Medellín es un tango: la polifonía de ritmos, memoria y arraigo – estudio de caso del tango en guayaquil 1920 a 1940

Abstract

This graduate thesis examines how the social practices associated with tango took part in the sociocultural production of the Guayaquil neighborhood, in downtown Medellín, between 1920 and 1940, treating tango as a cultural device rather than as an isolated musical object. The research follows a qualitative, historical-documentary, descriptive, and interpretive approach, organized as a single case study in which Guayaquil is the case and Medellín the context. Four hypotheses were tested against the evidence through a matrix that rates support as «supported», «with indications» or «not tested». Based mainly on secondary sources (Reyes Cárdenas, 1996; Rendón Uribe, 1995; Alzate Alzate, 2012; Cepeda Sánchez, 2016; Mejía Arango, 2023), complemented by the maps of 1906 and 1932 and the press of 1935, the study identifies territorial gestures, that is, recurrent practices, appropriations, shared meanings, and representations, and locates them in places and circuits of Guayaquil and its surroundings through the author’s own cartography. It was shown that Guayaquil, as the «dry port» of the Antioquia Railway, was a hub of trade, mobility, and popular sociability, a setting favorable to the circulation of popular practices. The circulation of tango before 1935, its appropriation in taverns, dance halls and transport terminals, its part in the production of the neighborhood, and Carlos Gardel’s death as a turning point in its memory are interpreted with indications, without being fully demonstrated. The tango habitus remains an interpretive horizon, and the routes of enthusiasts between places remain untested. The contribution of the work is a territorial reading of the cultural phenomenon, based on a critical systematization of sources, which allows recognizing possible relations between urban infrastructure, sociability, and memory and establishes the documentary limits of that interpretation. Routes for testing with press and archives are proposed, and the spread of tango to other neighborhoods is left as a line of future research.