Paisaje social, trayectoria artística e identidad política: el caso de Ramón Ayala

Abstract

This article focuses on the artistic and political trajectory of the Argentin-ean musician and poet Ramón Ayala, who was born in Misiones, the frontier between Paraguay and Brazil. It draws upon events in his childhood, his initial formation and tight connection with musicians who were exiled from Paraguay and lived in Buenos Aires, his early affiliation with Marxism, his relationship to the New Song Movement and his trip to Cuba in 1962 and 1967. All these events are framed by the Cold War and especially the Cuban Revolution as the epicenter of global history in Latin America. This event had an undeniable influence on the symbolic production of national and Latin American folklore. Ayala’s work is characterized by the social formulation of the Misiones’ jungle landscape and the exploited men who worked in the yerba mate harvest, which was – and still is – an expression of the influence of the Cold War on Argentinean popular music.