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Argentina: Mourning the Death of Folk Singer Mercedes Sosa

Categories: Latin America, Argentina, Arts & Culture, Music

The October 4th death of Argentine singer Mercedes Sosa [1], one of the most important voices in Latin American folk music, was one of the most important news during the past weekend. The news was covered by all Argentine media, and some cable news channels transmitted the wake throughout Sunday.

Photo by Basilievich and used under a Creative Commons license. [2]

Photo by Basilievich and used under a Creative Commons license.

As expected, many blogs wrote about the singer's death. The large majority published videos or songs, as a way to pay homage. Other wrote short descriptions about the sadness of the day. For example, in the blog La Cocina Plural [es] [3], Tomy writes:

Tus acciones, tus palabras, tus canciones y tu voz despertaron alguna conciencia social…( algunas siguen dormidas), te echaremos de menos para siempre, que descanses allí donde estés

Your actions, your words, your songs and your voice awoken some social consciousness… (some remain asleep), we'll always miss you, may you rest in peace wherever you may be.
Mourning waiting in line to pay their respects to Mercedes Sosa. Photo by blmurch and used under a Creative Commons license. [4]

Mourning waiting in line to pay their respects to Mercedes Sosa. Photo by blmurch and used under a Creative Commons license.

Other blogs wrote short summaries of what happened on the day of her death. The blog La Carabina [es] [5] writes that:

desde que se conoció su muerte (producida en la madrugada del domingo), sus admiradores han guardado pacientemente horas de fila para acceder al velatorio organizado en el salón de los Pasos Perdidos del Congreso, un honor sólo reservado para las más importantes personalidades políticas y culturales.

ever since her death was announced (early in the morning on Sunday), her fans waited patiently in line for hours in order to gain access to the wake organized in the Pasos Perdidos Salon of Congress, which is an honor only reserved for the most important political and cultural figures

The singer's official website received a large number of messages before and after her death, due to the progressively worsening in her health condition. Fans also shared their condolences through Mercedes Sosa's Facebook page [es] [6].

Translation by Eduardo Ávila