Get ready to tango the night away once again with the Argentina "Tango" Pavilion at Folklorama.

 Vince Gabriele is the emcee for the Argentina "Tango" Pavilion and has been since the pavilion's inception back in 2001.

"I was told," Gabriele laughed when asked how he came to be the voice of the pavilion. "My uncle, who started the Argentinian Manitoba Association (AMA) told me that I had to be the emcee upon our first acceptance into [Folklorama]."

It's not a decision he's ever regretted, however, with surprises in store for their Folklorama participation once again this year. "We try to keep it fresh every year," Gabriele explained, announcing new performers to take part in the event this year from Argentina in addition to great food and a lively atmosphere.

Gabriele's mixed background of Italian and Argentinian explains his charisma. "My parents were from Italy, but my dad, from Itlay, moved his family to Argentina. They were very young," he said. From there, the family moved to Winnipeg in 1964.

As a result, Gabriele grew up with two languages that he knows very well, Italian and Spanish, which might fool some to think he immigrated to Canada.

"I [was] born and raised in Winnipeg ... and I grew up with my grandparents speaking both Italian and Spanish." When you grow up with it, Gabriele says, you keep using it with the family.

Traditions in Gabriele's family while growing up centred around keeping culture alive in what felt much like isolation. One of the only Argentinian families in Winnipeg at the time (and without social media), it was hard to meet others who could culturally connect with the family.

"Back then ... you met people and maybe they spoke Spanish or maybe they didn't, or maybe they were from Argentina or El Salvador or Venezuela. You just didn't know so we felt like we were one of the only Argentinian families."

Gabriele says that his family did a lot of cookouts and barbeques as a way for their family to stay connected to each other and their roots.

Food was a central part of heritage for Gabriele, who says beef empanadas and milanesa were frequent culinary delights in his diet growing up, often with family surrounding him for meals as they ate together.

"My uncle's dream was always to get the Argentinian family together, show Winnipeg what we're all about," says Gabriele. That idea is what has established the backbone of the festive Argentina "Tango" Pavilion during Folklorama. "What the Argentinian culture is like, the tango ... all the folklore ... it's almost like a carnival type of setting.

"It's the celebration that they bring, whether it's messy in the soccer game or it's [the] tango in the streets of Buenos Aires, it's kind of like that atmosphere that we bring to Folklorama."

Visit the Argentina "Tango" Pavilion at the Centro Caboto Centre (1055 Wilkes Avenue) from Sunday, August 4 to Saturday, August 10, 2019.