The tango known as “Hotel Victoria” (or “Gran Hotel Victoria”) began as an instrumental number, first performed to celebrate the 1906 reopening of a hotel by that name in Córdoba. The music is nowadays thought to be an anonymous folk melody, most likely from Spain; the opening section also appears almost identically in the trio of “Yunta brava.” Its credited composer, Feliciano Latasa, probably just arranged the existing tune as a tango; and he was in any case not to outlive the hotel’s reopening by long, dying later that year while still in his 30s.
The music, however, would go on to become one of the most recognizable and characteristic melodies of the tango’s early period. It proved itself as a mainstay with upbeat orchestras (D’Arienzo especially) as well as peppier small ensembles (Cuarteto Firpo, José Libertella, Los Tubatango). Lyricist Carlos Pesce added a text in 1932, it being fairly common by then (and since the 1910s) for established instrumentals to have words added by later writers. Pesce’s lyrics capture an interesting intersection of themes: the demimonde of the early tangos is still there implicitly, but the speaker feels regret, as much for his lost love as for the changing face of the city. (In the link below, Ángel Vargas sings the chorus only, in the recording heard at milongas; Tita Merello includes both verses as well in her rendition, with a couple substitute words.)
Hotel Victoria
(Tr. Jake Spatz)
YouTube: Ángel Vargas (orq. D’Agostino)
Old-time hotel of my daydreams and my revels
That cradled the idylls of a desperate affair,
I now pay homage to those days when you were
The faithful witness of my singing there.
Hotel Victoria, you that so often
Would see me weep in my solitude,
You’ll see tomorrow, when you’re forgotten,
Alone the tango remembers you.
Hotel Victoria, it’s twenty years now,
Since my love strutted out by your doors,
And ever since then, I’ve borne a sorrow
That breaks my poor little heart evermore.
Today as blows of the pickaxe pull you apart,
Like that minx who tore up my love one day,
Remembering now leaves me so bitter at heart,
A wish time’s passing has swept away.
Hotel Victoria (1906/1932)
Music: Feliciano Latasa
Lyrics: Carlos Pesce
Viejo hotel de mis ensueños y alegrías
que acunó el idilio de un loco amar,
hoy recuerdo aquellos días que vos eras
el fiel testigo de mi cantar.
Hotel Victoria, vos que supiste
lo que he llorado en mi soledad,
verás mañana, cuando te olviden,
que sólo el tango te recordará.
Hotel Victoria, fue el año veinte,
que de tus puertas partió mi amor,
y desde entonces llevo una pena
que va matando a mi pobre corazón.
Hoy que a golpes de piqueta te voltearon,
como aquella ingrata mi amor tronchó,
los recuerdos son ahora muy amargos,
ilusión que el tiempo se la llevó.