e used to wander around the Salón Canning’s Parakultural or the now extinct Niño Bien (he sponsored), with his shirt unbuttoned to mid-chest, his pot belly, a glass of whisky stuck to his right hand and mumbling tangos. He used to greet with exquisite courtesy and he hated being photographed or filmed at the milonga.

As for dancing, he preferred rock. However, before becoming El Tano Guillermo, back in the 50’s he was a young slim man who learnt to dance in the clubs of his neighborhood until he reached that conceited air of the milongueros of La Paternal. Then, by that time, he began to be seen at the now disappeared Club Fulgor, on 617 Casafoust Street, at the Sportivo Buenos Aires of Caballito, where he taught his art.

Fate, later, made him fall in love with Emma and, in the mid- 60’s the couple went to Chicago and later to Milwaukee (Wisconsin). There, for thirty years, he alternated the carpenter’s trade with his passion. He made exhibitions, gave classes and stood out as rock dancer.

But he never forgot the milongas porteñas, and from 1997 he continued his life alone in Buenos Aires. El Tano Guillermo loved the tangos by Ángel D'Agostino and Ángel Vargas, those about the neighborhood with humble rank. And maybe because of that he preferred to come back, because, like many others, he had never left his neighborhood.

The author is instructor, dancer and researcher of tango dance. He is author of the Nuevo glosario de tango danza, La pista del abrazo and Tango FAQs. www.tangosalon.com.ar / info@tangosalon.com.ar