In the first years of the past century, it was 1906 if memory serves, Evaristo Carriego, the big bard of Barrio Palermo and master of Jorge Luis Borges, wrote a long poem in lunfardo (the thieves' slang in those days) that afterwards was published by a Police journal ironically titled "L.C." (Ladron Conocido, or Habitual Criminal).
Eighty years after, in the notorious Buenos Aires' suburb that goes by the sarcastic name of Lugano, a milonga was established; the managers who evidently were acquainted with literature or sociology, christened it "L.C. Club".
The milonga crashed within the next three months; El Moplo, the managing director, was not a stranger to the undeserved failure. Moplo is Plomo spelled backwards, which is the porteño way to mean "as heavy as lead". In private life, El Moplo was archivist in the Police Department, A to L division, a rather unappreciated employment in Lugano Buenos Aires; as a dancer, he was one of the many. Nevertheless, he knew a lot of things about the milonga and the milongueros, maybe because of his job.
We have met El Moplo at the Cafè Celta, one glorious February afternoon in 1996; we have asked him some questions about the current rules in the Buenos Aires' tanguerìas.

Regarding the code, nobody is wiser than you, Moplo.

Well, first of all it is not properly a code since it is unwritten and easy to stretch. Our rules are like holes: their color changes according to what you put underneath. We are inclined to consider the code rather as a procedure, an etiquette.

The cabezeo is that sussultatory and undulatory operation of the head (cabeza), by which you invite someone to dance. It replaces and integrates the preliminary eyes-work. You can "cabezear" a woman if she is alone or with another woman or in the company of three people at least. You can not cabezear her if she is with a man: in this case, you have to go far to the table and ask him for the permission, but only if you know the man. Bear in mind that the cabezeo is symmetric: the woman too can do it. With the same rules of course.

It is safe that if you don't want to dance with someone who is looking hard at you, you don't have to cabezear. Eye troubles or the S.Vitus dance are no good at the milonga.. They can put a guy into a mess.

You meet her on the dancefloor or by the dancefloor, never at the table. When you are through, you walk with the woman till the point where you have met her or a few steps further. Not further than that. On the other hand, if you meet her at the table, you walk with her till the table again.

The sentimental affairs make things difficult everytime and everywhere, not only at the milonga. If two milongueros fall in love and then split, his friends will never invite her to dance, not even if he won't be present at that moment. The reason, assuming it is a reason, is quickly said: if one of his friends invites her, it means that he was already lusting after her when the couple was still united. That's why there are maybe one or two friends in the baile (dance set). Friends limit the action: you may find yourself following the changing fortunes of love as steadily as the Financial Times attends the stock exchange. Listen to me that i know what an updated infomation is. Yon don't dance anymore..

That's true. It happens all the time, even to the good milongueras: when the affair is over, they are bound to "planchar" every night. (planchar means to iron). Unfortunately, men made the rules. This city was made by men for men.

Not against men. At most they can punish another woman who agrees too much with the men's rules. Once, the milongueras tore off the clothes to a woman who was too compliant with us. They exposed her in the middle of the dancefloor. At the milonga, everything is common knowledge; whatever you don't see with your eyes, they tell you about in the restroom. No, i cannot imagine a protest strike. The milongueras are not feminists, they like to dance, not go into politics. However, i won't deny it may happens one day. I hope i won't be there

As we use to say, a "variador" is someone who "calienta la pava en todo lado y nunca toma mate" (warms the kettle in many places and never drinks the mate). It means a guy who is dancing with a lot of girls and doesn't commit himself with none. In the horse racing, it is a decent job: the variador walks the horses and show them to the bettors. Here it is not a good thing. Love and sex have nothing to do with Tango. Two dancers can establish a steady pair because they have similar taste in the dance and not in private life. There are husbands who dance with someone else's wives and viceversa, without the slightest problem. It is the Tango nature. The milonga falls off in quality when you go in order to "levantar minas" (seduce the girls), so the dance loses importance.. If a woman comes in alone, she goes out alone or with a group of friends. If a man comes in alone, goes out alone as well. Otherwise, it's no good. We don't like couples that are not entirely dance-oriented, if you know what i am hinting at.

Yes, because on saturday the husbands go out and dance with their own wives. Nobody has fun: they call it marriage night.

To begin with, at the milonga we don't dance just Tango. We dance all the rhythms: milonga, vals, rock, jazz, cumbia, salsa, fox-trot. And lately, you are not going to believe me, even folklore, with the prescribed handkerchieves too, as if that wasn't enough. All these dances are gathered into "tandas": the tanda of Tango, the tanda of Milonga, the tanda, what not, of Biagi. The tandas are separated among them by a regular piece of music, mostly an easy listening tune, which is called "cortina" (curtain) and differs from place to place. At the L.C. Club, for example, i used to play the Radetzky March.

Not entirely. Just a short snatch. The cortina is very old: in the past century, when a guy had to pay for dancing with a girl, they used to play a polka to notify that the turn was over and it was about time to pay again for the next turn. Each turn consisted of two or three tunes at most, in order to boost the income. The girls were the so-called "bailarinas de ficha" (token dancers). In certain places, with one token a guy was not even allowed to make a whole dancefloor's turn. It's a curious thing that nowadays all the dancefloor's lights are turned on during the tandas of Tango, Vals and Milonga and almost turned off during the other rhythms' tandas. That's why the average milonguero wants to show off his serious dancing and keep in the shade when he's making a fool of himself.

A licensed milonguero is always dancing along the floor's borders. He follows the "ronda" (the anticlockwise movement that rules the flow) and he manages his space, which is often very small. It's not easy to keep the borders and not let oneself be sucked into the middle. The good dancers keep the borders till death.

In order to see the foot-work. At the milonga, we don't do intricate steps or sequences. We just walk and that's enough. Other things count: the sense for rhythm, the musicality, the posture, the elegance, the way you "pisàs" (the way you touch the floor with your foot), the way you drive your partner, the way you manage your space, etc.

While you are dancing, you don't speak because if you do you don't listen to the music; deafness is no good for dancing. About the young girls... well, Tango is not everything. The presumed milonguero style is so trendy these days that the girls push in for learning, at their own risk and peril.

The peril is that the milongueros may lose their baile. The "chamuyo" (intimate speech) pops in when the real communication, which is the dance, is lacking. Who can not dance, talks. The talkative milonguero tries to impress the "gilada" (dumb set) with his words.

Nope, they all are dirty liars. I am the chosen. I know the producer.

Tango is my life, what else? I do what the music tells me to do. Without the music, without the Tango, i would be just an obscure Police archivist who does not know even the first thing of what comes after the L.

© The Tangueros Quarterly Review - Buenos Aires, february 1996

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