Excerpt from "Felipe Pigna, Women had to be. History of our disobedient, incorrect, rebels and fighters. From its origins to 1930 ".

Years of radicalism in the government coincided with the consecration of the tango as "citizen" popular music. Since the beginning of the century had been receiving greater acceptance, leaving behind his fame and marginal orillero. A) Yes, the publisher Rivarola had managed to sell one hundred thousand copies of scores of tango "La morocha", Enrique Saborido, 1 Clearly, with a letter naive, written by Angel Villoldo 1905, that had little to do with the Brothel verses that used to be attached to the tangos by then:

I am the brunette,
the most graceful,
the most renowned
of this population.
I'm the one countryman
very early,
very early,
It provides a cimarrón.

From Centennial, as dance, the tango entered the "refined" cabarets and gradually his scores could appear in some middle-class house with piano. But it was only from the "tango song" that was spreading massively, through the discs and costumbristas sainetes and, then, on the radio.

Often noted as a time of change the success of "Mi noche triste", of 1916 and premiered in Buenos Aires in 1918. The theme of man abandoned by her lover, inaugurating the letter of Pascual Contursi about music of Samuel Castriota, in addition to the long path that will, It served as a transition between elementary previous letters, who adopted a defiant tone and mocking the cafishio, and a new cast of characters that will build stereotypes of life porteña, but they will also lead to the work of lyricists as Celedonio Flores, Enrique Cadícamo, I Discépolo, Homero Manzi or Catullus Castillo, among many others, that escape the commonplace.

Definitely, the most memorable female characters in the first post-war tangos are poor Esthercitas you devenidas milonguitas, The "Frenchies" as Griseta, with tragic fate, or ambitious Margots and "bravas dolls"; which, by deceit or "at fault" rolling in "bad life". Also the "mines" who dreamed of the level of consumption and comfort of the upper or middle classes loftiest, as he painted Pascual Contursi in 1924, how boring / to endure the life I gave you / He caught it one night trunk / and he was singing well ":

I want a cotorro
have balconies, 
very long curtains
silk crepe,
look at the bacanes
passing Galore
pa 'see if any inmate
He tells me what Ask!

I want a cotorro
with waxed floor,
having rug
for walk.
Leather armchairs
all repujado
and atorrante parrot
who can sing

I want a bed
having padding,
and I want a stove
pa 'warm,
the houseboy come
running rush
and say: "Ms,
vehicle, is the Ford!” 2

Tangos rarely mentioned then the girls Arrabal not "falling". When they did, as usual, It was in the neighborhood verses by nostalgia-a recurring theme that would be only in the decade of thirty of. They were "the female manufacturers / temptresses and diqueras / under the sound calico ", 3 or "cute and gentle morochita / putting wrapped in his eyes / sympathy on an apron ", 4 almost always mentioned only in passing and as contracara the murky atmosphere of the cabarets or decadent luxury. Which does not mean that there was also room for verses dedicated to girls in love ("For some time now, girl, te noto / very pale and sad; Decio, what do you have?”) 5 or spinsters ("In the loneliness / your single piece is pain; / sad reality / It is the end of your day without love ... "), 6 where the ideal of "romantic love", sentimental style folletines, It was shown as a "natural" aspiration of women.
In "Milonguita", with music and lyrics by Enrique Delfino Samuel Linnig, He built one of the archetypes, the girl duped neighborhood:

Do you remember, Milonguita? Vos eras
cuter the pebeta 'and Chiclana;
Cortona skirt and braids,
plaits and sun kissed ...
And in those summer nights,
to hear a tango corner
chamuyarte short of love?

Esthercita,
today we call "Milonguita";
night flower and pleasure,
luxury flower and cabaret ...
Milonguita, 
men have you done wrong;
and today you give all your soul
by calico dress.

Also on the "French", the look is nostalgic and mawkish, pointing to loneliness and lack of love. Another tango of Delfino, "Lewd", with lyrics by José González Castillo, It established another common place: to compare the "Frenchies" with the fate of Margarita Gauthier, of "The Lady of the Camellias", a recurring theme. Instead, other tangos simply put a damning look, on "mines" to which ambition had led to prostitution. The aforementioned "Margot" said so:

his macanas: It was not a pretty lazy or arrogant,
or a veteran vice cafishio which you ran off;
vos you rolled your fault, and it was not naively;
berretines of bacana you had in mind
since the day you tycoon yuguillo Edged ...

but curiously, either that the paint at the time of "triumphs / poor triumphs passengers "or in decline, "alone, fané and descangallada " (like in 1928 Enrique Santos Discépolo write in "Tonight I get drunk"), Tangos this period always talk about the "mines" moving in luxurious environments cabarets and between "bacanes" and "magnates", Girls never brothels crummy, they were the vast majority, with the line of customers waiting in the living room under the watchful eye of Madama, which at the end of the "day" every pupil would deliver the "cans" certifying the amount of "services" rendered.

References:

1 Horacio Salas, The tango, 2edition, Planet, Buenos Aires, 1997, tomo 1, P. 112.

2 "The mine of Ford", tango with lyrics by Pascual Contursi and music of Black and Antonio Fidel Scatasso.

3 "Boy", Celedonio Flores and Edgardo Donato, of 1923.

4 "Bajo Belgrano", Francisco García Jiménez and Anselmo Aieta, of 1926.

5 "From all you forget", Enrique Salvador Cadícamo and Merico, of 1929.

6 "He never had boyfriend", Enrique Cadícamo and Agustin Bardi, of 1928.

Source: www.elhistoriador.com.ar