Argentinean Mercedes Sosa, passed away on October 4, aged 74 and she was the most renowned Latin-American singer of her generation. She was known asLa Negra for her long, jet-black hair and she was famous for performing songs and for championing the rights of the poor.

She was not known as a songwriter, but she excelled at interpreting works of her compatriot Atahualpa Yupanqui and Chile’s Violeta Parra, two icons of Latin America’s nueva canción movement of the end of the 1960’s, which spoke about the struggle for human rights and democracy.

She was a figurehead of the Left in her own right and had problems with the military junta that ruled her country between 1976 and 1983. She had to live in exile at that time, but nonetheless, her choice of material encapsulated the popular consensus on the Left and she liked to sing Parra’s classic Gracias a la Vida (Thanks to life) and Guarany’s Si se Calla el Cantor (if the singer is silenced).

Her career spanned nearly six decades and she released 70 albums. She was extremely versatile and her music covered from Argentinean folk styles, to tango, Cuban nueva trova, Brazilian bossa nova, rock and even liturgical music.

Starting in 1967 she did international tours, and collaborated with artists, like Luciano Pavarotti, Sting, Nana Mouskouri, Joan Baez, Pablo Milanés, Caetano Veloso, and Shakira.

She acted songs out with her expressive gestures and sang in a rich voice that seemed to convey a strong moral authority.

Haydee Mercedes Sosa was born in 1935 in San Miguel de Tucumán in Argentina's Northwest, to a working class family with French and Amerindian (Quechuan) roots.

The political climate changed in Latin America and it became increasingly conservative, with Pinochet seizing power in a coup in Chile in 1973 and Argentina following in 1976, when Jorge Videla's military junta came to power.

She was forced to go into exile and she lived in Paris and Madrid, but she had her music to rely on. With the Argentinian junta's power waning however, she returned home in 1982 shortly before the debacle of the Falkland's War when she gave a triumphant series of concerts at Buenos Aires' Teatro Colón.

In her later career, she became a UNESCO goodwill ambassador, and during the last decade received her greatest recognition, including a few Latin Grammy awards. Mercedes Sosa, was known as the voice of Latin America!

Written by Chilean Julio Numhauser

What is superficial changes

What is profound also changes

The mind changes

Everything changes in this world.

The weather changes with the years

The shepherd changes his flock

And just like everything changes

That I change is not strange

The most precious stone changes

Its brilliance from hand to hand

The bird changes its nest

The lover changes feelings

The traveler changes his way

Even if this harms him

And just like everything changes

That I change is not strange

Change, everything changes

Change, everything changes

Change, everything changes

Change, everything changes

The sun changes its path

When the night prevails

The plants changes and dresses

In green in Spring

The beast changes its fur

The old man changes his hair

And just like everything changes

That I change is not strange

But my love does not change

Regardless of the distance

or the memory or the pain

Of my land and my people

What changed yesterday

Will have to change tomorrow

Just as I change

In this distant land

Everything changes

Everything changes

Everything changes

Everything changes

Escrito por el Chileno Julio Numhauser

Cambia lo superficial

cambia también lo profundo

cambia el modo de pensar

cambia todo en este mundo

Cambia el clima con los años

cambia el pastor su rebaño

y así como todo cambia

que yo cambie no es extraño

Cambia el mas fino brillante

de mano en mano su brillo

cambia el nido el pajarillo

cambia el sentir un amante

Cambia el rumbo el caminante

aunque esto le cause daño

y así como todo cambia

que yo cambie no extraño

Cambia el sol en su carrera

cuando la noche subsiste

cambia la planta y se viste

de verde en la primavera

Cambia el pelaje la fiera

Cambia el cabello el anciano

y así como todo cambia

que yo cambie no es extraño

Pero no cambia mi amor

por mas lejos que me encuentre

ni el recuerdo ni el dolor

de mi pueblo y de mi gente

Lo que cambió ayer

tendrá que cambiar mañana

así como cambio yo

en esta tierra lejana

Cambia todo cambia

Cambia todo cambia

Cambia todo cambia

Cambia todo cambia