2665  Gallo ciego

Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2004 12:07:56 -0300
From: Alberto Gesualdi <clambat2001@YAHOO.COM.AR>
Subject: Gallo ciego

Dear friends from tango list
It is interesting to know about names of tangos . In most cases, the tangos have music and also a script , so the explanation for the title could be found in the content.

In the case of Gallo Ciego from Don Agustin Bardi , there is no script , so the name of the tango could be

1) the game played by covering the eyes of a man or a woman , and then making him/her to find a person only with the voices as a help

2) a situation that happened at the fights of roosters , that were common during the end of XIX century and in the beginning of XX century in Buenos Aires.

The fights of rooster were authorized until 1885, and then forbidden, but continue for some years in private places.


Blind rooster / gallo ciego , was a situation , when one of the fighters got blind due to the wounds received ( since the roosters were provided with iron paws ). When the judge noticed this situation, stop the battle, and brought a tambor/wooden box , to make both roosters to fight in darkness until one of them win , usually with the death or the other .

When the rooster got blind and keep fighting , there was a special idiom to this situation "pelear de oido / to fight by ear ".

This fights of rooster were typical at the end of the XIX century , when the limits of the city of Buenos Aires and the suburbs were not so clearly marked, therefore at the outskirts there were musicians that play tango music and also folk music.

In those places the rooster was a part of the local culture, and many people used as nickname the word "Gallo" , such as Aniceto "El Gallo", a bard/payador that was always seen together with Hilario Ascasubi.

Also it was used to name places, such as "The rooster canteen/La fonda del Gallo , a place at the actual Once Neighbourhood"

The contribution from Don Agustin Bardi , may have been to use "Blind rooster" for this tango .

Rooster was also an idiom to define a brave person, and there were popular songs , like this one that some guapos/chieftains like to sing in a round of guitarplayers :


"Para mi no hay hombre fiero, For me there is no dare man
por mas bravo que se tenga, even if he considered brave himself
ya que en cualquier reqidero since at any rooster's fight arena
espero al que le convenga. I wait for anyone to come .

Yo soy el Gallo del Once I am the rooster from Once
De Cuyo y Nueva Granada (1) from Cuyo y Nueva Granada streets
Saquemele lustre al bronce You can polish the bronze plate
Que esta mi firma grabada" Where my signature is engraved

(1) Cuyo is today Sarmiento street and Nueva Granada is Boulogne Sur Mer street.

Source of this information :Miguel Germino
Published at PRIMERA PAGINA - Nro. 9 - Junio de 1994.



Warm regards
Alberto Gesualdi
Buenos Aires


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