3598  Portenio

Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 15:33:29 -0300
From: Alberto Gesualdi <clambat2001@YAHOO.COM.AR>
Subject: Re: Portenio

Hi Trini

As far as I understand, portenio in Argentina , means a person that comes from the city of buenos aires . So it is not an adjective but a noun related to the origin . The use of adjective portenio however could be applied for " a portenio tango dancer " but is not usual . And there is not actually a "portenio tango style " as far as I know, and may nobody try to teach this "new" style .

The city of Buenos Aires is 200 sq km wide . The port area is almost unnoticed for residents in Buenos Aires this days, except for the inhabitants of neighbourhhod number 57 , Puerto Madero, which is located nearby the river port custom and container cargo handling facilities. In fact Puerto Madero was built using old custom brick houses that were used to hold the general cargo that came in packages and wooden boxes, more or less until the mid 704s . I used to go in 1973 / 1974 to those buildings to inspect some wooden boxes when they came observed by port authority, Now all this area is a .... kind of dining and entertainment area, with a dock promenade, whith a marina for private yachts, and some other amenities, altogether with office and university facilities.

In fact Puerto Madero has a kind of I section ( the one I have just described) and a II section newly built and a III section in construction. Always, taken land from the river, in other words, for a Buenos Aires inhabitant is increasingly difficult to see the river . So the word portenio is becoming out of fashion . But there is not a new word still . The rest of the people of the country uses the term "portenios" to describe the people that lives in Buenos Aires , and there is not a very good concept about them / us , considering they are arrogant , noisy , shouting when speaking , cursing, bad manners, and so on.

Getting back to tango, I can t see what kind of walk could a portenio/a do actually that influence in his/her style of dancing . Maybe there is a walking . A comparison with New York ?? Well, could be ..... The time I have been at Manhattan , it seems everybody around was so busy that could not sit at a square or have a stop (except Washington square at Greenwich Village, that could be taken as a buenos aires square, they even have benches to seat ) or maybe some parts of Central park on weekends could be compared with Palermo lakes and woods in Buenos Aires.


................... But ,we must not be so cruel with ourselves portenios .. Buenos Aires is a lovely city , plenty of moments of quiet and joy . It maybe that when we walk for the few streets left , that are still made of flintstones /adoquines, and have not been replaced by concrete or asphalt, well, it could be , it could be .... a kind of swinging /cadencia .


If we have to produce a music theme that represents Manhattanites in New York , Rhapsody in Blue from Gershwin as shown in Woody Allen4s film is a good image.

And we have to represent Portenios ... well, is a very personal selection , but a lot of portenio feeling is embedded into the four seasons played by Piazzolla "Primavera portenia, Otoqo portenio, Verano portenio , Invierno portenio " .

Or a mixing of Danzarin , Nocturna & Payadora , from Julian Plaza


warm regards
alberto gesualdi
portenio since 1954
Trini or Sean - PATangoS <patangos@YAHOO.COM> escribis:
Allow me to clarify my earlier question about Porteqo.
(By the way, I cheat & use the cut & paste method.)

The usage I have heard is as an adjective, not a noun.
I usually hear it from women who will describe a
tanguero as feeling porteqo. We have also heard how
Argentines can tell a porteqo from the way he walks.
I suppose the difference is similar between being a
New Yorker and not being a New Yorker.

Pittsburgh is a port city, but it is the local dialect
and the Pittsburgh left turn that gives one away as a
native.

So what are the characteristics of being a porteqo
that are reflected (or not) in one's tango?

Trini de Pittsburgh



PATangoS - Pittsburgh Argentine Tango Society
Our Mission: To make Argentine Tango Pittsburgh's most popular social dance.
https://www.pitt.edu/~mcph/PATangoWeb.htm




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