Tango Buenos Aires: For Boomers Who Think They’re Too Old To Travel
Author Cherie Magnus probably didn’t expect people to cry at the end of her engrossing memoir, titled The Church of Tango,
but despite her intentions her uplifting ending reduced me to tears of
relief. This is not the story of a 20-something who gets dumped by her
boyfriend and finds her passion in the milongas of
Buenos Aires. It’s the story of a 48-year-old woman who loses her
husband to cancer, travels and lives in different parts of the world,
faces her own battle with cancer, and eventually ends up in the milongas
of Buenos Aires.Passion and Perseverance
All of the cards were stacked against her, but somehow she pulled through and triumphed over adversity. It was a rough ride, though. I bit my nails as I prayed that her romance with an alluring Frenchmen would somehow work out, knowing all too well that it was doomed from the start. I cheered her on when she moved to San Miguel D’Allende, an expat enclave in Mexico, and shared her disappointment when it ceased to be a safe and affordable destination.
My pulse rate soared as she was mugged during her last night in Mexico, lost her passport at the airport, and argued with the flight attendant about allowing her cat in the main cabin, even though summer temperatures meant it was unsafe for pets to ride with luggage. “Oh come on!” I screamed at my Kindle. “This woman has been robbed of her husband’s life, her health, and some of her possessions. Please don’t kill her cat!” (Spoiler alert: The cat survives, and so does Cherie.)
I believe her passion helped her persevere. This time, her passion was not for a man – it was for the tango dance. I get this. Back in the 1970s, my passion for belly dancing inspired a solo trip to Egypt. My timing could not have been worse since it was the summer of President Sadat’s assassination, but logic failed to compete with my sense of determination.
Cherie intuitively knew that the time was right for her to move to Buenos Aires. She listened to her inner voice and ignored the voice of complacency and resignation – the voice that says, “I’m too old to do this.” Logic would dictate that a cancer survivor in her early 60s was too old to move to Buenos Aires to teach tango. Cherie did not allow logic to dictate her life.
So what if she didn’t learn tango dancing until she was in her 50s? She had a lifetime of training in other forms of dance. Her belief in her core competency, and her determination to lead a life less ordinary, inspired her to soldier on. Let her story serve as a testament to the life-changing potential of travel during the Boomer years.
Cherie and Ruben
After finishing the memoir, I was anxious to see if there was an inspiring epilogue. A bit of Google research delivered me to “Tango Cherie,” where I discovered that, at 68 years old, Cherie and her partner Rubén Aybar now teach tango classes in Buenos Aires. In 2006, the dancing couple were finalists in the Campeonato Metropolitano de Tango de Buenos Aires.
Their bilingual services go beyond tango lessons. They teach the codigos, or the codes of tango behavior, offer tango tours of the city, and will accompany you to tango shoe shops and provide a historical tour of tango Buenos Aires. Should you just want to meet and be inspired by this incredible woman, you can join Cherie and Ruben at their table at La Milonga de los Consagrados on Saturdays from 7-10 p.m., Humberto Primo 1462. Just contact them in advance and let them know you will be coming.: +54 11 4932-5027
Watch Cherie and Ruben in action by clicking here!
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