¡no seas así, mercedes sosa!

ugh. for anyone who hasn't heard, mercedes sosa has scheduled several performances in israel for the end of october. this ignores the palestinian call for boycott, divestment, & sanctions. it also lends her legitimacy to the apartheid israeli state, and rejects an important opportunity for explicit solidarity with the palestinian people.

mercedes sosa is legendary. in the early years of the argentine dictatorship she was defiant, singing songs that celebrated the struggles of workers and students, songs that bravely called out the regime for what it was. the people loved her ardently; the dictatorship banned her from radio & tv. in 1978 she was arrested by soldiers during a performance in la plata, singing about agrarian reform. eventually she was forced out of argentina like many others, only able to return years later when the dictatorship was just about to fall.

i saw her perform in 1995 at zellerbach. i cried when i heard her voice. she was so striking, this round little woman on an almost empty stage, singing about political repression and exile to a room full of exiles. the hall was filled with people from argentina and chile, older than me, who had listened to her music during the dirty war years. longing for their lands and people, they had taken refuge in her singing. the years had passed and now she was singing for them again:

quién dijo que todo está perdido
yo vengo a ofrecer mi corazón
tanta sangre que se llevó el río
yo vengo a ofrecer mi corazón

**

who says all is lost
i come to offer my heart
so much blood carried away by the river
i come to offer my heart

it was beautiful, the camaraderie & cariño in the hall that evening among exiles; and the echo of collective sorrow was like nothing i had ever seen.

now occupied palestine is full of soldiers and checkpoints, mass arrests and political assassination, detention centers and torture. ¿te suena familiar, mercedes? how then not to take the side of the palestinians? how not to loudly oppose the israeli state, the bulldozing of homes, the destruction of families, the blatant theft of land and resources?

i can't listen to her singing now. and i'm reminded of this song, si se calla el cantor (if the singer keeps quiet). it's a song she performs often, written by her compatriota, horacio guarany.

qué ha de ser de la vida si el que canta
no levanta su voz en las tribunas
por el que sufre, por el que no hay
ninguna razón que lo condene a andar sin manta
...
que no calle el cantor porque el silencio
cobarde apaña la maldad que oprime

**

what must life be if he who sings
does not raise his voice on the stand
for the one that suffers, for the one
condemned for no reason to go without
...
may the singer not keep quiet because cowardly silence
provides cover for the evil that oppresses


si se calla el cantor, versión horacio guarany & soledad pastorutti: