Judging Category
Basic or Experimental Research
Student Rank
Senior
College
Business
Faculty Sponsor
Dr. Nicholas Balla nballa@astate.edu
Description
Ethnic and Cultural Amalgamation in Buenos Aires and the Evolution of Argentine Tango
Argentine tango is widely recognized as a national symbol of Argentina, yet it did not originate as a unified cultural expression. This project examines how large-scale immigration and urban geography in Buenos Aires between approximately 1880 and the mid-twentieth century shaped tango’s musical language and social meaning. During this period, the city absorbed massive numbers of Italian and Spanish migrants alongside existing Afro-Rioplatense communities, creating dense neighborhoods where diverse populations lived in close proximity. Shared housing, informal performance spaces, and working-class leisure environments produced sustained cultural interaction.
Through musical analysis of representative tango works and historical study of migration patterns, this research demonstrates that tango’s melody, rhythm, and lyrical themes encode experiences of displacement, adaptation, and belonging. Rhythmic practices derived from candombe and milonga, Italian-influenced melodic phrasing, and urban slang in lyrics collectively formed a shared expressive vocabulary. As tango later entered formal dance halls and international stages, these structural features persisted even as the genre gained elite acceptance.
The study argues that tango did not simply reflect Argentine identity after it formed. Instead, it helped construct that identity by providing a common emotional language through which diverse urban populations understood themselves as a collective community.
Disciplines
Music
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Ehie, Damien N., "The Ethnic and Cultural Amalgamation in Buenos Aires and the Evolution of Argentine Tango" (2026). Create@State. 34.
https://arch.astate.edu/evn-createstate/2026/posters/34
Included in
The Ethnic and Cultural Amalgamation in Buenos Aires and the Evolution of Argentine Tango
Ethnic and Cultural Amalgamation in Buenos Aires and the Evolution of Argentine Tango
Argentine tango is widely recognized as a national symbol of Argentina, yet it did not originate as a unified cultural expression. This project examines how large-scale immigration and urban geography in Buenos Aires between approximately 1880 and the mid-twentieth century shaped tango’s musical language and social meaning. During this period, the city absorbed massive numbers of Italian and Spanish migrants alongside existing Afro-Rioplatense communities, creating dense neighborhoods where diverse populations lived in close proximity. Shared housing, informal performance spaces, and working-class leisure environments produced sustained cultural interaction.
Through musical analysis of representative tango works and historical study of migration patterns, this research demonstrates that tango’s melody, rhythm, and lyrical themes encode experiences of displacement, adaptation, and belonging. Rhythmic practices derived from candombe and milonga, Italian-influenced melodic phrasing, and urban slang in lyrics collectively formed a shared expressive vocabulary. As tango later entered formal dance halls and international stages, these structural features persisted even as the genre gained elite acceptance.
The study argues that tango did not simply reflect Argentine identity after it formed. Instead, it helped construct that identity by providing a common emotional language through which diverse urban populations understood themselves as a collective community.
