Obit: Argentine singer Facundo Cabral murdered

Subject: Obit: Argentine singer Facundo Cabral murdered
From: Matthew Edwards
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 09:00 AM

One of Latin America's most admired folk singers, Facundo Cabral, 74, was killed on Saturday 9 July 2011 at the end of a concert tour in Guatemala when three carloads of gunmen ambushed the vehicle in which he was riding, prompting expressions of anguish from across the region. Authorities said the performer's Nicaraguan concert promoter, Henry Farinas, was apparently the target. [Source: Associated Press]

There are fuller reports available from The Guardian, the BBC, and The Washington Post.

Here is a recent YouTube clip of Cabral performing his best known song No soy de acqui ni soy de alla ("I am not from here nor from there").

Some details of his life can be found on his the website facundocabral.org. He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1937, and began singing in 1959. He fled the military dictatorship in Argentina in 1976 and settled in Mexico, but returned to Argentina in 1984. He composed his own songs of social criticism combined with humour.

During an Associated Press interview in Miami at the age of 71 Cabral said; "I always ask God, 'Why have you given me so much?' You've given me misery, hunger, happiness, struggle, enlightenment ... I've seen everything. I know there's cancer, syphilis and springtime, and fried apple dumplings,"

Matthew Edwards

Subject: RE: Obit: Argentine singer Facundo Cabral murdered
From: Fortunato
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 09:37 AM

Thank you for this message from what is, for me, a distant culture and a personality and intellect that is at once familiar and yet strange.

Subject: RE: Obit: Argentine singer Facundo Cabral murdered
From: GUEST,willie-o no cookie
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 10:22 AM

appalling story. I just saw it on CNN. Gotta think we will be hearing a lot more about him.

wo

Subject: RE: Obit: Argentine singer Facundo Cabral murdered
From: Stringsinger
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 10:31 AM

A sad repeat of what happened to Victor Jara.

The songs live on!

Subject: RE: Obit: Argentine singer Facundo Cabral murdered
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 11:56 AM

How very sad and senseless. Thanks for the links.

Reminds me we haven't seen much of Argentine Mudcatter Escamillo/Andres around here, lately.

kat

Subject: RE: Obit: Argentine singer Facundo Cabral murdered
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 12:00 PM

Thanks for that Matthew. To my eternal shame I've never heard of the guy, but it sounds like one more enlightened soul has been wiped out by the forces of reaction.

Subject: RE: Obit: Argentine singer Facundo Cabral murdered
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 12:04 PM

Very sad indeed. I think we have a couple of his CDs. We listen a lot to Ricardo Arjona from Guatemala

Subject: RE: Obit: Argentine singer Facundo Cabral murdered
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 01:53 PM

Guest above was me. No, my wife has ordered a couple of his Cds from Amazon.

Subject: RE: Obit: Argentine singer Facundo Cabral murdered
From: pdq
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 02:02 PM

By the responses, some people don't understand that this man was not the target. A businessman who promoted the concert was the intended victim and Cabral just happened to be in the way of the bullets.

Organized crime threatens democracy all over the world.

Here is a list of the murder rates in several countries, death per 100,000 population...

Honduras                              77
El Salvador                              70
Venezuela                              48
Trinidad and Tobago         37
Colombia                              32
Brazil                                    25
Panama                               21
Mexico                              18
Russia                                     13
Estonia                               6.3
Latvia                               3.6
New Zealand                1.76
Chile                                    1.3
Ireland                         1.25
Denmark                           0.85
Germany                         0.84
Japan                           0.83
Austria                         0.56

Notice how many countries are located in Central America or near it.

Subject: RE: Obit: Argentine singer Facundo Cabral murdered
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 02:31 PM

It doesn't matter if he was the target or not, pdq. It's still a damn shame.

As to your last comment...no comment. This is not the place for another of your political de"baits." - kat-moderator

Subject: RE: Obit: Argentine singer Facundo Cabral murdered
From: Arkie
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 02:55 PM

A tragedy irregardless of who was the target. For those like me who are not acquainted with Cabral's work here is a place one can get 30 second samples of four of his albums.

emusic

Subject: RE: Obit: Argentine singer Facundo Cabral murdered
From: Janie
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 03:52 PM

Thanks for posting this Matthew. I had never heard of him either, but when I saw the first news articles yesterday, I looked him up and listened to some of his music on YouTube. The music and his voice were lovely. Had the articles I saw not said "folk" musician, I probably would not have opened them. Not that other genres are not equally noteworthy, just that my interest is predominantly folk.

Simple twists of fate - he had planned on taking a shuttle to the airport, but accepted a ride instead from the promoter, the intended target.

What is the point you are wanting to make, pdq? That some people posting have erroneously assumed he was the target? If so, you are correct, and the rest of your post is a puzzlement.

Subject: RE: Obit: Argentine singer Facundo Cabral murdered
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 04:07 PM

Another sad loss for the folk community.

Subject: RE: Obit: Argentine singer Facundo Cabral murdered
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 14 Jul 11 - 05:27 AM

We received his "20 Exitos" CD yesterday, that's 20 Hits of course. Now for all the Bill Leader protection army, the sound quality of these recordings from 1970 and 1971 is superb - but then it was recorded in Argentina of course!!!!!!!!!

I do recommend this CD.