In a hovel downtown ran by a Galician, it’s common to see drunkards of the most diverse origins and pedigree meet. It’s unusual not to see an argument between the Galician and one of the customers. Sometimes because somebody pretends to leave without paying, sometimes because one of them tried to light a cigarette…the thing is that the Galician carries with him a folding knife, which he waved in several occasions threatening to use it.
Quoting Edmundo Rivero en el tango La toalla mojada: “…Era una ambiente espeso de varones” (It was a dense male atmosphere)
In this place, the only thing you could associate with to tango, besides a small picture of Gardel playing the guitar hanging on the wall, is Virulazo.
Virulazo is almost all the time in the bar. His age must be close to 70. Thin, good appearance and slow steps, protuberant nose and the look of an eagle. Every time he sees me, he strongly shakes hands with me and tells me: Boy! Tight! And after a while testing our strength he tells me: boy! You are strong!
Today we are having lunch in the same table. I am savoring a delicious piece of buttered meat with potatoes, while Virulazo, sitting in front of me is eating a melon, as usual. After he had a work accident while painting the ceiling of a house, he lost all his teeth, so melon is the only think he can eat.
Me: What are we having….red wine or white wine?
Virulazo: Red or white…it makes no difference…
Me: Of course it does…they are of different color!
Virulazo: Tell me…what color you prefer women…blonde or brunette?
Me: Both
You see? What did I tell you? (Laughs)
Tell me, Virulazo…when you dance tango…what do you feel?
Look…the music is profound…it penetrates your mind and it gives you joy…it’s like as if…you were winning one million pesos(laughs)…the joy is tremendous…the music gives you that…and a million pesos too!
And women? I wonder if they feel in a similar way...
They also want to have fun…look…one day I was dating this beautiful german girl…tall…thin…long hair down to here(puts his hand in the middle of his arm)…and we used to dance together…and i met this girl from Misiones…beautiful…cute…
And which one did you prefer?
The girl from Misiones. And the other one, the german…I started leaving her behind, you understand? And she came one day to me and tells me, come with me…let’s go…and next thing I realize she was threatening with a gun (laughs)
Really? And what did she say?
She threatened me…she was like a monkey with a gun…imagine…who tells you if she knows how to handle a gun, or if she knows whether it’s loaded or no…she can pull the trigger and says she’s sorry afterwards…but you are already dead.
Are you going to any milonga to dance nowadays? Do they charge you to get in?
Yes…they charge me 10 pesos…12 pesos…it depends on the quality of the milonga.
But you don’t have a permanent job, have you?
No…now i am having a hard time to go dancing…i have no job…I am a cook…but after the accident, because of the hearing loss, they don’t accept me…i also paint in houses…but there is not much work there…specially not at my age.
And can you afford the milongas?
Sometimes yes…or other times i get together with a friend that tells me: would you come with me? And i say…sure…if you pay.
Here in Talcahuano and Sarmiento, it is the Salon Agusteo. I used to work as a waiter, and to the milonga they let me in for free
And when you dance…how do you treat the woman?
With elegance…first of all…i let her act…you cannot ask a woman to dance and lead her the way you want…each woman has a different step…but if the woman is sharp, she adjusts. But it is very important to observe. You observe all that before asking her to dance.
Now that i see you with the melon, I am wondering if melon has anything to do with tango…
Hahahaha…yes, there are a lot of melon heads in the milongas… (Laughs)
And did you dance with many foreign women?
Yes…there are a lot of women from abroad that come here to learn to dance like us.
And you don’t need to understand each other?
But she is not looking for conversation…what she wants is to dance tango…with somebody that knows how to…that’s all…but they are very docile…you can kiss them and those things…they don’t argue…what matters to them is to learn the tango here and take it to their country. It’s really difficult to end with them in the horizontal position (laughs).
Once, in one of those buses full of tourist that come to see the tango, a girl from Bulgaria, that fell in love with me, due to the sense of sympathy, all with gestures, she was delighted, and…how did I make her dance!. She left happy. Sometimes sympathy is crucial. And you know…i gave that girl the telephone of the bar, and she called me a couple of times, from Bulgaria, to see how were I doing…
And tell me, since you danced with women from all over…who are the best dancers?
The Argentinean women.
Why?
They are the creators of tango. The European dancers…they are very agile…very light…because they also dance other dances like ballet, or modern dances…but they do acrobatics…they pull their leg to here and there…that’s not tango…tango has to be: elegant…firmly standing…steps so women don’t pull up their legs too much…
But how do you do so the woman doesn’t pull up too much her legs?
Leading her properly.
But if the woman wants to pull up her legs…she will.
The woman has to know how to follow the steps of the man…without doing acrobatics by herself!
It’s time for me to go. I said goodbye to Virulazo and the ritual of the strong shake of hands is repeated. He tells me: I like to talk to you. You are somebody you can talk to, boy…when will you be back? I answer: Not sure, maybe next week.
Nicolás Lévinton.
