Bravo! The decorative unique style of Buenos Aires named 'Fileteado' was awarded as Cultural Heritage of Humanity by Unesco.

The Tango and the Fileteado Art are fellows since their very beginning. Both are sons of the massive immigration arrived to Buenos Aires in the late 19th Century. Tango was for the drives of the carriages decorated in Fileteado Style. Originally created by the carriage makers as a manner to seduce eventual customers, the fileteado evolved into a delicate Art with patterns and canons, taking other objects like store glasses and announcements. When the carriages passed by, Fileteado jumped to buses and urban trucks, and later took any kind of objects, like guitars, cups, a few special houses I use to share in MY PRIVATE TOURS tattoos and body painting!

The roots of the icons used on Fileteado could be traced in many old buildings, in the following pictures you will see decorations taken from Spanish motives, and neo baroque buildings.

The tipycal items to Fileteado are
Flowers
Acanthus leaves
Dragoons
Flags
Sentences with sense of humor or sarcasms

Incredibly, the Fileteado was not always considered an Art and it was ignored by decades, many of the masterpieces you can appreciate today in many books were recovered from abandoned carriages or were used as parts for hen houses! The first serious reconnaissance was an exhibition in the early 70’s. Until that the artists and their fantastic jobs were submerged in a parallel world of coachwork factories where they had a name and a prestige, but completely ignore as developers of a cute Art.

Even more incredible is that even today, when Fileteado had been awarded as Cultural Heritage of Humanity by Unesco, Fileteado is technically banned to be applied to buses due to an ordinance stated during the military dictatorship, all those beautiful buses with their painted noses and tails could be fined.

Tango and Fileteado

Today, due to their roots, due to their uniqueness, due to their underground behavior, Tango and Fileteado are related and Fileteado is the natural aesthetics of Tango Shows.
Someone very important (Discépolo) stated that “Tango is a sad though which is danced”. Perhaps Tango is also a sensual fileteado drawing which is danced
You can enjoy the best Tango HERE