Tango and Cumbia villera: Origins, Encounters, and Tensions

Abstract:After the economic, social, and political crisis in Argentina in the 1990s, a new musical subgenre emerged: the polemical cumbia villera. While traditionally Argentine tango represented the displaced, oppressed “other” and challenged hegemonic discourses of nationhood, a comparable representation and process appears to be occurring with cumbia villera. This article draws a parallel between the origins of tango in the nineteenth century and cumbia villera in the 1990s, analyzing the impact cumbia villera has had on Argentine culture and questioning its place in the national panorama in light of the country’s bicentennial celebrations.