El tango, entre Florida y Boedo

Abstract

Even if some of the martinfierristas, the group of Argentinian writers in 1920s who identified themselves with the artistic avant-garde, preferred earlier versions of tango and rejected Gardelian style of interpretation, the popular music genre –in those days a growing massive cultural phenomenon– was celebrated in their poems and essays. That position is in marked contrast with the rejection of tango by the Boedo group, whose writers and magazines Los Pensadores and Claridad viewed the tango as culturally abject and politically dangerous (as it could steer workers away from their fights and the construction of class consciousness). Those contrasting standings on a popular music species emphasize diverging approaches by both groups on the issues of national identity and its relevance for art and culture.