province of Argentina and is part of the expansive Patagonia region of South America. Laguna del Carbón is a salt lake located in Santa Cruz, and at 105 meters (344 ft) below sea level, it is the lowest point in South America. Further north in the Andes is the highest point in South America, the Aconcagua . Located in the Mendoza province, it is the tallest mountain in both North and South America, measuring upwards of 6,962 meters (22,841.2 ft). It is considered a non-technical climb, and because of its height, many mountaineers consider it the highest non-technical climb on Earth . This country is less than one-third the size of the United States and holds such extremes all within the confines of its borders. This is truly a places with a wild and diverse landscape. Kristance is a travel writer, editor, and researcher. She’s addicted to globe-trotting and has done everything from teaching English to Tibetan Buddhist Nuns in the Himalayas to earning her graduate degree in England. An avid culture geek, she’s a trained anthropologist and archaeologist.

Originally from no-town USA, she’s a serial expat currently in Argentina with a serious love for chocolate and boozy cocktails. Connect with her on Twitter and read about her adventures at diggingtoroam.com More Great Lists

Question: What style of dance was invented in Argentina and Uruguay?
Answer: Tango