[Tango-L] The ZVI MIGDAL group

[Hector Pablo Pereyra]

Dear Lucia,

I happen to live in a country that has coined the term "politically 
correct". Meaning, we change the words but keep the meaning: we are 
called Hispanics or a minority here, but we are still spicks, guidos, 
and other names. We call the INVASION to Iraq a war and justify it in 
the "weapons of mass destruction" that never existed. In the name of 
"democracy" we lynch a tyrant. Yes, Saddam Hussein was a tyrant and a 
mean motherfucker if you want to call him so, but also institutions like 
democracy depend on respect, and life and death are very serious 
matters, they don't or shouldn't belong to a cowboy movie.

By the same token we tend to deny and adapt things to our preferences. 
Tango more than this "romantic and sensual" music that we want it to be, 
is a music that depicts the struggle of the masses. In is inception it 
developed from the lower classes , it grew at the "patios" of the 
"conventillos", where rejected immigrants, the same ones that brought 
their political ideas to a country ruled by vicious oligarquy; the  same 
ones that fought for public education and free health care, the same 
ones that fought for their right to vote (for their sons, for the next 
generations of Argentineans, for you, for me).
Rejected by "society", the tango, found a melting pot at the bordellos 
and it meshed it's misery with that of those poor girls and abusive 
pimps. Do not take me wrong, I don't endorse those activities. I, as an 
artist and a natural born provoker, bring this historic facts to light. 
We can not deny that it is a truth of the history of tango and its 
evolution. The same tango, misogynistic, macho and some times brutal 
that everyone dances without asking themselves what the fuck does this 
mean ("no te parto de un tortazo, por no pegarte en la calle", "y le 
fajo 34 puñaladas en el vientre", "cómo una mujer no entiende nunca...", 
"me veras siempre golpeandote como un malvao"). Not to mention "codes" 
that everyone seems to like nowadays and tries to bring back, like the 
"cabeceo"- that disrespectful way of nodding to a woman (should I say a 
"piece of flesh"?) because you are not "macho" enough to go to her and 
simply and respectfully ask.

I grew up during the last military dictatorship and was told among other 
things that "silence was health". Well, that silence carried the 
desperate cries of the 30.000 people slaughtered by tyranny. We don't 
revise our past because it is "embarrassing" to us but if we don't put 
up with it, it will come back to haunt us.

I rather confront our own weaknesses in the hope that by understanding 
them we won't walk the same path.

As for boycotting my band (I am the one that came up with the name), you 
are very welcome. Non-consensus is a prerogative of democracy. I will 
permit myself to broaden your list of bands, places and people to boycott:

kiss: they use the SS in their logo. (maybe they are antisemitic? Don't 
buy their records)
Lansky (a lounge in the lower east side): Accountant for Lucky Luciano 
(don't have a drink there! Really baaad ass place!)
Wagner (whatever you do, don't listen to him. It inspired Hitler)
Nietzsche (when he speaks about the super man, he sounds like Josef Mengele)
Borges: be careful with that guy, his literature is plagued with 
assassins and malevos and prostitutes

Finally, don't forget that the axis of evil is not Bin Laden, it is 
IGNORANCE.

Have a good night

Pablo Pereyra