3487  Buenos Aires March 2005; la Pausa y la Cruz; part 2

Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2005 20:10:57 -0400
From: daniel dances <danieldances@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Buenos Aires March 2005; la Pausa y la Cruz; part 2

The kids are howling with joy as they tear apart the cardboard boxes to find
their presents inside. Other kids are howling with pain from pushing carts
loaded with those boxes, while others are howling with hunger because mother
has no milk to give.

Theyre at the cross, wondering if and when theyll collapse. Theyre
wondering whether to stick their neck out or disappear into the crowd.

Theyre waiting at the cross lights, theyve been waiting a hundred years to
dash across the street. Theyre waiting in the milonga for their favourite
dancer or in the barrio for their beloved, for the boy or girl of their
dreams. They wait for an opening. He waits, for her and she waits for him:
waiting is all. La pausa; the most important step in Argentine tango.

Theyre disassociating their torso from their hips; theyre disassociating
their huge dreams from their meagre salaries. The whole country is split in
two, between the Capital and the interior, between the cities and the
countryside, between the white-faced, the brown, the black, mulatto and the
red.


Theyre looking over their shoulder to spot the pickpockets, looking over
their shoulder to see whos coming in the milonga tonight, looking back on
the dirty war, the disappeared and the kidnapped, wondering if theyre ever
gonna come home.

Theyre looking far back at their bloody history, the massacre of the
Indians and the deportation of the black slaves, wondering what the hell
happened back then and whether there will ever be a future. Theyre hoping
and praying for an opening.
In a milonga someone is doing a salida.

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