is father, Antonio Arona, who became famous by leading the choral society Los Cívicos, in the carnival celebrations of San Telmo around 1900, was the first who guided him through the secrets of the music staff.

He had no outstanding appearances before public audiences, instead he stood out in musical composition; and “Barba blanca” was the first tango with which he began in 1928 a list of outstanding pieces, some of them widely well-known: “Parque Patricios”, “Al volver de madrugada”, “Vieja muchachada”, “Malvón”, “El repique”, “Mía”, “Pobre huerfanita”, “Ternuras”, “Fray Milonga”, “Bailes de patio”, “Menta y cedrón”, “Don Juan Mondiola”, the waltz “Imaginación”, “Mentiras criollas”, that Carlos Gardel recorded; “El cornetín del tranvía”, “Volviendo del ayer”, awarded at the Odol contest; “Bailongo de los domingos”, etc, etc.

For this work the composer said: «I had sent the hand written copies of “Mentiras criollas” to the Max Glücksmann house which was located on Florida Street where El Ateneo bookstore is today. One morning, knowing that they had already chosen the twenty-four tangos for the 1929 contest, I went there to see if my number had been picked up to contest at the qualifying rounds. The examining jury included Gardel, Razzano, Firpo, Canaro and Don Mauricio Godard; at the hall I met Carlitos who was getting off the elevator and was wearing a maroon overcoat and a brown hat. He greeted me with a smile. I was almost a teenager then but I approached him to ask him if my tango had been chosen and he replied: «Look, boy, with that name there are five or six tangos but the one chosen is very good. I don’t know if it is yours», and then he hummed to me «...que si corren pa’ ganar te lo vienen a decir»... Filled with joy I told him: «That is mine, Mr. Gardel». «Well, congratulations, it’s a nice tango», he replied.

«I came to know Gardel by 1928, and there is no other person who had impressed me like he did, due to his spontaneous kindness, his way of being and his inborn appearance of a Buenos Aires boy».

Oscar Arona was born in Buenos Aires (San Telmo) on November 7, 1905.