Horacio: A lot of political emigration from 1976 on, when many intellectuals who left Buenos Aires arrived elsewhere, to explain the tango. That was a very important instance. It's a great idea, that, that idea of emigration.

Terry: And what was the situation in the seventies? What were the effects of it on your work?

Horacio: It was affected...my work...No, no...eh!, they prohibited some of my songs, but through circumstances so stupid that the head on the censor's shoulders appeared to be no head at all. But that's the way it is! Or maybe it's the censor's wife, telling him, "No, don't let that through! Censor it, or I'll slap you!" (Laughter)

Terry: My family is Irish, and I have a friend who's an Irish writer who says that, until recently, if the government in Ireland liked your work, you were no writer at all. (Laughter) You had to go to jail in order to become a writer.

Horacio: How terrific! That's good!

Terry: Well, the Argentine censor...

Horacio: No, no, that was a horrifying thing. Horrifying. The Spanish philosopher Ortega said, "A military man is a warrior turned into a bureaucrat." And those are bureaucrats, not warriors. They've lost all the guts the warrior has, and now are desk-bound cowards. Sadly, that's the way it is. They're afraid of war, when the warrior is someone who loves war, whether or not it has a valid motive. So they brought their bellicose spirit to the citizenry, to the TV stations, to the ministries, the schools...a very lamentable thing.

What happened, I hope we never forget it, because that happened in our beloved country, and it had better not ever happen again! No? It better not happen again! It's an historical instance from which we can learn much, no? so that we can build a present that serves us into the future.

(Terence Clarke wishes to thank guitarist Guillermo Garcîa of Trio Garufa for his invaluable help with the translation of this interview.)