The Gaucho and the Tango Dancer

He had mixed feelings leaving Salta for Buenos Aires.

How could he have considered as a real "Saltenos", as a "Macho-Gaucho" to travel to the city of the Portenas (inhabitants of Buenos Aires)?

What drove him to the Confiteria Ideal, located at a few honderd meters of the Obelisk at the Avenida 9 de Julio?

Could it be compared with the natural Obelisk, one of the icons of the Quebrada de Cafayate, the spectacular multicolor canyon in the south of Salta.

It had been at the Plaza 9 de Julio in the center of Salta that a Belgian tourist had revealed him his passion for tango.

The tourist didn’t realize how few Carlos Gardel was appreciated in the Pampa neither that outside Buenos Aires, Evita was not the kind of goddess as in the opera, otherwise, he would have started the conversation with the competition between Messi and Maradona.

Even Bergoglio was a better hit in Catholic Argentina although he was not the best friend of president Kirchner.

Argentinian gaucho's rather honor general José De San Martin, the founder of the nation, or Gil, the local Robin Hood at Salta and night mare of the Spanish.

Enrique is the name of our Gaucho.

He's Syrian of the third generation and at the age of 36, he married to an Italian of the fifth generation,

She grew up in Checoana, a village at about 35 km from Salta where Madonna's are still honored in a processions and where gaucho men and women are admired by the local community.

He's crazy about Balthazar, his 2 years old son, already owner of 2 horse and an pancho.

Enrique studied tourism and works for a local travel agency but in his free time, he puts on Gaucho clothing and goes hunting with his friends to catch his horses he let escape the week before.

"I don't trust politicians", he said to the tourist", tasting a glass of “torrentes wine” at the Piattelli bodega near Cafayate.

As most Argentinians, he's a bit reluctant to be outspoken about the Videla military regime, although he was just a kid at that time.

"The country is ruled by the farmers and the truckers", he said, "because they take hostage of the country if they don't get what they want."

"Life is difficult for middle class Argentinians", he explained, "inflation has been up to 20%, so I have to negotiate every six months about increasing my wage but I never end up to the inflation rate.

It's almost impossible to get a loan for building a house, so we agree among friends to provide the necessary cash and hire equipment to construct on our own as much as we can do."

Enrique talked about his passion for the 3-day drinking and dancing carnaval in Salta.

"Gaucho's prefer playing Argentinian folk songs on their guitar", he said.

And then he switched his MP3 to Piazolla as if he wanted to convince the tourist that a Saltenos knows about all kinds. of music, even tango…

During the drivng through the Andes mountains, following the trail of Tren al las Nubes (Train to the clouds), the El Condor Pasa like panpipes music brought them back in the lost city of Tastil.

In the 15th centrury, the Atacama were conquered by the Quechuas (better known as the Inca's) who were beaten one age later by the Spanish.

In San Antionio de los Cobres, some  indigenous were gathered in the middle of nowhere to emphasize the Argentinian presence near the border of Chili.

A social housing program and a small hospital had to compensate for this historical mistake.

The Purmamarca community and the mountain of the 7 colours were declared as cultural heritage by the Unesco and the cultural faded away in tourist business.

But their Pachamama or Mother Earth gets an indigestion of cameras, hotels and souvenir shops.

"Is it a good thing to "cultivate" these people?”, the Belgian asked.

"It's not a good thing to disrupt their culture", Daniel answered, " but it's neither defendable to leave them in their poor circumstances and unknowingness."

Leaving Salta on his way to the airport, Daniel remembered he Belgian explaining him the difference between Argentinian tango, tangowals, milonga and tango nuovo.

They discussed about the meaning of Volver, one of the favourites of Carlos Gardel and the limited number of songs without a "corazon".

I'll present you to Marina, the tourist had said, she's young, good looking and a perfect tango teacher.

Marina must have been in her early terties and she was married to a biologist who did ecological research on ants.

They lived with their 2 kids in a middle class house in Florida, one of the suburbs of Buenos Aires.

About 10 years before, she performed in tango shows as was demonstrated on a pamphlet on the wall.

She's the kind of woman you presume to have aristocratic roots although many Argentinians might evoque that impression.

Regarding the economic disaster of the last decade, Buenos Aires seems to breath an atmosphere of nostalgia and fainted glory, also resonating in tango music.

It’s the same spirit, you can experience in the estancias as Enrique thought about the El Bordo de las Lanzas, where his friend was managing the property of the aristocratic family Iturrieta de Arias.

When Enrique finally arrived in the capital of Argentina, he took the old fashioned metro, got out at the Obelisk which was surrounded by dirt and construction equipment.

“Macri, he mayor of Buenos Aires has cut the the wonderful trees in the surroundings of the monument”, Marina told him later, “and many portenas hated him for that.

He’s the leader of a new party, “Pro”, that in fact means ”conservative” and is related to the military and the big farm owners.

