Mercedes Sosa - More Than A Song. Anette Christensen

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       Mercedes Sosa-More than a Song by Anette Christensen

      © 2019 by Anette Christensen. All rights reserved.

      Dedication

      In honor of Fabián Matus, Mercedes Sosa’s son, who passed away on March 15, 2019, less than ten years after his mother. You worked wholeheartedly for your mother when she was alive and maybe even harder to establish her legacy after her death.

      To the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who in a high age, are still active in their search of the children stolen from their parents and given to the Generals during The Dirty War. You are an example to all of us, that age is no hindrance to making a change in this world.

      To people Mercedes Sosa loved and served her entire life. Those who suffer under the burden of poverty, persecution, censorship, torture and social injustice in any form, the indigenous, the disenfranchised, the oppressed, the homeless, the orphans, the depressed, the lonely, and everyone who has never been seen and loved for who they are.

      Introduction

      ON OCTOBER 4, 2009, when her death was announced on the news, I caught my first glimpse of Mercedes Sosa. There was a very short sequence of her singing “Gracias a la vida” at an acoustic concert in Switzerland in 1980. The first thing that struck me was her authenticity. I could sense that she was a person of tremendous integrity. What she expressed seemed to be in complete accordance with who she was. The intensity and firmness in her voice, the intoning of every note and every word reached me like glassy water reflecting my soul. Her tenderness, profound passion, immense presence, and charisma moved me deeply. I started to watch and listen to Mercedes Sosa on the internet and soon I found myself completely immersed in her life,- a universe of music and love. Tears would run down my cheeks as I watched her and listened to her songs and intuitively, I began to use her eyes like a mirror that reflected back to me what I had missed out on as a child. In her eyes I saw the glance of a mother, a glance that said, “I see who you are, and in my eyes you are wonderful.”

      Since my discovery of Mercedes Sosa had such a deep and haunting impact on me, I began searching for any bit of information I could find about her. I soon learned that I wasn’t alone with the experience of being invigorated and transformed in her presence. As I delved deep into Mercedes’ life I discovered that her fans often referred to her as a “mystical presence.” This aroused my curiosity to gain a better understanding of her personal life—her relationships with her family, fans, and friends as well as the events that shaped her life on a personal and professional level. I embarked on a quest to find the secret behind her enormous impact and this so-called “mystical presence.”

      What I discovered affected me on various levels. Watching how Mercedes dealt with social and political problems increased my social awareness. Witnessing how she related to others, whether it was peasants or presidents, friends or foes, touched me deeply and aroused a desire in me to become more respectful and compassionate and to pay full attention to others.

      I am a sensitive and intuitive person who always looks for the best in others. Sometimes when I meet a person for the first time, my inner detector tells me that I have struck gold. It is a sensitivity that makes me feel a person’s essence and see their innate beauty immediately. It is exactly what happened when Mercedes Sosa came up on my radar. I felt I had found a treasure, and the more I got to know about her, the more convinced I became, that I had encountered a legend.

      Naturally, I was interested in talking to others about her, so I kept asking everyone on my way if they had heard of her, but I never had a positive answer. Realizing that she was still an unsung hero in the English speaking world, as well as my longing to get to know her, learn from her and connect with her gave me inspiration to write this book. I remember sitting on the stairs outside our house looking up at the stars when the thought crossed my mind for the first time only one month after her death.

      Writing this book has been like putting a jigsaw puzzle with one thousand pieces together, starting with having only one single piece and no idea what the full picture would look like. I was СКАЧАТЬ