The Guest List
Early in 1996 we dropped out of the corporate and high tech worlds to pursue our new found love affair with each other and the tango. Looking into the future we reckoned that we had at least twenty years of strong legs on which to dance our way around the world. Unknowingly we become the first full time couple teaching across the USA for a span of ten years on a continuous basis.
With still a few years left on that twenty year investment of good legs, we still dance and teach, but have become more grounded in our adopted city in the South, New Orleans. Unexpected events of life have made us stop, and look back, realizing that we had never set aside the time to rekindle the memories embedded in dozens of photo albums, VHS tapes, Digital 8 and Mini DV cassettes.
One photo in particular brought back memories of an aspect of our lives that we seldom talk about, or arguably brag about. The photo was of a sign that hung on the front gate of our Silicon Valley home. It was the first sign that welcomed those who entered our Planet Tango.
From 1996 to 2000, we served as the gateway into the Bay Area tango community for many well known and a few unknown artists… We promoted, translated for, and provided work opportunities to the initial wave of visiting dancers from Argentina. We were also innkeepers and house hosts to many of them.
| Name | Housed | Provided work | Comments |
| Orlando Paiva | Yes | Yes | Deceased |
| Rodolfo Cieri | Yes | Yes | Deceased |
| Maria Cieri | Yes | Yes | |
| Pablo Ojeda | Yes | Yes | |
| Beatriz Ojeda | Yes | Yes | |
| Andrea Misse | Yes | Yes | Deceased |
| Leandro Palou | Yes | Yes | |
| Pablo Pugliese | Yes | Yes | |
| Esther Pugliese | Yes | Yes | Deceased |
| Jorge Nel | Yes | ||
| Facundo Posadas | Yes | Yes | |
| Kely Landam | Yes | Yes | Deceased |
| Armando Orzuza | Yes | Yes | |
| Daniella Arcuri | Yes | Yes | |
| Marcos Cuestas | Yes | Yes | |
| Guillermo Merlo | Yes | Yes | |
| Fernanda Ghi | Yes | Yes | |
| Nestor Ray | Yes | Deceased | |
| Carlos Gavito | Yes | Deceased | |
| Pupi Castello | First and only exhibition ever in the USA | ||
| Graciela Gonzalez | with Graciela Gonzalez |
After our relocation to New Orleans in 2000, we continued the tradition of hosting well known artists at our House of Tango and yearly Tango Fests, until 2005…
| Name | Housed | Provided work | Comments |
| Nestor Ray | Yes | Yes | Deceased |
| Patricia Garcia | Yes | Yes | |
| Guillermina Quiroga | Yes | ||
| Alberto Catala | Yes | ||
| Armando Orzuza | Yes | ||
| Daniella Arcuri | Yes | ||
| Miriam Larici | Yes | Yes | |
| Hugo Patyn | Yes | Yes | |
| Orlando Paiva, Jr. | Yes |
Those were wonderful years of non-stop tango life, a period in time when we didn’t realize how important it was to help so many artists to break into the new world that the USA was to become for tango… With a few exceptions, we have never heard from most of them again. So we don’t know if they ever felt the love, dedication and generosity that was gifted to them.
For us, their walking through our doors and in and out of our lives constitutes a collage of experiences we’ll never forget for as long as we live…
THE TANGO LIFE 