72  Borges & Gardel

Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2001 11:59:57 -0300
From: SMC Administracion <adm@SMCAR.COM.AR>
Subject: Borges & Gardel

Fabian Martin wrote

> Actually, Borges didn't like tango, he liked milonga. And he stated so in
> several occasions, and he even blamed Gardel for, well, taking tango to

its

> most femenine side (perhaps some other spanish speaking memeber can help

me

> with this idea, Borges said that Gardel "amariconó el tango").

It will be useful to make a translation of part of an interview made to
Borges by Antonio Carrizo,
a well known argentine radio speaker , a tango fan , an also an admirer of
Borges. In this long interview,
the name of Gardel arised, this is the part translated


" "
Carrizo: -Well, talk me a little about Gardel.

Borges: -I know nothing about Gardel. I remember that we went to the
cinema to see a picture from von Sternberg, with Mastronardi (n.t. a
friend) , that film was ...The Dragnet, 1928, or Underworld, 1927. We have
an epic impression .
We have seen the movie, we have been witness of all the braveness .. the gun
shooting , all that ... that world of northamerican gangsters.
After that, Gardel was scheduled to sing and we think :" The zamba, what
sad. AFter we have seen this movie, to stay here to be listening to, - we
said this, whithout any respect - to that maricon " .

And we step out and did not see him.

An excerpt from Borges el Memorioso, conversaciones con Antonio Carrizo,
Fondo de Cultura Económica, México 1997.
"end translation "


Now, as we may see , there is a far, a very far distance between "Gardel
amaricono el tango/Gardel made the tango a sissy one" , and the context in
which Borges, with his friend, make a comment about Gardel. And it was not a
tango, it was a Zamba .I wonder sometimes, how people here in Buenos Aires
make Borges say a lot of things, out of context. Borges is busier now that
it is dead than when he was alive . Almost every month, there is a new
scooping into his first works, or sketches for books, which is an outrage
for a writer, an intruding into his privacy.

--*--

Borges liked milongas, this is true. He also wrote the script for "Milonga
de Jacinto Chiclana". But the milonga Borges liked, was the one called
"milonga sureña" , a tune played with guitar .

-*-

Kind regards
Alberto Gesualdi
mailto:adm@smcar.com.ar