Re: RV:Milonguera or Milonguita

[Carlos Lima <amilsolrac @YAHOO.COM>]

A propos the current discussion on this topic, some speculations.

IN THEORY, 'milonguita' CAN be a diminutive for 'milonga' in ANY of its
meanings: musical genre, type of dance, dance event, place where milongas are
habitually held, baloney, or ... beyond Castillian, tall tale, and on and on.

IN PRACTICE, it just does not happen. I have seen or heard NO such use, not a
single blessed example, other than in New York, applied (by non Castillian
speakers, basically through a mistake) to a less formal milonga offered by
one of the studios.

Clarification of meanings in jargons is not an exact science, though the
precision of words in jargons varies --- just as it does in the vernaculars
--- from mathematics to mush. Claiming no certainty or even pop-expertise in
this, I am sort of convinced that the established meaning of milonguita when
the term was in common use was in fact that of a "loaded" diminutive, not of
milonga, but of milonguera --- since milonguerita would not sound nice enough
for the purpose. (I should add, by the way, that the term 'milonguita' is not
currently in common use. I NEVER heard it from an Argentine, and I have not
seen it used to describe contemporary reality anywhere, ever).

Until after the most recent tango revival, 'milonguero' and 'milonguera' were
BY NO MEANS nice titles. In the arly decades of tango they described people
who led less than edifying lives, people whose public lives, if not their
homes, were the red and pink districts, the night spots of all kinds, the
classical "entertainment industry", as either providers, profiteers, or
clients. A milonguera would tend to be, I believe, a dancer for hire of some
kind, a lower class mistress, a less than exemplary home maker, etc. (Or some
night-life habitual character by whom the speaker had been turned down ...)
In this somewhat speculative theory of mine, a milonguita would be the term
used to designate a "fallen woman", most likely a mistress, whom the speaker
feels sorry for, or likes, or wants for himself, or feels has been
victimized, by her poor judgement if nothing else, someone who for some
reason is to be designated by a softer term than milonguera (or worse).

What about current usage? Neither 'milonguera' nor 'milonguita' is in common
use, though one hears 'milonguera' used occasionally (mostly by non
Castillian speakers) to designate the female equivalent of a milonguero. The
term 'milonguero' is now a title bestowed on men who dance regularly in
milongas (i.e., who are SOCIAL dancers at least part of the time) and who are
viewed as excellent at pleasing the best female dancers, ladies who have
become so, of course, because they possess extraordinary talent and good
taste.

(It is often erroneously assumed that a milonguero is one judged to be good
at pleasing international lady visitors to Buenos Aires, who are naturally of
motley ability and judgement. Nothing could be further from the truth.
However, this is not considered a wise subject for discussion.) A person who
likes tango, has taken the trouble to study it, does it fairly often, and has
been at it long enough to be "accepted" in tango-ing circles, is a tanguero,
or tanguera. For instance, I am a tanguero, but I would be a (self described)
'milonguero' only if I were a JERK too, or had somehow got the meanings
wrong. (Rarely, a few of the self annointed ones write to the Tango-L,
telling us all the reasons why they should be adressed as Mr. Smith, ME
(Milonguero Extraordinario); but I have not heard them for a while, thank
goodness.)

I conclude with some remarks on a large/ly separate issue. Humanity has been
slow in considering poverty an evil. The european cultures did not start
taking this idea seriously in intellectual circles until the last 1/20th of
recorded history, or so --- roughly a quarter of a millenium out of a handful
--- and recorded history is, at best, 1/20th of the time that homo sapiens
have been around (probably much, much, less than that). But down to this day,
the resolve to remember that poverty is evil and that it needs to be
erradicated falters. The main reason is that the poor and down trodden are
not in a position to expatiate on poverty in general, or to do much to combat
it.

I do not detect a historical sex difference favouring women in either damning
poverty or fighting it with a view to its extiction. For reasons simple
enough to explain, in no way that can diminish women in general, the vast
majority of people who have spoken of poverty as evil, or effectively fought
it with a view to its extinction were males.

For women with requisite qualifications, marriage (upward), stable and
semi-stable "irregular" relationships, prostitution, and any number of
"classical entertainment" forms of employment have been from time immemorial
potential escape routes from poverty --- some more realistic, most fraught
with problems, often largely delusive. Common problems, other than the fact
that all of these careers tend to be of limited duration, were (and are):
increased risk of desease, and of death as a result of provoked abortions;
single motherhood; and, not least, the consequences of social censure and
discrimination. For better and for worse, these potential escapes were and
are available to males most rarely. I do not believe that males were
notorious in their moral condemnation of women who did not keep to the
straight and narrow. In fact, I would say that condemantion of the "easy
life", usually couched in religious terms, as well as the much more positive
preocupation with preventing young women from falling to its lure, were
characteristic themes in women's writings and civic action over the
centuries, including the earlier decades of last century (meaning the 20th),
e.g., in the USA. A famous, rich, successful,  courtesan of Renaissance
Italy, who was also a writer, did not propagandize in favour of the approach
that saved her from aristocratic poverty, she propagandized against it.

