his forgotten dark-skinned musician was born in his home of Buenos Aires on Loria Street between México and Venezuela Streets. He attended grammar school up to sixth grade in his neighborhood of San Cristóbal.

On July 9, 1879 he was living with his mother in the then town of Flores when he decided to go to the celebrations for the Independence Day that were held on the Plaza del Congreso. There were numbers of fireworks and firecrackers. As he was a curious kid he stayed very close to the fireworks and unfortunately Fate had no pity for him. One of the fireworks went off inside the mortar that was used to launch them and a powder flash hit his face. The lesions caused him a permanent blindness.

His mother, that used to play some southern airs on guitar, taught him what she knew. And soon later he found the itinerant singer Pablo Vázquez who taught him further lessons that helped him in future encounters. Later he studied violin with Francisco Ramos who also taught him to play piano. With Vázquez in the 1880s he joined groups with violin, guitar and harp to play at dancehalls for money.

He got in touch with pioneers of bandoneon playing like Antonio Chiappe and El Pardo Ramos Mejía. He became a very close friend of the latter. They played primitive tangos, such as “El queco” which according to Aspiazú belongs to the Brazilian clarinetist Lino Galeano, a friend of his. By that time he played violin and with that instrument he appeared in venues of La Boca where he acquainted Pascual Romero and Vicente Pecci, his buddy. Also, with Roque Rinaldi. They appeared together at the Teatro Goldoni on Paraná and Rivadavia and became well-known (according to his memory, by 1889) at the Kiosco Casares located near the present Sarmiento Ave. and Figueroa Alcorta Avenue, where they had a four-year tenure. He started playing bandore (a twelve-string instrument similar to a guitar but smaller) and finally a nine-string guitar.

By the turn of the nineteenth century he was playing alongside Luis Teisseire, Carlos Hernani Macchi and the violinist Julián Urdapilleta. He recalled that around the 90s tango was not known at Hansen’s. There only canzonets and opera excerpts were played. They were offered twice their pay to join this venue and quit the Kiosco, and so they introduced tango to that local.

By that time a serious occurrence took place and he was present there. Probably his memory was failing because it had happened 40 years before. He said it had happened at Hansen’s but the police report informed that it was at the Kiosco on December 22, 1901. At that venue, the regular attendant Juan Carlos Argerich hit José Traverso (Cielito) with a bottle, and then after the bustle the lights went out, a shot was heard and the boy was found dead. Aspiazú says that he heard Argerich, a well-to-do boy, when he asked Roque Rinaldi to play “La tirana” because he wanted to dance to it. The musician answered that they did not know the tune. That number was played by Genaro Vázquez.

«—The one who doesn’t play “La tirana” can’t be a good musician», added the young fellow.
«—They’re players and good ones», replied Traverso. After that a quarrel started. Many were taken to jail, the musicians were detained for eight days. Traverso was sentenced to ten years. But after two years his sentence was changed into exile. So he had to go to Uruguay. «On our comeback we switched to the Tambito —he recalled— and there only in summer we worked. In winter we used to tour the countryside».

Going to-and-fro around the traditional places near the Palermo woods he came to know Ernesto Ponzio, Juan Carlos Bazán, Enrique Saborido, Alcides Palavecino and Roberto Firpo. The latter, who was then around 13 years old, had already composed the tango “Don Alberto [d]”.

He also appeared at the whorehouses of San Fernando and again at the Kiosco until 1910 when it was demolished. «Ramos Mejía was a prophet. In 1883 he told me: “I’m certain that the bandoneon will get to the Colón”. He was referring to the old theater opened on April 25, 1857 and demolished in 1888. When we were at the Kiosco, a guy that had come to see us invited us to his home. He had a novel machine, a phonograph that played cylinders. We recorded several pieces with Miguel Logiovine, Genaro Vázquez and Valentín Sánchez».

In 1913 his wife died and he partially quit music to devote himself to taking care of his children. But he had to do something for a living and so he, for several years, appeared in cities of the interior. It is especially mentioned the Giandulia’s grill of the city of Rosario, known as La Carmelita. But when Ernesto Ponzio, who was in jail, left the prison in 1928 and joined Gordo Bazán, he was there again in front of a bigger and wiser audience. They played together until around 1933.

In 1932 he joined an orchestra at the Teatro Nacional for the play El tango porteño written by Pascual Carcavallo.

We have found neither compositions by Aspiazú, nor any photograph. Neither are known his activities during the following years. When poking about old papers I found some interviews made in 1940 published in unknown neighborhood magazines so I was inspired for this portrayal. He then, at that time, was an old man, a man of the past, a witness of the beginnings of tango.

Ilustración: El cantor ciego, by Francisco de Goya. Aguafuerte, aguatinta, punta seca y buril (1824-1828).