Genre
Argentine nueva canción and folk. A concept album in the tradition of the cantata form, celebrating the cultural, geographical, and spiritual diversity of South America through eight interconnected songs — among them the anthemic "Es Sudamérica mi voz" and "Sudamericano en Nueva York" — all with music by Ariel Ramírez and lyrics by Félix Luna, set against spare arrangements featuring piano, harpsichord, quena, and requinto guitar.
Release
Released in 1972 on Philips Argentina, in a gatefold sleeve with two extra pages inside.
Production
Musical direction and piano and harpsichord by Ariel Ramírez himself, who also co-wrote all compositions with Félix Luna. The ensemble featured Raúl Mercado on quena and Gustavo Fernández on requinto guitar.
Reception
The album is regarded as one of the most important concept albums in the history of South American popular and folk music and one of the finest works in both Mercedes Sosa's and Ariel Ramírez's catalogues. It has been described as a meditation on South American identity that transcends its historical moment — a complement to Ramírez's celebrated Misa Criolla (1964) in its ambition and spiritual scope, but turned outward toward the continental rather than the ecclesiastical.
Mercedes Sosa
Haydée Mercedes Sosa (July 9, 1935, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina – October 4, 2009, Buenos Aires) was an Argentine folk singer widely known as "La Negra" and "La Voz de Latinoamérica" — the Voice of Latin America — regarded as one of the greatest popular singers of the twentieth century. A founding figure of the Argentine nueva canción movement alongside Atahualpa Yupanqui, she built an international career as the foremost interpreter of the continent's folk and protest song traditions. Her recordings introduced the work of Violeta Parra, Milton Nascimento, Silvio Rodríguez, Pablo Milanés, and León Gieco to vast audiences. Following the military coup of 1976, in 1979, she was arrested on stage in La Plata along with the entire audience, and subsequently forced into exile in Paris and Madrid. She returned to Argentina in 1982 to give a series of historic concerts at the Teatro Opera in Buenos Aires — documented on the double album Mercedes Sosa en Argentina (1982). She received the Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004 and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011, posthumously.
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