So, saying that "fallen women" were spoken of in this or that (condemning)
tone because men did the speaking is very high sounding in terms of current
political korrectness, but it would be considered quite rightly nonsense a
few decades ago, before sense was banned from the low brow common culture.
Likewise, to speak of prostitution as the doing of an economically dominant
male sex is a many pronged absurdity that, inter alia, ignores the fact that
the overwhelming majority of poor women preferred to stay, and did stay, with
the straight and narrow, in spite of (at least apparent) economic "losses". I
think it is unfair to ignore the conventional virtue of the virtuous women,
or the very real wisdom of the wise ones, that chose not to be "tempted". It
is certainly possible that women were [virtually] coerced into prostitution
by family or the criminal element, but it is rash to suggest that this was
the norm in the Argentinean bas fonds --- either circa 1900, as suggested in
a recent posting, or much later (after 1920, down to the 1950's) when those
types of lyrics started becoming common in Tango.

To say that Tango lyrics blame "fallen women" for their fate because they are
written by men, again, sounds unimpeachably korrect, and to me utterly
nonsensical. I repeat: it is not specifically male condemantion, rather more
likely the opposite; and, yes, there was choice in a poor woman's decision to
go that route, or not to go. In many, if not most, cases the long term
consequences were negative, so the evil choice amounted to poor judgement,
shortsightedness. More importantly, the typical Tango lyrics (and not just
they) rant and rave about the wickedness of women who fell, not because in
doing so they damned their souls, but because they went with another man
rather than the ranter and raver, say, a wealthier, or younger, man, or some
bad sort. It is not moral condemantion, it is not blaming of the victim: it
is resentment, some sort of cuckhold s lament. Any occasional reference to
morality is not to be taken too seriously. The telling of tales of woe
resulting from the evil choice is, again, not a matter of divine wrath
directed at the social victim, but a matter of spurned men feeling somewhat
vindicated as they carry painfully their antlers, their frustrations, or
both.

To say that the more unbridled times late in the 19th century and early in
the 20th, constitute a black hour in the history of tango is at least
misleading. The inability to see poverty as unmitigated evil in need of
urgent removal is not unique to that epoch, or to that Argentina, and it is
by no means the province of female poverty. In fact, it is still with us
everywhere. If one is to argue that prostitution constituted some
particularly vicious explotation of poor people during those decades --- the
"formative" decades of the tango --- we would need some evidence. What I
think at this point is that the more acute demographic imbalances around the
turn of the century (even after discounting all the absurd exagerations and
misunderstandings one keeps encountering) created an unusually high demand
for the products of the "classical entertainment industry". So it thrived,
comparatively, a circumstance more likely to benefit than to hurt its
participants. And, yes, likely to spark unusual and possibly more ruthless
recruitment methods. (By the way, importation of brides is going on right now
into the USA. It is very unpopular in certain circles, mostly in the USA
itself. Tales of horror are told about it. I am a little skeptical.)

We could try another tack to stay politically korrect. Those tango lyrics
reflect the fact that men are the cause of the evils of prostitution, because
there would be none without the demand for its services. No significant
amount of male prostitution has ever been generated. This sex difference is
engendered by cultural conditioning in the context of a patriarchcal society.
OK, now we are getting somewhere. If this is what it is, that is what people
should be saying. Nothing like simple ideas, clear thinking, and precise
formulae.

I wish we knew enough about the history of the tango to know, with some
precision and within at least indicative time frames, the relative roles of
the red district, the pink district, the barrio, the home, the stage, etc, in
the development and spread of the tango dance. (We know quite a bit more
about the music.) The part having to do with the red and pink districts would
then amount to a long black opening chapter lasting nearly one half of the
tango life span. Fortunately, whether the Tango is to a large extent a side
product of a thriving, prosperous, industry or the sobbing lament of the
damned of the earth, we have it here to enjoy without having to feel guilty
about anything. If one wanted to know which is which (I do) it helps to get
acquainted with tangos written and performed before 1918. One need not stop
at verbal descriptions: there are some recordings, and those who read music
can take a look at the older scores.

In any case, one has to decide where the men's sins lie. The prostibular
"tango scene" is a thing of roughly the first 40 years of Tango (1880-1920).
At that time no man (or woman) was writing nasty politically inkorrect tango
lyrics, because no one was writing tango lyrics at all (just about). The
lugubrious and politically inkorrect tango lyrics are from roughly the second
40-year period (1920-1960), and they often reflect nostalgically on the
"scene" of long gone prostibular days. At this time the tango was out, first
on the stage, at first being sung, later impressively orchestrated, and
eventually on the dance floor, being danced --- no hiding in dark places. So
all the femme fatale bashing was much ado about nothing in particular.

Cheers,


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