June 13: Writer's Day

The date is celebrated in honor of the birth of Argentine writer, poet, essayist and journalist Leopoldo Lugones, in 1874. Founder and first president of the Argentine Society of Writers, Lugones is recognized as a precursor and key figure in the configuration of Argentine literature.

To commemorate this date, Milonga brings to its readers a brief review of the novel by the Tucuman writer Tomás Eloy Martínez published in 2004.

El cantor de tango by Tomás Eloy Martínez is about an American who arrives in Buenos Aires to write a work with a different perspective on tango, the perspective of the writer Jorge Luis Borges.

The book begins with Bruno Cadogan arriving in Argentina, in Buenos Aires, the birthplace of tango. His objective is to follow the trail of a singer, Martel. He is said to be better than the mythical Carlos Gardel, but his way of proceeding is strange: he appears unexpectedly in strange places, there are no recorded recordings and his essence lies in the possibility of listening to his voice live.
Cadogan plunges into a dizzying Buenos Aires, at the gates of the 2001 collapse. There, step by step, he will follow the singer's footsteps and will go from being a foreigner visiting the city to mimic the spirit of the porteño of that time.

Impeccably narrated, this novel is a glimpse into the life of Argentina's most important city. With a mystery in front of it, wishing Cadogan to reach his goal while being seduced again and again by one of the most emblematic writers of this culture -Borges- the book becomes a sort of privileged tourist guide.

To say that Tomás Eloy Martínez was critical of Argentine culture is a detail that is reflected in the pages of El cantor de tango. The fact that a foreigner is included as a main character to describe the sensation of a city about to explode, makes it more attractive.

I perceive it as a passionate novel, with definitions of Argentines, of porteños. Of course, and of Buenos Aires. A capital city marked by historical events that define its multiple spaces, for sweating art in all its expressions and giving away talents. Torn by a society in constant boiling, of accelerated life, of passions and fanaticisms so strong that nobody can escape them.

When a foreigner speaks of Buenos Aires, he does it favorably. It is a city that never sleeps and that Tomás Eloy Martínez knew how to perceive in the behavior of its inhabitants, their customs, their reactions and their actions. I don't know how to dance it, but thanks to this book I know a little more about the meaning of tango.

SOURCE: Rosario Arán (rosearan@librosyliteratura.es)