Does this Tango Sound Familiar?

 

Below are lyrics I translated of a famous Tango from Buenos Aires written in 1934, in the middle of what is known by historians as "The Infamous Decade," (1930-1943) which led to the coming to power of a charismatic fascist military officer by the name of Juan Peron in 1946.   (You can listen to the song by clicking on this link to U Tube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0kTiKCC3UI )

 

Background:  Argentina, far more than the US today, was a nation of immigrants.  In 1900 most people living in Argentina had been born in Europe, especially Italy.  As in the US, immigration helped create a growing working class that contributed mightily to an economy that was among the most prosperous in the world.  The immigrants brought ideas from a Europe that was seething with political upheaval related to dislocations stemming from World War I and major changes in the relationship between agriculture and industry, Germany and the rest of Europe, conflict between democratic movements and aristocratic forms of government, and conflict between labor and capital.  In 1928 Hipólito Yrogoyen was re-elected president of Argentina.  He had been president from 1916-1922, and governed on behalf of free and fair elections, expansion of suffrage, and reforms to benefit the growing middle classes.  Aristocratic forces in the large agricultural sector, industrial magnates resentful of the growing power of urban working classes, and sectors of the armed forces, were in opposition.  After the crash on Wall Street in 1929, bringing on the Great Depression, Argentina suffered disruptions in the export economy.  Forces opposed to Yrigoyen and democratic solutions, backed a military coup against Yrigoyen in 1930, headed by a pro-fascist officer, Felix Uriburu, ushered in a period of unconstitutional and often violent conflict between forces of democracy and authoritarianism, labor and capital.  Evenually these failures in governance led to the election of Juan Peron in 1946.  Peron was a fascist populist ruler with a fanatic following among working class Argentines, creating political chaos until the 1980s.  Governments that followed the coup of 1930 were the products of fraudulent elections, efforts to moderate between the economic forces that backed fascism (agriculture and industry), and efforts by working classes to establish themselves on a more secure footing.  It was also characterized by increasing corruption between government officials and agrarian and industrial interests.  This dynamic lasted until the 1980s.

 

Much of the political strife in Argentina was created by changes in the international order (Japan, Germany, and the US were on the rise, challenging England's imperial system) during the twentieth century--away from landed aristocracies toward stronger industrial economies and democratic movements spearheaded by discontented working classes who wanted a fairer share in periods of rapid economic growth.  These forces found themselves at irreconcilable odds, with no fundamental agreement among the players about how to settle these differences through the rule of law.  In this sense the Argentina of Cambalache is analagous to the situation in the US today, in which reliance on constitutional norms has given way to shouting matches in Congress, attempts to undermine honest elections, increasing levels of unaddressed fraud and corruption, a disrespect for the rule of law, and a court system that is, even at the top, increasingly partisan.   Instead of thinking about the health of the whole, partisanship, in turn, diverts attention away from the act of governance (a balancing act) on behalf of the whole, toward trivia, identity politics, deliberate lies about the nature of reality, simplistic formulas for solving the world's problems, and the pursuit of naked personal power.  Both major parties are guilty of these insults to reasonability, so much so that more people are in the "independent" category than are members of the two major parties.

The song, Cambalache, captures the frustration of ordinary people across the political spectrum at the consequences of this political instability on the collapse of ethical standards across the boards.  It also beautifully captures the urban tango-driven, Humphrey Bogart-like lifestyle and philosophy of the rising middle classes in one of the great cities of the world.  Cambalache in Argentina means pawnshop or flea market or junk store.

That the world is and has been a mess, I've always known, whether in 506 AD or in 2000.  We've always had crooks, connivers, and frauds, people happy or bitter, with values or duplicity

But that the 20th century is a showcase of arrogant maliciousness is something none of us deny

We live scrambled in a muddle of mud, a mud that's left us all with dirty hands

Today there is no difference between an honest man and a traitor, ignorant, wise, crooked, generous, or fraud/ It's all the same, nothing is better than anything else, an idiot is as valued as a great professor

There are no failures, no ladder of accomplishment, the immorals are neck and neck with us

One lives a phoney life and another robs to feed ambition, no difference between a priest, a mattress salesman, the king of clubs, a scoundrel or a bum.

 

What a lack of respect, what an assault on our reason! anyone can be a noble, anyone a thief, Stavisky and Don Bosco, and La Mignon, Carnera and Napoleon, Don Chicho and San Martin.  Like the showcases of pawnshops and flea markets, life has given us a scrambled mixture, a wounded bible weeps next to a water heater or a sable fur on a hook.  The twentieth century is a fevorish, problematic flea market, those who don't cry don't suckle, and if you're not a thief you're a fool.  Keep it up, keep it going, we'll meet inside an oven.  Dpn't think anymore, get out of the way, not one cares if you are honest, he who works day and night like an ox gets the same as a moocher or a murderer, a doctor, or an outlaw.  We live scrambled in the mud, a mud that's left us all with dirty hands. 

 

Note:  Stavisky was a famous French financier and embezzler, a sort of 1930's  Bernie Madoff; Don Bosco was a 19th century Italian saint; La Mignon was a term used in France for an effeminate man; Carnera was a famous, brutish, Italian heavyweight boxer, Don Chicho was a famous Argentine mafia boss in the 1930s; San Martin is the name of the great liberator of Argentina, Chile, and, in part, Peru, against the colonial rule of Spain.