By Gaspar Astarita

hey belonged, by age, to the same generation: Dizeo was born in 1893 and El Negro Flores in 1896 and, of course, both in Buenos Aires. They were also closely linked -by temper, by sensitivity and by historical chronology-, to the same stream of lyrics that, starting with Pascual Contursi, later brought to tango the emphatic and colorful lunfardesque tone that characterized its early singable expressions.

They both came from neighborhoods placed in the outskirts of town: Enrique Dizeo from San Cristóbal, Celedonio Flores from Villa Crespo. Both two were brought up in the streets, in town environments with social gatherings on corners and grocery stores. They were as well milonga men, fond of gambling and horse-races.

All the creatures and the events seen at that atmosphere -where love and drama were never absent - were brought to tango on pages that still resist oblivion.

I do not pretend to put them intellectually on the same level, Celedonio had a higher lyrical flight. His tone was steeper, had more virility, was more dramatic. His tangos left a track on the territory of poetry.

Enrique Dizeo´s -not at all inferior tangos- were within the strict limits of lyrics, that are where art and craftsmanship blend. But verbal richness, lunfardo words and expressions handled naturally and that tone half canchero (self-assured), half humorous evidenced in many of his writings, that reveals the man from the outskirts and the one from town in its precious blending, is quite similar in both them.

Both had a passion for gambling as well, a passion that was made evident in their language.

Celedonio Flores: 1896-1947

Celedonio was a man of carpeta (gambling), «de timbas llenas de cigarrillos, en el monte con puerta, a salto y carta», as Cátulo Castillo pointed out.

Enrique Dizeo, instead, was fond of horse-racing. His tango Pan comido, as his friend Abel Darago said, «seemed to have been written in the popular seats of Palermo race track».

The two were friends. And both left testimony of that friendship by means of their corresponding poetic presents.

Here they are, excerpted from the book "Cuando pasa el organito", by Celedonio Flores (editorial Freeland, Buenos Aires, 1965).

TROVERO
To C. Esteban Flores, with the greatest pleasure.

Es el coplero del pueblo escondido en la barriada.
¡Cuántas endechas caneras dispersó su inspitación!
Zorzal que trina a la gurda, sin pulimento ni nada
lo que brinda tiernamente su sensible corazón.

El canyengue del terruño, lejano del populacho
en su jerga arrabalera no hay quien le gane a cantar.
Bate el justo "Mano a mano" que tiene coco el muchacho;
¡si es un bate, sensa grupos, se sabe bien apilar!

Expresivas sus milongas cuando habla de la percanta
que se juega los morlacos del otario a la marchanta
como idem el gato maula con el mísero ratón.
Conoce la gente pobre, las casitas de dos piezas donde hay cachos de dulzuras y pedazos de tristezas.
Donde Evaristo carriego volcó toda su emoción.

ENRIQUE DIZEO

PUNTO ALTO
To Enrique Dizeo, thankfully.

No hay plazo que no se cumpla, ni deuda que no se pague,
ni chorro que bien tapeado no resulte batidor,
ni bolita que no ruede, ni llama que no se apague
ni corazón que resista el encanto de un amor.

Esto, va pa'que no digas que me gasto haciendo espuma
que soy desagradecido y un cantor de dos por tres;
estaba juntando ideas como el pato junta plumas
para hacerte una nidada como te la merecés.

Yo te tengo relogiado los mil en cincuenta y nueve
sé que vas a la distancia sin sentir el handicap
el que diga que tu musa por canera no conmueve
confunde Pepe el Herrero con Cyrano Bergerac.

Vos dejá que otro le cante a la dama presumida
a la albura de los cisnes, al encanto de Trianón;
cada cual hace su juego en el monte de la vida
y se apunta a la baraja que le canta el corazón.

¿Qué sabemos de marquesas, de blasones y litera
si las pocas que hemos visto han sido de carnaval?
Que nos pidan un cuadrito de la vida arrabalera
y acusamos las cuarenta y las diez para el final.

Vos sos púa, tenés alma y en lo rante estás "chipola"
no aflojés aunque se bronque algún clásico fifi.
Cuando estemos bien palmados, cuando nadie nos dé bola
yo te haré un soneto rante en una tirada sola
y vos otro para mí...

CELEDONIO FLORES

Published on the Tango y lunfardo magazine, number 89, Chivilcoy, December 16, 1993.