BUENOS AIRES, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- When 12-year-old Enzo Perino plays bandoneon, an over-sized accordion that serves as the backbone of tango music, he looks just like his grandfather.
Perino, from Rio Plata city, 65 km south of Buenos Aires, is already a skilled bandoneon player of tango, a dance which has been declared part of the world's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the United Nations.
Like most adolescents, Perino enjoys video games, including the popular Wii console, where his favorite is Guitar Hero.
He is also a fan of the San Antonio Spurs, an American professional basketball team which recruited Emanuel Ginobili, a famous Argentine basketball player.
He quotes poet Enrique Santos Discepolo's most famous expression about tango: It is a sad thought that you can dance. Saying it was his way to overcome shyness.
Bandoneon's attraction to Perino pervailed among his other interests, said Enzo's father, Walter Perino, a customs officer.
"It's like something he carries in his genes," Walter told Xinhua in his elegant house in Los Hornos neighborhood. "When I first saw him playing, I was surprised. He makes the same gesturesas his grandfather, a man he barely knew."
Carlos Julio Lucini, Perino's grandfather, played the instrument for more than half a century and was a member of a tango band.
Accompanied on the piano by his 13-year-old sister, Anahi, Enzoperforms classical tango "La Cumparsita" and "Grisel" for families and friends almost every Sunday in the family's broad garden.
Perino, who has been playing bandoneon for nearly two years now, diligently practices nearly an hour a day.
"I take bandoneon classes once a week," Perino said, "the bandoneon keyboard was too big for my hands."
Bandoneon is steadily disappearing, partly because repairers remain in shortage and partly because tourists from the Europe, Japan and the United States buy up the instrument as souvenirs.
"My grandma (Lucini's widow) is proud because I am playing the bandoneon just like my grandpa," Enzo said, adding he hoped to be a professional some day. "My friends usually prefer the guitar or the bass and when I brought the bandoneon to school for a public performance they were all dumbstruck," he said.
Enzo admires Astor Pantaleon Piazzolla, an Argentine tango master who revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style in the 1950s and 60s, incorporating elments from Latin, hip hop and reggae rhythms popular across Latin America.
The tango first became famous at the beginning of 20th century and was played in Argentina's rougher neighborhoods and in its northern neighbor Uruguay.
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