Argentinean Mercedes Sosa, passed away in October 2009, aged 74, the most renowned Latin-American singer of her generation. She was known as La Negra for her long, jet-black hair and she was famous for performing songs championing the rights of the poor.
She was not really known as a songwriter, but she excelled by interpreting works of her compatriot, Atahualpa Yupanqui and Chile’s Violeta Parra, two icons of Latin America’s nueva canción movement of the end of the 1960’s, which was for human rights and democracy.
She was a figurehead of the Left and had problems with the military junta that ruled her country between 1976 and 1983. She had to live in exile for many years, but nonetheless, the material she chose to perform was about the Left. She was famous for singing Violeta Parra’s classic Gracias a la Vida (Thanks to life) and Guarany’s Si se Calla el Cantor (Silencing the singer).
Her career spanned nearly six decades, releasing 70 albums in that time. She was most versatile and her music covered from Argentinean folk music, to Tango, Nueva Trova from Cuba, Brazilian bossa nova, rock and even religious music.
Mercedes had very expressive gestures and sang in a rich voice conveying a strong moral authority. She was born in 1935 in San Miguel de Tucumán in Argentina’s Northwest, to a working class family with French and (Quechua) roots.
The political climate changed in Latin America and it became very conservative, with Pinochet seizing power in Chile in 1973 and Argentina followed in 1976. She was forced to go into exile then, but she had her music to rely on.
She returned home in 1982, shortly before the debacle of the Falkland’s War, when she gave a triumphant series of concerts at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.
In her later career, she became a UNESCO Ambassador of Goodwill, receiving her greatest recognitions then, including a few Latin Grammy awards. One can truly say that Mercedes Sosa was the voice of Latin America!
Link to my hub: Mercedes Sosa: Latin American folk singer is gone, but her music prevails forever