To those who ask why the Malevaje affair could not have been settled privately, the following account will clearly demonstrate why my hand was forced.
I attempted collaboration and private conversation with the organizers. However, they chose not to respond. Instead, they chose to ostracize and bully. Furthermore, other influential tango figures, who knew of this and could have played a mitigating role, refused to step in. Despite knowing that this was patently unjust and hostile, they nevertheless decided to side with the organizers, and refused to help.
I was discriminated against; excluded from the dance community of which I have been a part since 2010, as an organizer, DJ and dancer. I sat with this for nearly 2 and a half years, without a resolution forthcoming. This left me with no other option but to bring this matter to public attention.
Forthwith, this follows.
The event I was co-hosting at this venue, and at the center of this controversy, was Todo Corazón Encuentro, June 16-18 2023. The screen shots will lend sequential context and illustrate my attempts at a private conversation.
To the organizers of Malevaje who no doubt are selling their narrative to their friends: please refrain from calling it “misinformation”, and check the order of these messages. You may want to admit that this has been your doing.
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| IMAGE 1 |
See image above captioned "Image 1": On Oct 18 2022, I sent a message to Adolfo Caszarry, organizer of Malevaje, asking for a phone conversation so that I could talk about the Encuentro and my proposal to boost attendance for Malevaje on the eve of the Encuentro. I didn’t have his number, so I sent him a message. He never answered the message.
It can also be seen that there is an invitation from me to him as a guest to another opening event I was hosting. He never responded to that invitation (this happened before the Venue was ever booked).
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| IMAGE 2 |
See "Image 2" above: That same day, Oct 18, I was able to get his phone number from Christy Cote, from his previous organizing partner and the former host of the Verdi Club Milonga circa 2009-2014, and left a voice mail on his phone, asking him to call me. He never called back.
He had deliberately ignored my call and message.
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| IMAGE 3 |
See "Image 3": Two days later, on Oct 20 2022 Adolfo sent me this message calling me a coward and scavenger. Evidently, someone had told him about my event plans before I had had the chance to. It took him two days to respond to me.
He made a shocking, disproportionate, hostile, and discriminatory move, all supposedly because I didn’t “check with him” before thinking about renting the venue. I ask: why is this “checking” necessary? Even if it’s just “nice to do that”, that doesn’t justify the aggression, unless he had a prior vendetta, which I guess he said he does. What exactly does he mean by going "behind our back"?
Not only did I have a plan for ensuring that his event flourished, but the Encuentro was scheduled for June 2023, a full 8 MONTHS into the future, leaving me plenty of time to “let him know” or "check with him".
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| IMAGE 4 |
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| IMAGE 4A |
See "Image 4" and 4a. After I reached out via phone to Christy Cote, his previous organizing partner, for advice, she said I should “beg forgiveness”, and “although you don’t think you did anything wrong, I believe you broke the unwritten protocols in our community”. What protocols is she talking about?
Asking permission to use a venue they don’t own and have no right over? "Checking" with other renters of the same venue?
The "unwritten" protocol is a social construct that is apparently used for bullying others into compliance.
Imagine the feeling of shock, disrespect and humiliation, when one organizer calls you names and treats you with hostility, and the other organizer tells you to "beg forgiveness". "Forgiveness" for renting a dance space for an event?
Image 5 and 6 below, show the plan I had created to work with them:
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| IMAGE 5 Message to Adolfo |
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| IMAGE 6 - Message to Christy Cote |
In "Image 5" and "Image 6": Please read from my responses (in blue) that I had planned to buy 100 entrance tickets to Malevaje, for my Encuentro patrons! I had, plainly, every intention and a clear plan to collaborate. Also note the respectful tone in my responses even though I was feeling gutted by this time.
I never went back to Malevaje after that ugly exchange in Oct 2022. Some months later, I was told by Ramada Salieri, the Malevaje, Che and Tangamente organizer, that I wasn’t welcome to any of their events until a conversation was had regarding “that whole thing with Verdi” (See "Image 7"). Demonstrably, I had attempted these conversations in the past, and they did not want to participate. Perhaps, and quite likely, all they really wanted was for me to "beg forgiveness".
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| IMAGE 7 |
I reached out to Malevaje’s Ramada Salieri at local milongas in order to have a private conversation. The first time, he ignored me completely. I approached him a second time some weeks later and said “we should talk”. I only got a condescending look; I had still remained (and remain to this day) hopeful that we could resolve these differences.
See "Image 8": In May 2024, I offered to bring a famous tango master to Malevaje to teach and perform on a date in September. This is the message I sent to Ramada. I received no response.
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| IMAGE 8 |
In January 2025, on the eve of the now 3rd edition of Todo Corazón Encuentro held at this Venue, Malevaje had a great night due to the Encuentro attendees. This clearly demonstrates that contrary to their narrative, their event was and had been helped greatly by the Encuentro. Yet, I stayed banished from their events without respect or regard.
My hand was forced. The public dance community needs to be made aware of the level of discrimination, territoriality, cruelty, vindictiveness and vitriol that these organizers operate with.
Unpalatable as my action may be, I trust that a positive outcome will emerge in order to foster a community with fewer rules and more creative power and vision. I never had any appetite for confrontation or escalation. All I wanted to do was to create novel ideas for tango dancers.
Above all, please remember that all I did, was book a Hall for Rent. See Image 9.
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| IMAGE 9 |