Peña en la Facultad

This weekend I went out to a peña in the Facultad de Medicina.

A peña is a party of folklore dancing and music from the north, northwest region of Argentina, like Jujuy and Tucumán.

I wondered where all the hippies came from. Walking the streets of Buenos Aires, you wouldn’t think there are so many guys with beards and long hairs and women who wear loose clothing and go without makeup.

But they were there, in the cafeteria hall of the campus.

Outside, it

Outside it’s a gorgeous building. Inside the hallways are covered with posters, mostly calling for the defense of public education and other student causes.

The peña really got going at about 3 a.m. Several local folk bands took the stage and the hall filled with hundreds of people.

A folk band from Quilmes takes the stage.

It seems peñas have been become fashionable in Argentina. Se pusieron de moda.

I’m glad I took that one chacarera class in Austin a couple of years ago. I was able to join in the dancing and not look too foolish. (Video to come.)

Folk dancing is a lot of fun and has a group dynamic. Guys and gals make two lines and the steps are a series of advances and returns. The couples make romantic circles around each other. No touching until the end of the song when they come close to an embrace. But not close enough to touch.

Some of the dances, like the Argentine samba, use handkerchiefs that the couples wave and twist as they flit and float toward and then away from each other.

I asked one guy in our group if the folk dance is as machista, or more, than the tango. I thought he would know: He is a folk dance instructor. He said the folk dancing is not machista at all.

Yet it the dance of gauchos, those wild and fierce Argentine cowboys who roamed the pampas like legendary Martín Fierro.

So I have my doubts.