They represent not more than 10% nationally but up to 60% in Buenos Aires.

Kirchner and Macri are enemies!”

“I thought Buenos Aires was a Peronist rampart”, Enrique considered at that moment, “I thought the lobby of the military and the big farmers had their roots in the Pampa.

His distrust in politics was only increasing.

Enrique entered the Avenida Corrientes, took the Calle Suipagha and entered the Confiteria Ideal at the first floor, where he was  welcomed by Marina.

"Walking", she told him : "walking met your feet attached to the ground, walking on the music. Tango is a sensation from the belly down to the earth, it’s not in the head."

Enrique listened, learned, tried.

People were dripping in, they took a table, ordered for a drink and they danced.

El Abrazo at the first floor of the Confiteria is a place of tradition, where women are heavily painted, wearing coloured skirts with a slit, floating above high heels.

They looked twenty in their seductive moving and turning their hips en breasts even if they were born in the time before the second world war.

"Now your turn", Marina said, you're a man, you have to guide the woman but not like a horse, gaucho..."

Enrique putted his hand at Marina’s shoulder and they danced : the gaucho and the tango ballerina.

Buenos Aires dancing with the Pampa, dancing to a new future for Argentina…

And she gave him the illusion that's he was guiding her.

Cosi fan Tutti.

The speaking tree of Poznan

“What happened with your roots?”, a Russian tourist asked the Bald Cypress tree that was overlooking the swamp territory with an air of invincibility.

“Originally my family is from a country at the other side of the world and I was brought in this botanic garden at the time the castle of Kornik was build about 20 miles away from Poznan.

But after the Second World War, a communist swamp was invading my territory almost suffocating my roots.

I kept enough air to survive but too little to be a healthy flourishing tree.

In 1980 a working-class man with a moustache, understood that he had to do something to help me and he tried to make a revolution against your compatriots .

At the start, he seemed to succeed until the communists put him in prison in December 1981.
He recieved the Nobelprice for peace in 1983.

In the spring of 1988, his union, Solidarnosc, restarted strikes again and in April 1989, they forced the government to accept the Round Table Agreement than resulted in free elections.

Lech Walesa was president in 1990 but his charisma declined and in 2000 he obtained not more than 1% of the Polish votes.

At the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, when Michaël Gorbatjov was president of Russia and Walesa obtained his victory, I felt like an electric current in my roots appealing on my creativity to do something new, to make a change in my situation.

So I gradually moved one of my roots to the surface, pushed it above the ground so that it was able to catch air and aerate the soil under my feet.

This first move had to do with our language.

I don't think you realize, Mr. Tourist, but our fathers hated to speak German and we were reluctant to learn Russian at school.

So English became the second language indicating that our mind was directed to the West.

The second root that raised up, had to do with colours.

We had enough of the Stalinistic gray concrete and we started to paint the walls of the huge apartments in the suburbs.

Especially at our Great Market in Poznan, we nourish the colorful houses and our famous renaissance Town Hall.

We will never forget the humiliation when we were not allowed to place an eagle as our national bird on top of one of the houses because the Prussian Emperor thought it was a symbol of Polish nationalism.

The pelican remained but the symbol of the city was assigned to the fighting goats, friendly with the kids but fighting in the tower of the Poznan Townhall when the hour is ready to defend the autonomy of the city.

We have learned to belief in our strengths and to go our own way without provoking our neighbours.

So the third root has to do with our inclination to Western Europe.

We are part of the European Union and the NATO and we were considering to adopt  the euro as currency but I think it might be their turn to do some homework before we decide.

Many of us have studied or worked in Westeuropean countries but until recently it was hard for them to get good positions in Poland because the ruling establishment was sick on nepotism and self protection.

But also this will pass away because of the success of my fourth root : the installation of the free market economy.

In ’89, we were confronted with an hyperinflation of 700%.

Under the impulse of minister Balcerowicz, Poland has had an economic growth of more  6% from 1991 to 2006 and did hardly suffer from the banking crisis of 2008.

Maybe this fourth rote was in fact preceded by the fifth one : the revival of our creativity.

Of course you know the piano sonates of Frederic Chopin and the movies of Polanski and Kieslowski but you should taste our very local creations!

Let yourself invite by Michael and Joanna in the restaurant “Sun Bridge” where you can taste the smell of a new Poznan generation : two star food, friendly atmosphere, the voice of Zaz and Bayreuth and rough stone walls partly covered by wreaths.

You won’t notice that the place is not more than 20 m² but having a liaison to the bridge over the Warta.

Can I suggest, Mr. Tourist, that you take out your beloved woman for dinner on the bridge, locking your names at one of the posts and throwing the keys in the water so that your hearts will never be separated again.

It's more romantic than locking other peoples hearts by stealing their freedom of speech, don’t you think?

And when you walk over the bridge, you will discover the heart of  Poznan where they were brave enough to reconstruct the Peters and Pauls Cathedral in communist time.”