Mercedes Sosa: voice of Latin America - Music rebels: dissident music then and now - Brief Article

New Internationalist, August, 2003

Though less of a songwriter, Mercedes Sosa has seduced millions with her powerful and emotional interpretations of others' songs. Always deeply political, Sosa was one of the founders of the Nueva Cancion (New Song) movement in Argentina. Together with Armando Tejado Gomez and others, she developed el nuevo cancionero--a musical manifesto which sought to respond to 'new agreements and chords in the air' and to preserve and rehabilitate indigenous music forms (she herself is half South American Indian). Sosa has been referred to as 'the voice of a continent'. She was unflinching in her active opposition to the Argentinean junta and her huge, rousing voice became a symbol of the struggle against oppression in Latin America.

During a concert performance in 1978 Sosa and much of her audience were arrested by the Argentinean military and she was forced into exile.