Dear Dancers, Please forgive my clumsy writing. I wanted to get this message out as quickly as possible. I feel devastated and so I don't have many words.
I do not need to tell most of you about the Pugliese family - Mingo & Esther, and their son Pablo. In 1995, when Pablo was 15 years old, he came to the United States for the first time with his mother Esther to teach and perform. He came with her because his father was unable to travel at that time. After that, they had taught and perfomed many places in the world. Many of you in the United States know them from the days of the Stanford Tango Week. Pablo & Esther (when Pablo was 11 years old): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktdMg_Mzs0w Mingo & Esther recently: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoXe4bmeUEI&feature=related The world of tango owes these people in a big way. Tango would not have become as we know it without them. The list of dancers they had taught include great artists Pablo Veron, Fabian Salas and, of course, Pablo Pugliese, and many, many others. This is a legendary family of tango dancers. And now they urgently need our help. Esther Pugliese is very ill. I am including Pablo's letter to the world of tango. Please help in any way you can, even the smallest possible. Please send this information to your friends and contacts in the world of tango. Pablo is handling everything by himself. His father is heart-broken and his sisters are in Buenos Aires, so Pablo is taking care of his mother and this situation alone, with the help of friends. Here is the letter from Pablo (http://www.tangopal.com/cita.esther): "Dear Tango Community, Colleagues and Friends, I am reaching out to you because my family is going through an extremely difficult moment. My parents Esther and Mingo Pugliese, have been leaving in Italy (Pescara) for the last 5 years. On July 8th my mother was operated of a brain tumor and post operatory complications left her in a vegetative state. At the moment she is in intensive care at a hospital in Popoli. We are organizing a fund raising campaign all over the tango communities in the world. The only way of bringing her back to Argentina is with an ambulance plane and this is our goal. Being able to bring her back to a hospital in Buenos Aires will also allow my 75 year old father to come back to an environment that can contain him in this hard situation. I am asking you, to spread the word and to participate in this campaign in any way that is possible for you. There is no little contribution at this moment, anything that we can do together will mean a lot. For those of you that had the chance to meet Esther or learn from her, she lives in every tango step that you or your tango teacher takes. For those of you that love Argentine Tango and know what she and my family did for this dance in the world, I ask you from the bottom of my heart to help. My family and I will be infinitely grateful. My sister Marisa Pugliese and Gachy Fernandez are in charge of coordinating the effort, you can contact them directly at: [email protected] and [email protected] To contribute direclty on line we had created a simbolic product that you can purchase at Tangopal website, please visit: www.tangopal.com/catalog/129 You will find there all the explanations on how to proceed. You can also deposit money in Buenos Aires at: (will be available soon). We please ask you to spread the word with all your contacts and in case you wish to organize or participate in an event in behalf of the cause please contact : For events in Argentina: [email protected] In the rest of the world: [email protected] Sincerely, Pablo Pugliese" Thank you, friends. My warmest regards, Nina [email protected] www.NinaTango.com 720-434-4342 _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
