[Tango-L] Esther Pugliese is very ill - urgent help is needed.

[Nina Pesochinsky]

Dear Dancers,

Please forgive my clumsy writing.  I wanted to get this message out as 
quickly as possible.  I feel devastated and so I don't have many words.

I do not need to tell most of you about the Pugliese family - Mingo & 
Esther, and their son Pablo.  In 1995, when Pablo was 15 years old, he came 
to
the United States for the first time with his mother Esther to teach and 
perform.  He came with her because his father was unable to travel at that 
time.  After that, they had taught and perfomed many places in the world. 
Many of you in the United States know them from the days of the Stanford 
Tango Week.

Pablo & Esther (when Pablo was 11 years old):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktdMg_Mzs0w

Mingo & Esther recently: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoXe4bmeUEI&feature=related

The world of tango owes these people in a big way.  Tango would not have 
become as we know it without them.  The list of dancers they had taught
include great artists Pablo Veron, Fabian Salas and, of course, Pablo 
Pugliese, and many, many others.

This is a legendary family of tango dancers.  And now they urgently need our 
help.  Esther Pugliese is very ill.  I am including Pablo's letter to the 
world of tango.

Please help in any way you can, even the smallest possible.  Please send 
this information to your friends and contacts in the world of tango.  Pablo
is handling everything by himself.  His father is heart-broken and his 
sisters are in Buenos Aires, so Pablo is taking care of his mother and this 
situation alone, with the help of friends.

Here is the letter from Pablo (http://www.tangopal.com/cita.esther):

"Dear Tango Community, Colleagues and Friends,

I am reaching out to you because my family is going through an extremely 
difficult moment. My parents Esther and Mingo Pugliese, have been leaving in 
Italy (Pescara) for the last 5 years. On July 8th my mother was operated of 
a brain tumor and post operatory complications left her in a vegetative
state. At the moment she is in intensive care at a hospital in Popoli.

We are organizing a fund raising campaign all over the tango communities in 
the world. The only way of bringing her back to Argentina is with an
ambulance plane and this is our goal. Being able to bring her back to a 
hospital in Buenos Aires will also allow my 75 year old father to come back
to an environment that can contain him in this hard situation.

I am asking you, to spread the word and to participate in this campaign in 
any way that is possible for you. There is no little contribution at this
moment, anything that we can do together will mean a lot.

For those of you that had the chance to meet Esther or learn from her, she 
lives in every tango step that you or your tango teacher takes. For those of 
you that love Argentine Tango and know what she and my family did for this 
dance in the world, I ask you from the bottom of my heart to help. My family 
and I will be infinitely grateful.

My sister Marisa Pugliese and Gachy Fernandez are in charge of coordinating 
the effort, you can contact them directly at:
mlpug at hotmail.com  and gachuna at hotmail.com

To contribute direclty on line we had created a simbolic product that you 
can purchase at Tangopal website, please visit:
www.tangopal.com/catalog/129
You will find there all the explanations on how to proceed.

You can also deposit money in Buenos Aires at: (will be available soon).

We please ask you to spread the word with all your contacts and in case you 
wish to organize or participate in an event in behalf of the cause please
contact :

For events in Argentina: gachuna at hotmail.com
In the rest of the world: pablopugliese1 at gmail.com

Sincerely,
Pablo Pugliese"



Thank you, friends.

My warmest regards,

Nina
nina at earthnet.net
www.NinaTango.com
720-434-4342