Cantora: Mercedes Sosa, the Voice of Latin America

After winning a radio contest as a child, Argentinian vocalist Mercedes Sosa (1935–2009) dedicated her life to singing about social injustice, becoming “the voice of the voiceless.” When a military dictatorship threatened her and banned her music, “Mercedes’s heart trembled and raced through each performance... but she kept on singing,” even when exiled from her homeland. Though political context receives cursory treatment, the beat of Sosa’s heart and her bombo drum echo throughout Fernández Nitsche’s affectionate text, which emphasizes the way she became “a bridge between cultures, languages, and generations.” Rounded digitally rendered figures and bold red, black, and gold accents stream through muted backgrounds and ample white space, emphasizing the wide reach of Sosa’s musical activism. A concluding timeline fills in biographical details, though the historical impact of Sosa’s activism remains unaddressed. Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 4–8. (Sept.)