Argentineans' cultural symbols are mostly the result of hybridization.

Football and tango

are probably the two strongest symbols of a common national identity. Tango refers to the music,
the lyrics, and the dance itself and is a complex urban product that originated in lower-class
neighborhoods of Buenos Aires city. The music, its lyrics, and the dance represent the profound
transformation of the urban landscape at the beginning of the twentieth century, with the influx of
diverse European immigrants. Tango expresses the amalgamation of already existing traditions,
themselves a mixture of African, indigenous, and Spanish influences with elements brought by
Italians, Spaniards, French, Germans, Polish, and Jews.

Tango was also a moral threat. The sensuality of the dance and the lyrics emphasizing
lowlife values and language challenged bourgeois morality and dominant views on appropriate
female behavior. It also romanticized a particular male behavior that kept men away from the
home. Tango men spent their days in bordellos, sites identified not only with sexual encounters,
but also with intense political activity.

The popularization of football is partly explained by social reformers' concerns with

appropriate behavior and the proper place of Argentine men and women. British citizens
introduced football to the city of Buenos Aires in the early 1860s. The game went unnoticed until
Argentine politicians deliberately promoted the sport. From the 1920s to the 1940s military and
civilian moral reformers attempted to construct nationhood on the basis of the "true" traditions of
Argentina. They encouraged folk music and discouraged tango, which was believed to be the
expression of foreigners with dubious morals. As part of this neo-Victorian prudery, Argentina's
rulers promoted sports as healthy and hygienic pursuits which would keep men away from the
cabarets and bordellos where tango music reigned.

Besides music and sports, food is also a powerful cultural symbol. Argentines sometimes
use the expression "she or he is more Argentine than dulce de leche ." Dulce de leche is a milk-
and-sugar spread used in a manner similar to peanut butter in the United States. It appears on
toast, pastries, and various confections. Argentine asado , a barbecue that is part of the gaucho
heritage, is still one of the most important meals in the Argentine diet. Like football, it is a strongly
gendered cultural symbol, associated with manliness. Shopping for beef, sausages, and other
animal parts that go into a barbecue, as well as the cooking itself, is a male activity. Asados are an
important part of Argentine socializing on any occasion.

Argentines are quite uncertain about who they are. They oscillate between seeing
themselves as a highly educated western nation and defining themselves as a Latin-American
mestizo nation. This often obsessive search for a national soul became exacerbated when this
relatively young nation was dramatically transformed by urbanization and the influx of immigrants.
Uncertain about the existence of commonalities, many Argentines tried to find clues about
themselves by looking at how other nations saw them.