Recently I watched an inspirational documentary, Waste Land (2010). Rialto Channel screened it last year. It is about Brazilian born, New York based artist, Vik Muniz who goes back to his home town to do an art instillation of portraits on garbage pickers at the worlds largest rubbish dump in Rio. The system is one of ‘stock exchange’ whereby 3,000 pickers sort through 400,000 peoples worth of garbage each day in search of recyclable plastics and goods to sell to corporations. Over the 2-year project we see the artist transform garbage into high-end contemporary art. The exhibition was seen by 1 million people and raised over US$250,000 dollars for the 3,000 pickers and Jardim Gramacho community.
A comment artist Muniz made early on in Waste Land resonated, he said, “the most poisonous thing about Brazil is their classism.” This got me thinking about the people of Latin America, the present day situation and what music legend Mercedes Sosa stood for.
Recently I watched an inspirational documentary, Waste Land (2010). Rialto Channel screened it last year. It is about Brazilian born, New York based artist, Vik Muniz who goes back to his home town to do an art instillation of portraits on garbage pickers at the worlds largest rubbish dump in Rio. The system is one of ‘stock exchange’ whereby 3,000 pickers sort through 400,000 peoples worth of garbage each day in search of recyclable plastics and goods to sell to corporations. Over the 2-year project we see the artist transform garbage into high-end contemporary art. The exhibition was seen by 1 million people and raised over US$250,000 dollars for the 3,000 pickers and Jardim Gramacho community.
A comment artist Muniz made early on in Waste Land resonated, he said, “the most poisonous thing about Brazil is their classism.” This got me thinking about the people of Latin America, the present day situation and what music legend Mercedes Sosa stood for.
Poverty, class and the fight for the oppressed are dominant themes in filmmaker Rodrigo H. Vila’s Mercedes Sosa: Voice of Latin America (2013). Described as ‘the voice of the voiceless ones’ this film is an intimate portrait of Mercedes Sosa (1935 – 2009) whose career spanned 60 years and who influenced 20th century political and cultural shifts. She was loved and adored by all of her people and at the time of her passing, then President Fernandez de Kirchner gave 3 days of national mourning. Tens of thousands queued at National Congress to pay condolences.
The film interweaves the powerful voice and poetic lyrics of Sosa’s music with extensive archival interviews and concert footage. It is through her two surviving brothers and son, Fabian Matus, close friends and current day artists we are able to get a very raw and personal insight into the life and politics of Mercedes Sosa.
An opening segment introduces Sosa’s hometown in Tucuman, Argentina, her son with her two brothers take a stroll through 9 de Julio Park. In an interview Sosa says “hunger caused us distress, our mother used to take us to the park so we wouldn’t smell cooking, because at night we really used to starve.” Her brother continues, “we were lucky to live across the road from the park, it had vinagrillo fruit that we used to come and eat.” In a touching moment, we really get to grips with the true poverty these people endured.
Aged 15, Sosa entered herself in a singing competition organised by the local radio station and won. She was given a contract to perform Argentinian folk music for two months. She released her first album in 1959 and a performance with Jorge Cafrune in 1965 was when she first gained attention. In 1967 she toured Europe and the United States with great success.
Sosa’s lyrics were politically charged, especially for her time, ‘when I have the land, the fighters will have it… teachers, lumberjacks and workers… peasant, when I have the land, I will put the moon in your pocket’ are from a well known song. In an interview she says, “the life of people in Latin America, is a suffering people. They are a very poor people, we don’t deserve this poverty.” Her songs, even a poet song, became a political act. From early on she favoured leftist politics as a supporter of Peron and later became an ambassador for UNICEF.
Accused of being a defiant communist in her home country, Sosa was ordered not to perform, then under the military dictatorship of Jorge Rafael Videla in 1976, was forced to leave Argentina all together after being arrested on stage in 1979. She says she was followed closely by militant groups and even had death threats. She moved to Paris, then Madrid, fortunate for her, she says she had a huge fan base in Europe. In 1982 she returned from exile back to Argentina.
Over her career, Mercedes Sosa collaborated with artists of all genres, from opera to rock, with performers such as Luciano Pavarotti, Nana Mouskouri, Sting and Joan Baez. She was a recipient of several Grammy awards and nominations, she performed at venues Lincoln Center New York City, Theatre Mogador in Paris, Sistine Chapel in Vatican City and had sell out shows at Carnegie Hall and the Colosseum in Rome. Her work has had widespread influence all over the world.
She says of herself, that she’s “not a singer, but a singer of the people.”
In the film, musician, Pablo Milanes comments “Mercedes Sosa’s personality is fundamental in order to make a historical revision, not only a cultural revision of Latin America but a political one.” And her influence continues, her song Balderrama featured in the film Che (2008) about Marxist revolutionist Che Guevara.
What I liked best about The Voice of Latin America is how the filmmaker has portrayed Mercedes Sosa as emotionally authentic. She stood for an entire continent’s working-class and indigenous population. She was an artist open to new musical forms and eager to use her considerable talents to push for change.
14/09/201405:10pm