Mercedes Sosa

Mercedes Sosa was an Argentine singer from San Miguel de Tucumán, rooted in Argentine folk music, who became a leading voice of the nuevo cancionero movement and was called the voice of the voiceless. After a performance at the Cosquín folklore festival in 1965 brought her national attention, she recorded songs by many Latin American writers, among them Violeta Parra's Gracias a la vida. Under the military junta of Jorge Videla she received death threats, was arrested on stage at La Plata in 1979 along with her audience and was barred from performing, and she went into exile in Paris and Madrid. She returned to Argentina in 1982 and toured widely until her death in 2009.