1536 – 1580: Ciudad de Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Ayre
Tango is inextricably linked with Argentina and Buenos Aires, so it makes sense to start the story here.
The city of Buenos Aires was founded in 1536 by the Spanish conquistador Pedro de Mendoza. The city had a long and beautiful name: “Ciudad de Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Ayre”, which literally meant “City of Our Lady Saint Mary of the Good Winds”.
However, the settlers soon had to abandon the city due to attacks by the indigenous people, but in 1580 the city was founded again and resettled by another Spanish conquistador, Juan de Garay.
Prior to 1536: The legend of the Silver Mountain
Perhaps it should have started a little earlier. Even before the founding of Buenos Aires, earlier expeditions to South America had brought to Europe the legend of the Silver Mountain — a mountain with countless treasures hidden somewhere on the continent. That is why, in the 1520s, the Venetian explorer Sebastián Caboto named the estuary of two rivers, where Buenos Aires would later be founded, the Río de la Plata, literally the River of Silver.
Later on, the area around the Río de la Plata would be poetically called Argentina — literally, the Land of Silver — and eventually become the Republic of Argentina. Alas, there was no silver in the river or around Buenos Aires, and none was ever found, but the legend gave the future country its name.
And what about the Mountain of Silver? Was the legend just a myth? No — the mountain of silver was later found, but very far from Buenos Aires, in another place and another country. Yet that mountain would greatly influence Buenos Aires in the future — but that is another story.
1580 – 1776: Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata
So, was there really a silver mountain or not? Of course there was — and what a mountain it was! In 1545, the Spaniards discovered enormous silver deposits in the Andes. That’s how the city of Potosí was born — today in Bolivia, about 2,000 km from Buenos Aires.
The silver mines of Potosí became some of the richest in human history. In the 16th and 17th centuries, they produced almost half of the world’s silver, and the city of Potosí had more inhabitants than Madrid and nearly as many as Paris. This silver was the foundation of the wealth of the Spanish Empire.
However, all official trade and transport of silver went through Lima on the Pacific coast. It was a long and difficult journey to Spain, but relatively safe from pirates, so it was considered the official route.
Meanwhile, Buenos Aires was just a small port — and trade through it was officially forbidden. That’s why smuggling and illegal trade flourished there, since the route to Europe across the Atlantic was much shorter and easier than the official one via Lima.
To get this under control, King Charles III of Spain created a new viceroyalty in 1776 — the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, with Buenos Aires as its capital. The famous silver mines of Potosí were placed under its authority. From now on, silver would officially flow to Europe through Buenos Aires, and the city’s economy began to grow rapidly.
It would take about a hundred more years for tango to be born — though the word tango already existed by then… but that’s another story.
The story to be continued soon…