FACUNDO CABRAL : TO KILL A SINGING BIRD

 Mr. Rodolfo Enrique Facundo Cabral, popular Argentine singer and song writer died on 9th July while he was in Guatemala on a singing tour. Cabral, 74 , was the most popular singer in the Latin American countries. He was a singer, song writer, thinker,philosopher and author all rolled in to one.  His philosophy came from the sufferings of his life and his country and people who listened to him and found no difficulty to identify with him and his songs.

 Cabral's life was one punctuated with tragedies.  He was born on May 22nd, 1937 as eighth child of a poor family in La Plata, Argentina. His father abandoned the large family and what was left was the grinding poverty. At the age of nine Cabral went in search job for his mother and he himself did odd jobs. He ran away frequently from his home and it landed him in reformatory from where he got some education Although he received only an elementary education in later years in addition to his soulful songs, he wrote many books both fiction and non-fiction. The school education, however, could not hold him down as the music within him was urging him to take up the Guitar.


Cabral's idol was Argentine folklore singer Atahualpa Yupanqui. At first he sang for the tourists in sea resorts. He began stage performance in 1959 under a name ' El Indio Gasparino. The big break came in 1970 with his all time hit song 'Soy de aqui, ni soy di alla " ( meaning I am not from here, I am not from there) ) It was a philosophical song and it touched every ones' heart. The song was recorded in to many languages. Cabral got famous and he became a star.
.

During the Argentine military rule he fled to Mexico in 1976 and lived there eight years. He returned after the collapse of junta rule in 1984

 His stage shows were a peculiar mixture of songs and speech. He would give long introductions for a song. They were spiritual and philosophic. He referred Gandhiji and Mother Theresa often in his speeches.  The audience immensely liked both his songs and speeches. He remained a big hit in the entire Latin American countries till his last.

 As said earlier,Cabral's personal life was filled with tragedies. He lost his wife and one year old daughter in a plane crash. It really shook him and to come out of the trauma of deprivation he met mother Theresa in Calcutta who advised him to help others in their sufferings in order to forget our own sorrows.  He stayed with the Mother for some days in Calcutta and during that time he helped in various services to the poor and sick.


 He frequently said “I was without a voice until I was nine; illiterate until I was 14; became a widower at 40 and only met my father when I was 46” The memories never left him alone.

Originally Cabral was to travel to the Guatemala Air port in the service car of the Hotel. but it was changed when his Guatemala program sponsor Farinas, a businessman, invited him to go to Air Port in his car. Some Thugs were planning to attack Farinas for the past week and unfortunately the attack came when Cabral was going to the Air Port. The thugs rained bullets in to the car in which Kabral died and the business man wounded. The attack was suspected to be on a drug related dispute.


 Cabral  used to say that he was in the finals of his play.

 Image courtesy : Wikipedia