Cancin de Protesta

Emilio Mendoza Appears in the Vol. IX Genres of Caribbean and Central and South American Origin.

Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Londres: Continuum, 2008.

Cancin de protesta, also known to a lesser extent as cancin poltica [political song] or cancin de

contenido [song with contents], describes in a general sense a song with a political and ideological

message usually expressed through the lyrics, within the context of the counter-cultural movements in

Venezuelan popular music from the mid 1960s to the mid 1980s. It was a similar tendency as to what

occurred in other countries in the world at that time, specially in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay as the

Nueva Cancin Latinoamericana (the New Latin American Song), and as the Nueva Trova [the New

Troubadours] in Cuba, linking the message with the left, socialist ideologies.

An important antecedent is found in the canciones patriticas [patriot songs] that were used by the

revolutionary independent movements in Caracas in 1811 against the Spanish rule, exemplified by the

Gloria al Bravo Pueblo by Juan Jos Landaeta and Vicente Salias. This insurgent song was officially

declared the Venezuelan National Anthem in 1881 by the President Antonio Guzmn Blanco, and must

be sung every morning in all schools and played at midnight in all public media of the country. The

role change of the same music with different times, from subversive to system-compliant, will be

repeated again in the country: Although the cancin de protesta originated in Venezuela in the mid

1960s, the term continues to be relevant in a second appearance starting in 1998, as a genre of mixed

popular music with some characteristics similar to the first counter-cultural period, but which has a

different function and is no longer an expression of a minority in dissent with the Establishment but an

ideological perpetuation of the ruling system within the socialist-intended regime of President Hugo

Chvez.

In the first period of the cancin de protesta, there are two different groups of popular musicians who

belong to this genre: the singer-composer type, who usually was also a political activist, the most

important being Al Primera, Gloria Martn and Xulio Formoso. Primera and Martn wrote the lyrics to

their songs. Formoso worked in close relationship with political-inclined poets such as Farruco Sesto

for his texts. The second group consists of the singer-only type of musician who was involved in the

musical and political activities of this period but changed genres thereafter. There were many followers

of the counter-cultural trend, but the main figure in Venezuelan popular music in this type of cancin

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de protesta was Soledad Bravo. The music activity of the genre in the first period was centered around

universities in concerts, rallies and marches, and the singers took part in national and international song

festivals, usually competing with an specific song for a prize. Formoso and Martn were also involved

in composing music respectively for theatre and for a small cantata.

By far the most influential personality in the first period of the canciones de protesta was the singer

and composer Al Primera, from 1964 until his sudden death in a car accident in 1985 at the top of his

career. His style of music was developed as a student in the Universidad Central de Venezuela,

Caracas, where most of the political counter-activity of the 1960s was taking place. It included folk

elements in the way of instruments, rhythms and genres, using hybrid ensembles of folk and symphonic

instruments of his own configuration for a large production of songs and over fourteen albums. He

named his music as canto necesario [necessary singing], expressing that he was not only a singer of the

left, but a singer for all the people. He is noted as being distinguished by a completely different singing

and compositional style as to the influential Silvio Rodrguez and Pablo Milans of the Cuban Nueva

Trova. He was an intense, national and international political activist, who created his own record label

Cigarrn in 1977 for his music as well as for promoting new talents. His music carried a mix of

Bolivarian messages of unity, left ideology, Cuban sympathy, folk values of the regions of the country,

and love. From his first solo album Lo Primero de Al Primera in 1973 until his last Entre la Rabia y la

Ternura, he accounts for many hits such as Cancin Mansa para un Pueblo Bravo [Tame Song for a

Brave/Angry People], also dedicating his work to other popular poets, painters and social activists such

as Aquiles Nazoa and Cesar Rengifo, among many others.

The other main singers-composers of that period within the cancin de protesta movement were the

two Spanish-born artists that arrived in Venezuela while still young. Gloria Martn was very active in

national and international festivals from 1969 until 1992, as well as in social-cultural activities, writing

La Cantata al 23 de Enero [The 23rd of January Cantata], and becoming later an university professor

and book writer. Xulio Formoso started in 1970 with six canciones de protesta in an album named

Galicia Canta, in the Galego language, being the first recording of sung Galegean poetry in Latin

America and establishing the Nueva Cancin Gallega [the New Galegan Song], with texts by Farruco

Sesto and Celso Emilio Ferreiro. He produced the music for a successful political theatre work by

Antonio Miranda, Tu Pas est Feliz [Your Country is Happy] in 1971, and a series of ten albums of

his songs with texts in Spanish by Farruco Sesto among other political poets until 1978, when he

abandoned his singing career to become a system engineer. Under Chvez presidency, Sesto was

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appointed the Venezuelan Cultural Minister in 2005 and Formoso leads since 2007 the CENDIS, the

national center for compact discs production. In such positions they consequently continue with their

left-based political beliefs that they had jointly expressed before through the canciones de protesta, by

working now for the socialist-conceived government. Although in a different period, they again

accomplished a double CD production of joint forces in 2002.

