- Title: ARGENTINA: Museum dedicated to a family of accordion makers opens in Buenos Aires
- Date: 2nd December 2005
- Summary: HAS WORKSHOP, WITH JUAN, JOSE, NAZARENO AND JOSEFINA ANCONETANI WORKING ON, MAKING AND REPAIRING ACCORDIONS
- Embargoed: 17th December 2005 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Argentina
- Country: Argentina
- Topics: Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
- Reuters ID: LVA7JOZI8CX5ZI46KF3W195MFSIK
- Story Text: For more than a century, a family of Argentines has been making accordions from scratch in their own small Buenos Aires workshop. Now, with the opening of a new museum dedicated to their work, they are assured their place in local history.
The Anconetani Accordion Museum operates alongside the family workshop, which opened in 1916 in the Chacarita neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The business was started by Giovanni Anconetani, who arrived in Argentina from Italy and began making accordions as far back as 1896. He then passed on his knowledge to his wife and children, who in turn passed it on to new generations.
Of Giovanni's children, now only Nazareno is still alive. At 84, he still remembers how the business began.
"When the war started, those five years that I remember, I was 18, 20 years old, and I remember very well that nothing came from Europe - no correspondence, no telephone, nothing. Whoever was over there was over there, whoever was here couldn't even go, do you understand? So what happens? That way (Giovanni, his father) saw himself as obliged to make the whole complete accordion here in Argentina. So he dedicated himself to looking for material, looking for tools, and we ended up making entire accordions in the house, always handmade, not on a big scale," he recalled.
The workshop, which produces only one detailed accordion a year, was taken over by Nazareno and his siblings, Luis, Juan and Josefina after his father retired.
Now they have passed their legacy onto a new generation, which includes Giovanni's grandchildren and great grandchildren.
For Nazareno, the new museum is a dream come true.
"I think for me it's starting to touch the sky with your hands, you understand? For me, it's a dream," he said at the inauguration.
The Museum's four rooms contain personal items belonging to Giovanni, some of their more representative accordions, and all the tools and materials that go into their fabrication, as well as a workshop where the making of the instrument is explained. Family photos and accordion cases are also on show.
But this small tribute to the history of one family is all about the music, and as the last of his generation, Nazareno still remembers how to enjoy it. Celebrating the opening of the museum, he joined a band of accordionists, accompanying them on the drums with as much heart as all of his family have put into their craft. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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