Mercedes Sosa (born July 9, 1935[1]) is an Argentine singer immensely popular throughout Latin America. With her roots in Argentine folk music, shebecame one of the preeminent exponents of nueva canción. Sosa is nicknamed “La Negra” by her fans for her long, jet-black hair. She is best known as the voice of the “voiceless ones”.[2] Sosa was born in San Miguel de Tucumán, in the northwestern province of Argentina, of mestizo descent from French and Amerindian (Quechuan) ancestry. In 1950, at age fifteen, she won a singing competition organized by a local radio station and was given a contract to perform for two months. Mercedes Sosa in 2005, with Argentine’s then first lady Cristina Fernández de KirchnerSosa and her first husband, Manuel Oscar Matus, with whom she has one son, were key players in the mid-60s nueva canción movement (which was called nuevo cancionero in Argentina). Her first record was Canciones con Fundamento, a collection of Argentine folk songs. In 1967, Sosa toured with great success the United States and Europe. In subsequent years, she performed and recorded extensively, broadening her repertoire to include material from throughout Latin America. In the early 1970s, Sosa released two concept albums in collaboration with composer Ariel Ramírez and lyricist Félix Luna: Cantata Sudamericana and Mujeres Argentinas (Argentine Women). She also recorded a tribute to Chilean poet Violeta Parra. A supporter of Perón in her youth, she has favored leftist causes …