Modern Tango World #5 (Mexico)

A New Generation
Mauricio Salvador
With a new plethora of tango all over Mexico, this is a tiny guide to a handful of milongas and festivals
that maybe you might enjoy on your next trip to our country.
Maybe I should start by clarifying what a new generation
means for tango in Mexico. It is certainly not an
age group, or a group of dancers with a particular
style or objection to the previous generation who
laid the very foundations of what we now enjoy so
much. Instead, it is something more vague, like an
energy, a predisposition for trying new things and
challenging the current situation. As such, the tango
scene in Mexico is energetic and vibrant. But, it is also
unpredictable. Milongas are born with the same frequency
that they die. Sometimes, it seems that teachers
and professionals outnumber the milongueros.
However, the tango movement in Mexico is very real.
Right now, you can expect to find a true community
of tango dancers in Mexico City, as well as in the most
important cities of the country. But once you are in,
you will discover that is not easy to attract potential
new tango dancers, even in this country where
people really like to dance for every occasion.
Firstly, you have the obvious cultural barriers. Most
dancing people in Mexico are not active listeners of
tango, even if the music has been present since the
first decades of the twentieth century. The second
problem is to locate a place with milongas. In Mexico,
the big, well-adapted venues for dancing are already
taken by the more profitable rhythms like salsa or
cumbia. With that in mind, you’ll understand why
most of the Mexican milongas seem not well planned.
and why the parks and some other open and public
spaces emerge as the favorite places to dance tango.
Competing with the tropical rhythms for spaces,
tango has needed to appropriate its own places —
parks, cantinas, apartments, houses, wherever you
can fit a laptop and a couple of speakers.
Breaking through the inertia from the past years,
the current tango scene is not limited to the traditional
places anymore. From south to north,
tango enthusiasts are finding new places to dance.
Each one has its own character and personality.
Most of them are hosted by young professional
and milonguero dancers. Above all, this new generation
wants to share their passion for tango. This
new generation does not want to control what
happens in the Mexican tango scene. Instead, they
want to give back what every milonguero has once
felt, the gift of a real embrace.
In the last couple of years, Luciano Brigante and
Alejandra Orozco have been the responsible
for putting the words Mexico and Tango together.
They are not only the most accomplished tango
couple in Mexico, they also host two of the most
important festivals in Mexico. The Tango Chilango
Fest attracts many foreign dancers to the tango
scene in Mexico City. Tango Maya Fest is held in
Cancun, every year. It has been growing each year,
and has become a necessary stop for international
teachers. Also, Luciano and Alejandra host
Milonga del Ángel, a monthly milonga in the south
of the city.
— 12 —