Mercedes Sosa was both a singer
and a political force as one of the prime figures in the
Nueva Canción
(or Nueva Trova) movement.
Her entry in Last.fm seems to be written by a compatriot,
and an obit in
The Telegraph
speaks a bit of her importance.
Mercedes Sosa, who has died aged 74, was the most renowned Latin-American singer of her generation;
she was known as "La Negra" for her long, jet-black hair, and as "the voice of the voiceless ones",
for her performances of songs which championed the rights of the poor.
Though not known as a songwriter, she was an unrivalled interpreter of works by her compatriot,
the Argentinian Atahualpa Yupanqui, and Chile's Violeta Parra,
both icons of the region's nueva canción movement towards the end of the 1960s,
whose work often spoke of the struggle for human rights and democracy.
As a figurehead of the Left in her own right, Mercedes Sosa fell foul of the military junta that ruled her nation between 1976 and 1983 ...
the object of state surveillance and intimidation by the "Triple A" death squad.
At a concert in La Plata in 1979, she and her entire audience of 200 university students were arrested and detained.
Although she was released as a result of international condemnation, the incident forced her into exile ...
