Probably those who don’t live in Argentina or Uruguay don’t know much about this story, so I will give some details. The most famous tango singer of the history is Carlos Gardel, currently going for his 70 years death anniversary. The traditional story says that Gardel was born in Toulouse and that came to Argentina at a really young age. But there’s another version saying that he was actually born at Tacuarembo, an uruguayan city.

One could ask, from common sense, is it really that important to determined where was Gardel born? didn’t he make his whole career in Argentina? didn’t he sing about Buenos Aires? But it’s not so simple: to determine where was Gardel’s place of origin would allow to legitimitize, for example, a series of touristic businesses related to it. For instance, the official website of Montevideo (Uruguay’s capital city) tourism office; Montevideo Invita, speaks about the “universal uruguayan singer Carlos Gardel”. And in 2004 I read on the newspaper El Pais a note that asked to declare as “enemy of the uruguayan nation” an argentinean judge that resolved to recognize Gardel as french (if anyone has the URL address of this note, I would appreciate to share it with me, since I haven’t found it at El Pais site). While we could say that here are also taking part old issues such as nationalism, I’m afraid the commercial issue has much more to do with it. For example, in the place where he would have been born in Tacuarembo, there’s a museum and guided visits are being made.

To be honest, I find this matter of polemic around Carlos Gardel rather amusing. Frankly, I couldn’t care less about where was he born. I remark this because when I search through some websites about this topic, I find quite passionate positions on this issue. More likely, what I’m trying to show is how a historical battle is also a struggle for a specific symbolic capital, that works quite efficiently inside the touristic field: to determine where was Gardel born would allow to legitimize a series of important touristic events in that place. I will now cite what the montevidean newspaper, El Pais, published: “Turned into a touristic industry, the intendency of Tacuarembo has implemented a “gardelian tour” to let the visitor know the different places related to the life of the author of El dia que me quieras. The tour includes key locations in Gardel’s history such as the city’s cathedral, the police station, the cemetery, the Escayola theater and the hause where the singer was born, now turned into a museum. All these places are pieces of the complex, fascinating and long silented puzzle that reveals the vital itinerary of the Zorzal Ciollo”.

Now, when will I be getting a coffee mug with the legend “Tacuarembo, the birth place of Carlos Gardel” on it?

Spanish Version Here

A note by Brecha magazine deals with the topic of the growing night life of Ciudad Vieja, the district where Montevideo was born, long ago. I have already talked about this in this blog around march 2004 (spanish only), in an entry where I stated my surprise for the vitality of a zone that seems to deteriorate every time more. Keeping the magazine’s tone, a traditional representative of a good sector of Uruguay’s left sector, the note emphasizes on the initiatives of the authorities and vendors of the zone, who want to increase the security and eliminate those “small beggars” that go around asking for money. This is not new; as long as the zone becomes popular and even gains touristic status, the topic of “security” starts growing more and more. But the topic goes beyond simple thefts and goes to other many common topics in Rio de la Plata. Items such as “car watchers” -people who demand tip in exchange of keeping an eye on your car, absolutely informal, and who will probably damage it if you don’t give them anything- fit into this problem.

As time goes by, it seems more clear that Ciudad Vieja, a zone that for many decades has been one of the poorests of Montevideo, acquires certain particular characteristics of enclave. But, as in La Boca in Buenos Aires, the work here is complex for the “touristificators”: they have to make the zone attractive and safe, and for this they have to put a limit to poverty, which is right there, across the street. Obviously, the proposed solution is usually repression and control. About social policies to improve the zone, we better not even talk about…

And while the growth of the life in Ciudad Vieja has caused more than one security problem, Montevideo is still much safer than most of the big latin american cities. While I haven’t been there since june of 2004, I always loved walking around its streets, even in Ciudad Vieja, late at night.

The note can be found at Brecha (spanish only). Benito from Fuck You, Tiger gives his native, montevidean opinion on the subject (spanish only too).

Is the old institution of the bus fare collector men dissappearing? Montevideo’s buses have more busdriver-fare collector than it used to. It might be a matter of costs, but the truth is that bus fare is pretty higher than other places in Latin America.

Why is it that on weekend days the streets of Montevideo look so desert? Except for the ‘mercado del puerto’ and some zones of the 18 de julio avenue, there’s very few people in the streets. Could it be the cold weather?

The Parque Rodó is slowly decaying. Their 60s era games are almost empty. And although the cold weather and today’s rain doesn’t help, the truth is that it was sad to look at all those empty seats in the games. It took only a couple of people to jump in one of them to make them work. The good thing is I got to take a couple of pictures.

Ok. So, now it’s the turn of my ride around Ciudad Vieja (old town) -actually, my hotel is a couple of blocks away- which has become the center of Montevideo’s night life. And tomorrow I will go the Tristan Narvaja fair, a classic.

Something I have noticed: everywhere, newspapers and maganzines, you can find a note about the anniversary of the “uruguayan Gardel”. Is it so important where was he born? At the end, when the man decided to sing a tango to a city, he picked Buenos Aires, so…
Jokes aside, I think it’s an interesting topic to discuss in further entries, since I run into many publications in newspapers and books -there is one in the newspaper El Pais that I will surely reproduce here soon- that vehemently seek to reaffirm the tacuaremboense identity of Gardel. Interesting.

Montevideo is, for the essencialist description of the “others” rioplatenses -that is, for those of us who live in Buenos Aires- some sort of surprise box. I’ll try to be almost impressionist: the Ciudad Vieja (old town) is the most touristic place of Montevideo, it’s like visiting a place that has remained in the past. Travel agencies that look like public offices, bars with old tables and big wooden counters, beginning of the century buildings, many of them in bad shape, and a long collection of cars with near half a century on top of their tires. Add the public services -yes, in Uruguay, services are not usually private- and bus tickets, the same ones of times when in Buenos Aires there were no expending machines. You can tell menemism hasn’t made its way to this place.

Up to now, I gave myself the treats I usually get when I come to Montevideo: drink Patricia beer, buy spicy burgers at street vendors and eat a croissant with ham and cheese at the Iberia bar, one of my favorites -this time I took pictures of the bar, I will publish them when I come back, in Album Nomade.

And I’ll leave you for now, since I’m going to lunch at the famous Mercado del puerto and I’m going to have a “medio y medio”. You didn’t think I was going to miss out the best saturday thing of this town, did you? If fog cedes tomorrow -the day started off almost white, you couldn’t see anything on the street- I will go to el Cerro to take some panoramic views of this town, before going to the Tristan Narvaja fair where I already have a mental list of the books I want and I’m also looking forward to taking pictures of the street vendors of third world hardware: Commodore PCs, really old keyboards with missing keys, Coleco Vision consoles.

As you can see, this is a very ‘tourist’ weekend. Although, I couldn’t help to bring a Kevin Meethan book to read…