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 governmentestablished 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 counterrevolutionary 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 hiphop, 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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Discographical References
Arreaza, Gustavo. La Verdad (Music Video). VTV Canal 8. 2007: Venezuela.
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
Caracas. 1970: Venezuela.
Formoso, Xulio. En el J.B. Plaza - Julio 2002. Independent Production. 2002: Venezuela.
Formoso, Xulio. Tu Pas est Feliz. Souvenir. 1971: Venezuela.
Gimnez, Cristbal. Amor, Llano y Revolucin. Independent Production. 2004: Venezuela.
Grupo Madera. Uh, Ah, Chvez no se va (Music Video).VTV Canal 8. 2006: Venezuela.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5wr5BQGDLI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ma8Z4vOkmk
Hanoi. Aqu Andamos (MusicVideo). VTV Canal 8. 2006: Venezuela.
http://hanoicantora.com/video.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABn-E_OOYxA
La Misma Gente. Esperando el Autobs. Somos Todos. Independent Production. 2007: Venezuela.
Papashanty SaundSystem. Msica de Paz. Ashanty Grampa. Granpa Music. 2003: Venezuela.
Primera, Al. Cancin Mansa para un Pueblo Bravo. Promus/Cigarrn LP-003. 1978: Venezuela.
Primera, Al. Entre la Rabia y la Ternura. Cigarrn LPCS-0028. 1984: Venezuela.
Primera, Al. Lo Primero de Al Primera. Cigarrn-Promus. 1973: Venezuela.
Discography
Arreaza, Gustavo. La Verdad (Music Video). VTV Canal 8. 2007: Venezuela.
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. Amantes de Ningn Lugar - Sobre Textos de Farruco. Agua Mansa - LPS.001. 1978:
Venezuela.
Formoso, Xulio. Galicia Canta. Pobovox de Caracas. 1970: Venezuela.
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Formoso, Xulio. En el J.B. Plaza - Julio 2002. Independent Production. 2002: Venezuela.
Formoso, Xulio. Tu Pas est Feliz. Souvenir. 1971: Venezuela
Gimnez, Cristbal. Amor, Llano y Revolucin. Independent Production. 2004: Venezuela.
Grupo Madera. Uh, Ah, Chvez no se va (Music Video).VTV Canal 8. 2006: Venezuela.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5wr5BQGDLI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ma8Z4vOkmk
Hanoi. Echa Andar. Independent Production. 2006: Venezuela.
La Misma Gente. Somos Todos. Independent Production. 2007: Venezuela.
Martn, Gloria and Sosa, Mercedes. Si se Calla el Cantor. Philips - 40.032. N/y: Venezuela.
Martn, Gloria. Para este Pas - Cantos de Lucha de Venezuela. 1976: Spain.
Mata, Francisco. Francisco Mata 76 y Sus Guaiqueres Autntica Msica Margaritea. Discomoda
DCM-961. 1976: Venezuela.
Papashanty SaundSystem. Ashanty Grampa. Granpa Music. 2003: Venezuela.
Primera, Al. Al Pueblo lo que es del Csar Vol. XI. Cigarrn LPCS-0022. 1981: Venezuela.
Primera, Al. Cancin Mansa para un Pueblo Bravo. Promus/Cigarrn LP-003. 1978: Venezuela.
Primera, Al. Entre la Rabia y la Ternura. Cigarrn LPCS-0028. 1984: Venezuela.
Primera, Al. Lo Primero de Al Primera. Cigarrn-Promus. 1973: Venezuela.
Primera, Al. Cuando Nombro la Poesa. Al Entraable Recuerdo de Aquiles Nazoa. Promus/Cigarrn
LP-009. 1979: Venezuela.
Primera, Al. Entre la Rabia y la Ternura. Cigarrn LPCS-0028. 1984: Venezuela.Primera, Al. Lo
Primero de Al Primera. Cigarrn-Promus. 1973: Venezuela.