The club provided a social space where Candombe (among others such as Tango, Jazz and Rumba) was danced and performed. The Shimmy Club offered a possibility to get in touch with the 'invisible' Afro-Argentine community through the sponsored dances (Andrews 217). But again, as in the nineteenth century, the young Afro-Argentines of the 1970s seemed less interested in maintaining traditions leading to a decline of participation. When the Shimmy Club closed, Candombe became 'privatized' and only celebrated at home (Frigerio, Lamborghini, (De)mostrando cultura, 107). This went hand in hand with the rise of Afro-Uruguayan Candombe in Buenos Aires perpetuating Afro-Argentine invisibility. The nation's capital experienced an influx of Afro-Uruguayan workers by the 1990s, who would perform their Afro-Uruguayan Candombe. Eventually, this led to a participation of the white middle-class, adopting this version of Candombe as the Candombe of Buenos Aires since the Afro-Argentine Candombe performance was considered to have been 'disappeared'.

Even though Frigerio and Lamborghini see the rise of Afro-Uruguayan Candombe in Buenos Aires critically, he recognizes that its renewed practice was important for the black community to regain visibility, for example by connecting Candombe practice in San Telmo with Afro-Porteño memories (107). The adoption of the Afro-Uruguayan Candombe as the 'official' River Plate Candombe led to an increase of Afro-Uruguayan participation in Buenos Aires. There has been an increase in carnival celebrations in the past years with parades and llamadas through the traditional Afro-Argentine neighborhood of San Telmo once known as the Barrio del Tambor (Neighborhood of the Drum). In 2013 the city of Buenos Aires passed Law 4.773 declaring December 3 “Día del Candombe y la Equidad Étnica en la Ciudad de Buenos Aires” (Day of Candombe and Racial Equality in the City of Buenos Aires). While Article 2 establishes the celebration of Candombe and the cultural contributions of Afro-descendants as law, it specifically states in Article 5

“Declárese patrimonio cultural de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires el Candombe, caracterizado por el toque de tambores denominados Chico, Repique y Piano; su danza y su canto creado por los afro uruguayos a partir del legado ancestral africano, sus orígenes, rituales, y su contexto social como comunidad. (Legislatura Buenos Aires, 2013) [Declare Candombe the cultural heritage of the City of Buenos Aires, characterized by playing the drums called Chico, Repique, and Piano; their dance and song created by Afro-Uruguayans from the African ancestral legacy, its origins, rituals and its social context as community.]

This shows that the Afro-Uruguayan Candombe is accepted as the official Candombe in Buenos Aires. In contrast to this official notion we want to highlight that  part of the black community has demanded the revisibilization of the Afro-Argentine Candombe. This conscious decision can be referred to as  retraditionalizing, taking elements from the past into contemporary context (Frigerio, Lamborghini, “(De)mostrando cultura” 111).

For Frigerio the contemporary struggle besides a re-visibility within Porteño society is the struggle within the Afro-descendant community. He identifies  three main groups, Afro-Argentines, Afro-Uruguayans and Afro-Brazilians, presenting “differing and contested representations of the city's black culture and tradition” (Frigerio, “Blacks in Argentina” 2). Africa Vive is an association aiming at creating cultural and historical awareness of what is really Afro-Argentine (17). The discussion of what constitutes black heritage and who can claim to represent it in Buenos Aires remains. At the moment “Afro-Uruguayans have practically monopolized the performance arenas, being called to perform in any show that wants to show the city's black roots” (23).

We can conclude that although there is no, or scarcely any, historical Afro-Argentine Candombe being performed at this point, it can be said that Candombe has always been a strong identifier within the black community in Buenos Aires and Montevideo (12). As we have already shown until the 1970s there have been dances and music of what can be considered the 'original' Candombe and that was claimed by the Afro-Argentines as their own. A clear difference to Montevideo's Candombe is the surrounding of the performance. While the Afro-Uruguayan Candombe strongly identifies through llamadas performanced outside on the streets of the neighborhoods in Montevideo, Afro-Argentine Candombe was characterized through its rather private setting, performed within interior social spaces and later only at home. However, Afro-Porteño Candombe during the second half of the twentieth century and the early twenty-first century, has been widely ignored academically. This can be reasoned with the popular presumption that the 'original' version had disappeared due to the decreasing number and geographical dispersion that supposedly terminated the Afro-Argentine community as such (11).