Mercedes Sosa‎ & Ariel Ramirez - Mujeres Argentinas (1969)

Honored all over the world as "the Voice of Latin America" and revered in her native Argentina as "a symbol of life and freedom", Mercedes Sosa, almost 35 years after her début, remains a dynamic, inspiring figure, and one of the most versatile artists on the international music scene.

After recording her second and third albums, "Hermano" and "Para cantarle a mi gente", she begins touring internationally, performing in the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Poland, and Russia. She met Ariel Ramírez, composer of "Misa criolla", who asks her to be the soloist in his album "Mujeres Argentinas". She recorded the album in 1969 with Ramírez immediately after finishing "Con sabor a Mercedes Sosa". Meanwhile her music describing social injustices in Argentina has led the country's military dictatorship to ban it from radio broadcasts.

This is a terrific album, where Mercedes Sosa interprets songs about Argentinian women throughout the country's history (hence the title of the record).

Some of the women are vaguely famous (such as Juana Azurduy, a rebel leader against the Spanish) or Alfonsina Storni (a poet), some are simple women who simbolize a time or a social type, such as the white woman who refuses to leave the defeated Indians and return to a civilization no longer hers (Dorotea La Cautiva). Or the anonymous European settler women, faced with decades of backbreaking work in the middle of nowhere (Gringa Chaqueña). This is a fairly quiet but beautifully put together record, and the songs tend to have an introspective tone. Mercedes Sosa is backed mainly by Spanish guitars and harpsichord, with some Southern American percussion such as the bombo.

Tracklist:

1. Gringa chaqueña
2. Juana Azurduy
3. Rosarito Vera, maestra
4. Dorotea la cautiva
5. Alfonsina y el mar
6. Manuela, la tucumana
7. Las cartas de Guadalupe  
8. En casa de Mariquita      

Personnel:
Mercedes Sosa (vocals)
Ariel Ramírez (piano)
Hector Zeoli (organ)

Mercedes Sosa - Mujeres Argentinas (1969)
(192 kbps, cover art included)