Below the equator vII: at the acam bistro mariam dances the tango

[The musicians at the Acam Bistro. The piano and the Bandoneon. Both gentlemen can sing, dance and play each other’s instruments. Photo is mine]

**

I love tango, and I used to dance when I was young.

~~Pope Francis

I’m a bad walker but I can dance the tango.

~~Melody Gardot

**

It was a very pleasant Sunday afternoon, cool even. A welcome treat after a few days of brutal 95+F heat and back-soaking humidity. It’s Buenos Aires on a Sunday afternoon, a time when the citizenry leave their apartments and stroll the numerous parks, sit in the shady places and picnic the hours away.

Some people, however, go to other places and do interesting things…like head to a favorite bistro and take part in a casual gathering to celebrate with songs, music and to move about on the dance floor. It may be a waltz but hardly ever a jitterbug. And it almost always involves the tango.

Mariam and I were sitting at a small table with Flor, our landlady, at the Acam Bistro in the San Telmo neighborhood. This was a privilege, because we had been invited to a Milonga, a casual gathering to listen, relax and enjoy the music of Argentina. There were no glitzy showgirls here, no tenors with top hats and tails. Just some guys playing and sending out good vibes and love.

A young woman sat up front, close to the musicians. She was a pretty brunette with a stunning smile. I looked away to the window and watched the trees on the street sway in the wind. I looked back. She was standing in front the pianist. She began to sing.

[The woman got up to sing. Sing from her heart. Video is mine]

After her song, she went back to her seat. But she didn’t sit for long. An elderly gentleman, a quiet man who was sitting near us, sipping a beer alone, got up and asked her to dance. They did a slow tango together. She sat down once again.

I went off to the gents bano. When I returned, the man was talking to Mariam. He went back to his seat.

“What was that about?”, I asked Flor.

“He asked your wife to dance,” she said.

“Mariam,” I said, “are you going to dance?”

“Not on your life,” she said.

I had a thought. Mariam wasn’t going to like my thought, I already knew that. But with gentle encouragement…

“Mariam,” I said, “you have a chance to dance the tango in a bar in Buenos Aires. How often will you get a chance to do that? It’s something you can tell everyone back home.”

“Didn’t you hear me the first time?”

“But, Mariam.”

“I can’t hear you.”

But I knew the wheels were turning. After all, she once said she would never climb up onto a camel. And there she was last fall, up on top of a camel.

Flor added some encouragement. I promised lots of ice cream, pistachio.

“I really don’t like ice cream that much,” she said.

So, I was not totally surprised by my brave and adventurous wife when she and the man went to the other end of the room…and danced the tango.

Yes, Mariam danced the tango in a bar in Buenos Aires. That would be in South America. A camel in North Africa and a tango dance in Argentina.

This woman can do anything!

[Mariam dances with the quiet man. Video is mine]