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Uruguayan NYC

Uruguayan NYC is centered in Jackson Heights, Queens. International Tango Day is New York City’s main Uruguayan celebration.

Uruguayan Archive

Uruguayan Festivals in NYC

We don’t know of any specifically Uruguayan festivals in New York City. However, Uruguayans may participate in the Hispanic Day Parade, Queens Hispanic Day Parade, and the Junta Hispana street fair.

Uruguayan New York City

The Uruguayan Consulate is in Midtown East. The Banco de la Republica Oriental de Uruguay is in Murray Hill, Manhattan.

Uruguayan restaurants La Gran Uruguaya and El Chivito D’Oro are in Jackson Heights, Queens. Tabaré is in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Charrúa is in the Lower East Side.

That super tall skinny skyscraper that rises from 432 Park Ave is designed by Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly. The tallest residential skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere stands alone and towers over the city. You can’t miss it.

New Yorkers

Raul Jaurena is one of the world’s bandoneón masters. Mariana Parma is a very good dancer, choreographer and teacher of both tango and salsa.

Raul Jaurena

Instituto Cervantes presents Raul Jaurena, one of the world’s bandoneón masters and 2007 Latin Grammy winner for best Tango Album, in concert Wed Oct 17, 2012, 7pm, $15 (more…)

Continue Reading Raul Jaurena

The Uruguayan World

Most Uruguayans share a European heritage, especially Italian, but there is also Indigenous and African heritage. For a small country, Uruguay produces some great artists, musicians and soccer players.

Jorge Drexler in 2018 (AEG/Golden Voice)
Jorge Drexler in 2018 (AEG/Golden Voice)

Jorge Drexler is an Academy Award and Latin Grammy award winner. His poetry is stunning. He’s our favorite singer-songwriter in Spanish. His grandfather was a pianist in the Warsaw ghetto.

Bajofondo by Keith Widyolar

Bajofondo members Juan Campodónico and Luciano Supervielle are Uruguayan.

Joaquín Torres García "Arte universal" detail (1943) Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales de Uruguay (Wikimedia)
Joaquín Torres García “Arte universal” detail (1943) Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales de Uruguay (Wikimedia)

Joaquín Torres-Garcia was one of the few Latin Americans who were part of modernism in Europe. His signature style evolved through his career, but he was inspired by natural Indigenous philosophy and symbols. Torres-Garcia was a bridge in both directions. He brought Latin American culture to Europe, and European culture to Latin America. You can see his work at the Museum of Modern Art and Acquavella Galleries. His work is also regularly sold at auction at Christie’s and Sotheby’s.

Luis Suárez of FC Barcelona is Uruguayan. The Uruguayan national football team, “La Celeste,” won the World Cup in 1930 (the first World Cup) and in 1950.

An almost universal colonizer myth is that Indigenous people were wiped out. If there are no people, you can take the land. La Campaña de Salsipuedes in 1831 was actually a Uruguayan military campaign to kill all the Indigenous people. The reality is that colonizers kill the men and take the women. We don’t actually die out. We intermarry. Since the 1980s, there has been a renaissance of Indigenous identity of the Charrúa people of what is now Uruguay.

Uruguayan Culture

Nestled between Argentina and Brazil, Uruguay shares elements of both cultures. Uruguay is famous for tango, gauchos, and its beef.

Tango is a mixture of cultures. Indigenous people around the world dance as an expression of faith and belonging to a community. English country dance (folk dancing) became popular with the English royal court. From there it jumped to the French royal court and became the contredanse. That came to the Americas through French Saint-Domingue (now Haiti). Spanish brought their version, the contradanza to Havana as the danzón, and the Haitian diaspora added a more syncopated style. The habanera is the root of the Latin social dances. Habanera means the way they dance in Havana. Dancing in the West and Central African Candomblé faith of Brazil, became candombe in Uruguay. Candombe mixed with habanera in the Black neighborhoods of Montevideo and Buenos Aires into milonga. European immigrants brought the bandonéon portable church organ from Germany and milonga became tango. Rich kids sent to grow up in France brought home the valse and these became the three tango rhythms danced today: milonga, tango, vals. That’s roughly the story of tango. In 2009, UNESCO recognized Uruguayan candombe, and Uruguayan and Argentine tango as part of the intangible heritage of humanity.

Spaniards brought horses and cattle in 1611, and let them loose east of the Uruguay River. Over time they grew into a natural resource. Mixed race people worked as cattle herders and the gaucho was born.

Parrilla (grilled meat) is traditional. The beef is world-renowned because it is grass-fed and not industrial farmed like in the U.S. Pasta is an Italian influence.

Mate drinking is an Indigenous Guarani influence.

Candombe dancing, Carnival and the Umbanda Orisha faith are African influences. The murga is a form of Carnival theatre. Llamadas are candombe parades. They are the equivalent of a Caribbean mas (carnival group). Uruguayans of all heritages join the llamadas. This African heritage culture has become mostly white. The mixing is wonderful.

Men kiss each other on the cheek and embrace like Argentines and Southern Italians.

After tango, pericón is the national folk dance. It is a form of contradanza/contredanse/country dance, the first international social dance.

Juan Zorrilla de San Martín (1855-1931) is the national poet. He is best known for Tabaré (1888). His epic poem is a metaphor for what was done to the Indigenous Charrúa. It’s the tragic love story of Tabaré and Blanca, a young Charrúa man and a Spanish woman. It has almost over 4,000 verses.

Uruguay

Montevideo is the capital. The old city center has lush Art Deco buildings. Punta del Este is a popular beach resort, the Saint-Tropez of South America. The old quarter of Colonia del Sacramento, once a Portuguese town, is a World Heritage Site. The Fray Bentos Industrial Landscape is another. It’s a well-preserved meat processing town.

Uruguayan gaucho in Tacuarembo, Uruguay (Kobby Dagan/Dreamstime)
Uruguayan gaucho in Tacuarembo, Uruguay (Kobby Dagan/Dreamstime)
South American

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