Paper Tangos »

Julie Taylor is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Rice University and is the author of Eva Peron: The Myths of a Woman.

The author’s experiences dancing the Tango in Argentina, and the relation of the violence of the dance to violences of the state and in the author’s past.

Library Journal

Taylor (anthropology, Rice Univ.), the author of Eva Peron: The Myths of a Woman (Univ. of Chicago, 1996), here analyzes Argentine tango culture. Though born in the United States, Taylor has lived much of her life in Latin America. Her training in classical dance coupled with fluency in Spanish allow her a rare perspective: sometimes she is an outsider, sometimes a woman more Argentine than the Argentines. Taylor binds together the terror of events under military dictatorships, the role of violence, Argentine identity, male/female roles, and the tango as an expression of these elements in a unique, personal way. Photographs on every page can be flipped to view brief tango sequences. Recommended for Latin American studies and larger dance collections.--James E. Ross, WLN, Seattle