Cambalache

   / THE Secondhand Shop

   One of the bestknown instances of censorship of the arts in Argentina dealt with the tango “Cambalache,” composed in 1935 by famed Buenos Aires composer Enrique Santos Discйpolo (1901–1951). The song, an ironic paean to changing social values in a world upended by the world depression of 1929 and by the military coup that overthrew the government of Hipólito Yrigoyén in 1930, was variously banned by several dictatorial regimes of Argentina during the 20th century, most notably by the 1976–1983 military juntas, which decried its “defeatist” message. In the Spanish-speaking world, “Cambalache” had long been associated with legendary Argentine tango interpreter Carlos Gardel and the banning of the song, along with other forms of censorship of all types of popular music, such as the harassment of folk singer Mercedes Sosa, which led to her widely publicized exile.

   A partial rendering of the lyrics, translated by John Kriniauskas for The Argentina Reader: History, Culture and Politics, reveals the song’s still subversive message: “That the world’s always been rotten / don’t remind me, it always will be. / In the year 506 and 2000 too! / [. . .] But this twentieth century / has put insolent / evil on show, and that / no one can deny. […] There’s no respect in the windows / of the secondhand stores / where’s life’s been all mixed up […] This secondhand twentieth century, / feverish and problematic… / in which everything’s for sale. / Those that don’t cry don’t feed, / and those that don’t steal are fools.”