Down the centuries, songs have been written for all kinds of reasons. To celebrate happy events, to mourn the passing of loved ones, to pray or even fight for a better world. Music is a way of expressing what is going on. Part 3 of an RNW series on protest songs across the globe.
Over the last decade, Latin American protest songs have undergone a revolution, going from poetic ode to explicit, raw hip-hop.
The first protest songs sung in Central and South America were corridos, ballads that were sung during the revolution that started in Mexico in 1910. The protest songs of the 1960s and 70s were modern variations on the corrido: earnest, passionate, poetic ballads. They were known as La Nueva Canción, or The New Song.
Over the last decade, Latin American protests have changed dramatically and now raw raps and hip-hop tackle social ills and injustice.
Indictment
La Nueve Canción of the 1960s was the lifework of the young Argentine singer and writer Víctor Heredia:
“In the beginning, this movement was a sort of rediscovery of the written word. Beauty and aesthetic principles were the central, and essential, foundations that a song was based on. That was new. Until then, people sang about other things, not about the human condition and society.”
Uruguay’s Daniel Viglietti also dedicated himself to the new genre. His song A desalambrar or Tear Down the Fences was an indictment of the methods and practices of the major landowners. The song addresses the gulf between a piece of land and people. Daniel Viglietti:
“The songs were written because of the huge need to address the injustices and oppression in Latin America.”
Victor Jara
After the Cuban revolution which started in 1959, La Nueve Canción gained popularity in Chile. After the democratically-elected government of President Salvador Allende was deposed by a military coup headed by General Augusto Pinochet in 1973, the new dictatorship attempted to silence the protest singers.
One of the most important victims of the Pinochet regime was Víctor Jara. Shortly after the coup he was arrested, tortured and murdered in Santiago’s national stadium. The sports centre has now been renamed Víctor Jara Stadium. Jara became an international symbol and the embodiment of the struggle for human rights and justice throughout Latin America.
The cruel and oppressive Latin American dictatorships forced many protest singers into exile, including Argentina’s Mercedes Sosa. She became famous throughout the world for her songs that coupled poetry and social criticism. Her fellow countrymen Facundo Cabral was another major artist in exile. He was murdered earlier this month in Guatemala.
Revolutionary songs
The main singers of social protest songs in Cuba in the 1960s and 70s, were Pablo Milanés, Silvio Rodríguez and Noel Nicola. They wrote and sang two types of songs, one praised the Cuban communist revolution while the other criticised Latin American dictatorships, the war in Vietnam and the killing fields in Cambodia. They protested against events outside Cuba, never against their own government.
Socially critical songs
In later years, a new generation of singers emerged in Latin America that, in contrast to the previous generation, was more critical of society and social mores. One of the most important interpreters of the new genre was Carlos Varela, known as the ‘Cuban Bob Dylan’.
He likes telling stories. The song Como los peches is an indictment of the rigid, uncompromising nature of Cuba’s revolutionary counsel and describes the widespread disillusionment among the island’s youth. In an interview with RNW, Carlos Varela said:
“I don’t want to give an exact, photographically accurate image of what’s happening in Cuba, I want to think about what’s happening and about our reality.”
His comments raised a storm of criticism in Cuba and he is now heavily censored by the Cuban media.
Rap and hip-hop
Over the last ten years, rappers and hip-hop artists have become the major proponents of socially critical music. Many of the young rappers draw on their own experience of growing up in the poor slums surrounding many of Latin America’s major cities. They use the genre to criticise society and the ruling elites and their songs frequently get them into trouble.
The Dominican Republic has banned some songs by Puerto Rico’s Calle 13. Just as in the past, government censorship continues to try and smother the voices of protest singers.
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Each song can reflect the prevailing social and cultural background. The song should not be used as poetry.biomass pellet processing
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