Milonga de los Fortines: Bugle call of victories past

MILONGA DE LOS FORTINES
(Milonga of the forts)
Milonga, 1937

Words: Homero Manzi
Music: Sebastian Piana
Milonga tangueada, 1937

Every so often you hear that milonga that begins and ends with a bugle call, right? And it's really fun to dance to, isn't it? (Orquesta Típica Victor w/ Mariano Balcarce, 1937) The singer only sings one short verse, so even if you understand Spanish it's really hard to catch what the song is about. As a result, you go home wondering why they were blowing that crazy bugle! Well, here are all four stanzas in black and white, in the original Spanish and Tango Decoder's English-language version. Read on! The bugle, and everything else in the song, will start to make sense….

THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Ángel della Valle, "La vuelta del malón" (Return of the Raiders, 1892)

So what's it all about, this little milonguita? What are the fortines of the title? Why the bugle? Well, back in the mid-1800s the criollos, the Argentine settlers of European ancestry, came into conflict with the Mapuche, a widely dispersed group of native people who, as the Europeans saw it, were standing in the way of progress, not unlike the Comanche, the Apache, and the Sioux in North America. For their part, the Mapuche had been living on the pampa for four hundred years or so, and they weren't about to give up their traditional lifeways for a bunch of newcomers who wanted to raise cattle and grain. So, just like their counterparts in North America, the Mapuche fiercely resisted the incursion of the settlers. In this they were aided by neighboring Chile, which supplied arms, hoping the insurgency would destabilize Argentina, thus allowing Chile to annex more of Patagonia. Argentina's leaders sought a definitive solution to the problem. Thus was born "The Conquest of the Desert," a ruthless program of displacement and extermination of the aboriginal people carried out by a succession of Argentine regimes.

The Conquest involved building a cordon of small fortresses, or fortines, around the more settled areas to defend against the attacking Mapuche. The boundaries of the cordon were expanded little by little over time. It took some years, but this plan eventually achieved its end: extermination for the most troublesome elements, and relocation and assimilation for the rest, leaving vast expanses of the pampa free to be exploited by the settlers. (There's a lot more to the story, but that's all you really need to place the song in its context.)

Milonga De Los Fortines does not deal with the Conquest of the Desert, per se. Rather, it's an evocative, nostalgic song about serving the Argentine army during that period, and being stationed at one of the fortines. What was it like out there in the vast, empty desert? What did a soldier see, hear, think, and feel? And most important of all, what kind of music did he listen to?

THE LYRICIST AND THE COMPOSER

Homero Manzi (1907-1951) was one of tango's greatest poets and lyricists. Manzi was the author of many of the best known tangos that are heard today, including Abandono, Solamente Ella, Mañana Zarpa Un Barco, Ninguna, Recién, Sur, and many more. In 1930 he began a collaboration with composer Sebastian Piana (1903-1994) with the intention of reviving and modernizing the milonga, a genre of music and dance that had been very popular in Argentina in the 1870s, but had virtually disappeared. Together, Piana and Manzi composed the seminal, modern milongas, Milonga Sentimental, Milonga de 900, and Milonga Triste. They also wrote several extraordinary tangos together, including El Pescante, De Barro, and Viejo Ciego, as well as one of the most beautiful valses ever written, Paisaje.

THE LYRICS IN SPANISH AND ENGLISH:

Milonga de cien reyertas templada como el valor. Grito de pampa desierta diciendo su alerta con voz de cantor. Milonga de quita penas nostalgia de población. Canto qu'en noche serena su rezo despena detrás del fogón. Diana de viejas victorias en la punta del tropel, con tu vanguardia de gloria serás en la historia canción y laurel. Son de querencia querida en las noches del cuartel. Pena de china querida que al fin afligida dejó de ser fiel. Resuenan con tus acentos, milonga del batallón, gritos de viejos sargentos cargando en el viento con el escuadrón. Y vuelven en los sonidos agudos del cornetín, ecos de mil alaridos que estaban perdidos detrás del confín. Gime el desierto rodando sus rumores de huracán… Vienen las lanzas cargando y están aguaitando la Cruz y el Puñal. Gloria de aquel comandante que jamás volvió al cantón. Besan su barba cervuna la luz de la luna y el fuego del sol.

Milonga of a hundred battles, calm as courage itself. Cry of deserted pampa raising the alarm in a singer's voice. Milonga of banish sorrows* longing for hearth and home. Song that in the peaceful night consoles with fireside prayer. Bugle call of victories past at the forefront of the horde, with your glorious vanguard you will in history be celebrated and sung. Sound of sweet love-making in the barracks night. Sorrow of the china mistress* who heartbroken at last stopped being faithful. They resound with your accents, milonga of the battalion, the cries of old sergeants charging into the wind with the squadron. And they return in the sharp sounds of the bugle, echoes of a thousand battle cries that were lost behind the lines. The desert goes on moaning its rumors of hurricane… The lancers come charging fixing their eyes upon The Cross and The Dagger.* Glory of that commandant that never returned to camp. The light of the moon and the fire of the sun kiss his snow-white beard.*

NOTES:

* banish sorrows: quita penas. Presumably a reference to an alcoholic beverage or an establishment where such beverages were served. In contemporary Chile, it's said that every town in the country has a bar across the street from the cemetery, and most of them are named "Quita Penas." The Quita Penas in Santiago is over 100 years old, so the tradition is a long one.

* china mistress: china querida. China was a derogatory term for a female gaucho, a person of mixed European and indigenous origin. Since no regular work was available for such women, unmarried chinas frequently resorted to prostitution, typically plying their trade among the officers and men of military barracks. Others may have established common-law marriages with soldiers whom they followed from camp to camp, in which case they might more accurately be referred to as "camp followers." Whether fairly or unfairly, the term china is often taken to be a synonym for "prostitute."

* lancers… Cross and the Dagger: When I first published this version of the song, I speculated that the "lancers" were the Argentine forces, and the Cross and the Dagger were devices on the regimental banner that they followed into battle. However, a more convincing interpretation of this phrase was provided in a comment by Thomas Keenes. (Thank you, Thomas!) It's still in the comments below, but I've copied it here:
    "A possible alternative interpretation could be that the lancers are not Argentine cavalrymen, they are the Mapuche (the hurricane in the previous line might allude to them), and rather than regimental symbols, the cross and the dagger refer metaphorically to the Argentines (as Christian soldiers), or even literally as objects of booty. Take a look at ‘La vuelta del malón’ (The Return of the Raiders, 1892) by Ángel Della Valle (1852-1903), showing lance-bearing Mapuche making off with religious relics (and a woman captive). (Revised 7/13/2016)

* snow-white beard. barba cervuna. Cervuna means deer. The term also denotes the color of a horse that is between gray and chestnut (i.e., tan). The Pampas deer (Ozotoceros bezoarticus) that were once numerous in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay are tan-colored, and have a white spot under their chin that looks like a white beard. The dead commandant's beard might be tan ("deer-colored"), or it might be snow-white like the Pampas deer's. I favor the latter interpretation. (Revised 7/13/2016)