Sur: The Tango of Buenos Aires's South

Some tangos are about a person; "Sur" is about a place — the working-class south side of Buenos Aires — and the love and memory bound up in its streets.^[1]

Troilo and Manzi

"Sur" brought together two giants of the tango: the bandoneonist and bandleader Aníbal Troilo, who wrote the music, and the poet Homero Manzi, who supplied the lyrics.^[1] It was first recorded on 23 February 1948 by Troilo's orchestra, with the deep-voiced Edmundo Rivero on vocals, and first performed live at the Tibidabo nightclub in Buenos Aires.^[1]

A map of memory

Manzi's lyric is an elegy that traces the landmarks of the southern barrios — the corner of San Juan and Boedo, the neighborhood of Pompeya, the railway crossing, the old swampland at the city's edge.^[1] Through these images it laments both a lost love and the way the old neighborhood itself has changed, fusing personal heartbreak with the nostalgia for a vanishing Buenos Aires that runs through all of Manzi's work.^[2]

Why it matters

"Sur" is perhaps the single tango most beloved by Argentines, and certainly one of the most recorded — interpreted by singers from Roberto Goyeneche to rock musicians of later generations.^[1] It represents the summit of the Troilo–Manzi partnership and the poetic heights the tango canción could reach.^[2]