Tanita de la proa: Libertad Lamarque (1929)

tango argentino written by Vicente Martínez Cuitiño and Salvador Merico Libertad Lamarque de Bouza (1908 - 2000) has had one of the longest careers in twentieth-century popular entertainment in Latin America. Her recordings span nearly fifty years until the mid-1970s. She made some twenty films in Argentina and more than fourty in Mexico, where she settled after 1946. Italian girl in steerage: Charmingly tuneful advice to an Italian immigrant (with a ’fine silhouette’ and blue eyes) on her way to Argentina: don’t have illusions; don’t aim too high, as that can easily lead to complications (the kind described in tango songs); find a decent working-class fellow with a heart and settle down. (Nearly 2 million immigrants arrived in Argentina in the 1920s.)