Tango heals a broken heart
Enso event features world-traveled author, tango lesson
After only 18 months of marriage, Maria Finn found out that her husband was cheating.
She was devastated. But help was only a few steps away. First she stepped out to travel on an already planned trip to Uruguay and Buenas Aires. While away, she took the next few steps that changed her life — on a dance floor as she learned the tango.
Dancing “was the only time I didn’t feel bad,” she said. “I had my heart broken, so I learned to dance the tango to get over it.”
That story is recounted in her new memoir, “Hold Me Tight and Tango Me Home,” released by Algonquin Books. That book, and the signing of copies of it, is the focus of an event at 5 p.m. Sunday, March 21, at the Enso gallery in Half Moon Bay.
The book will be in the spotlight — along with a beginning lesson in tango, live tango music, Malbec wine from Argentina, and fresh empanadas made and live tango music played by Enso co-founder Mauro Ffortissimo.
The book tells Finn’s story of how she threw her husband out, and then on her visit to Buenas Aires — the birthplace of tango — she learned to master the dance step she credits with teaching her about love and loss, how to follow and lead, and to live with style and flair — and to risk loving again.
She also credits the sultry dance with once dictating fashion and launching the cocktail in the United States, as well as growing into prominence overseas in Finland and Turkey.
“The music, the touch, the feel of another person’s heart, teaches you how to trust again,” she said.
“A lively debut memoir, brimming with tango history and lore,” wrote Booklist.
But neither the book, nor tango itself, were Finn’s first brush with literary fame.
Originally from Kansas City, Mo., she earned an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, and then went on to teach English and design a study-abroad course in nonfiction at Casa de Las Americas in Havana, Cuba.
She has edited two anthologies, “Cuba in Mind” and “Mexico in Mind.” Following the example set by her grandmother, an avid gardener, she wrote a book on edible gardening, “A Little Piece of Earth: How to Grow Your Own Food in Small Spaces,” which spawned a blog and weekly gardening newsletter.
She has also written essays for “The Best Food Writing 2006” and “Best Women’s Travel Writing 2007,” written for publications around the country, and been a finalist for many fiction-writing awards.
Prior to graduate school, she lived for a while in Alaska, working in the commercial fishing industry, where she was also a commentator for Alaska Public Radio and covered news and culture from Latin America and Hispanic communities in the United States for ABC News. She also worked as a crewmember on all-female commercial fishing boats.
She now lives on a houseboat in Sausalito, a community she describes as “perfect” with its proximity to San Francisco and its nearness to nature. But she does not stray far from the Latin experiences that shaped her life.
Latin America, she said, “literally drew me in. It is poetic, beautiful, political and passionate. I’ve been accused of having a Latina soul.”
For information, contact Enso at (650) 726-1409.