Soledad Bravo, one of the most important popular music artists of the second group, the singer-only

type, was also from Spanish origin arriving as a child in Venezuela. She appeared in 1968 as a singer

within the movement centered in the Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas, recording first an

album with Garca Lorca and Spanish popular songs. On her second album in 1969 she already

included a repertoire of canciones de protesta and in 1973 she made an all-Nueva Trova album, but

turning in her next LP in 1974 to a neofolklore repertoire following the awakening folk trend of the

grupos de proyeccin. Bravo has developed an extensive and important international career as a singer,

characterized by continuously changing styles and genres.

Since 1998, with the onset of the Chavismo in Venezuela, the figure of the socialist-related singer

became known as cantor del pueblo [singer of the people], and also generally but not exclusively,

cantautor [singer-author]. This second period of the cancin de protesta in Venezuela was originated

as part of a revolutionary-tagged government following Cubas footsteps, but forty years later. Al

Primeras songs and iconography were extensively used in the media together with the famous Che

Guevaras photograph of the 1960s, to promote governmental policies and acquire support mainly from

the poorest segments of the Venezuelan society, and fitted perfectly within the Bolivarian revolution of

Chvez. Although dead for fifteen years but remembered through sporadic homage concerts, Al

Primera was resurgent to national fame through the governmental application of the same recordings of

his songs that he had produced in the counter-cultural times. This was effective through a government-

established network of community television and radio stations as well as through the main television

channels which, for the exception of one, were all controlled by the State. Other newcomers are being

promoted through the television and are gradually substituting Al Primeras songs. These include the

revised grupo de proyeccin Madera, and new singers and groups, all in different mixed styles from

romantic ballad to salsa, to represent the new pro-government cancin de protesta of the twentieth

century. Madera produced in 2006 the salsa banner song for the rallies in support of Chvez, Uh, Ah,

Chvez no se va [Uh, Ah, Chvez is not going out]. Cantora del pueblo Hanoi has reached exposure

through the government television channel VTV Canal 8 with her video Aqu Andamos [Here we go],

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proclaiming the Bolivarian revolution, equally as the romantic Gustavo Arreaza, with his revolutionary

theme La Verdad [The Truth].

There are other genres of popular/folk music in Venezuela which have carried a protest message in

their texts, although they were not part of the counter-culture movement nor exclusively have this

function. Traditionally, the joropo llanero music has a high emphasis on the lyrics and the singers

ability to improvise them with philosophical turns, and has invariably included protest meanings

responding to contextual political and economical problems, abundant in the country. The same applies

to the joropo oriental specially with Francisco Mata y sus Guaiqueres of the Margarita Island, and

with many gaita productions at Christmas time. In a country split in two halves, artists take sides and

some joropo singers have formed part of the governments representation, as Cristbal Gimnez with

his release of Amor, Llano y Revolucin [Love, Plains and Revolution] in 2004, or Reynaldo Armas in

the opposing side. Rock sung in Spanish has provided social criticism among other themes, specially in

the leading figure of Pedro Vicente Lizardo (PTT) and La Misma Gente [The Same People], who has

produced since 1964 until 2007 a large amount of songs independently of the changing music

movements, such as Esperando el Autobus [Waiting for the Bus]. It may be a result of a counter-

revolutionary reaction to the overwhelming, pseudo-revolutionary media exposure of the Chvez

supporters, that yet a new cancin de protesta is emerging in Venezuela from different genres as hip-

hop, rock and reggae, but characterized with a global sense rather than with the previous and present

left-right political antagonism, as shown in the successful Venezuelan reggae group Papashanty

Saundsystem with Msica de Paz [Peace Music].

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hUmY4jtkFY Bravo, Soledad. Canciones de la Nueva Trova Cubana. Promus. 1973: Venezuela. Bravo, Soledad. Cantos de Venezuela. Polydor. 1974: Venezuela. Bravo, Soledad. Soledad Bravo Canta. Discos Amrica. 1968: Venezuela. Bravo, Soledad. Soledad. Discos Amrica-Promus. 1969: Venezuela. Formoso, Xulio and Sesto, Farruco. Cholo Perun, Pandeirada ao Che, Galicia Canta. Pobovox de

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