Facundo Cabral (b. May 22, 1937, La Plata) is an Argentine singer and songwriter.
He is best known as the composer of "No soy de aquí ni soy de allá" (literal translation: "I'm not from here, nor am I from there"), which he improvised during one of his concerts. His songs have been covered by many top-notch Spanish language interpreters such as Alberto Cortez, who is also a friend of his, Juan Luis Guerra and Joan Manuel Serrat.
After indefatigably touring the world, Cabral enjoyed popularity in his home country the early 1980s, when Argentine radio demanded local content after the Falklands War (Spanish: Guerra de las Malvinas).
Facundo is enormously popular in all Latin American countries; when he performs in Peru or México, which he calls his second home, for instance, tickets are sold-out long before the performance date(s).
Facundo Cabral - Argentine Folk Singer, prophets' accomplice
Facundo Cabral was named Messenger of Peace by UNESCO in 1996. From the most humble of beginnings he came to inspire millions around the world through his songs, poems and 66 books. He walked 3,000 km at the age of nine to look for work to support his mother and six siblings after his father abandoned them. When he left his mother told him "This is the second, and last gift I can give you. The first was to give you life, and the second one, the liberty to live it." He wrote music that inspired millions. He met Mother Teresa and Jorge Luis Borges. He performed in over 165 countries in 8 different languages. His wife and one year-old daughter were killed in a plane crash in 1978. He is nearly blind and crippled, and a terminal cancer survivor as well. He once said: 'Siempre le pregunto a Dios, ¿por qué a mí tanto me diste? Me diste miseria, hambre, felicidad, lucha, luces... vi todo. Sé que hay cáncer, sífilis y primavera, y buñuelos de manzana' (I always ask God, why did you give me so much? You gave me misery, hunger, happiness, struggle, lights... I saw everything. I know there is cancer, syphillis, and Spring, and apple fritters.)
Other quotes of his
"Every morning is good news, every child that is born is good news, every just man is good news, every singer is good news, because every singer is one less soldier."
"I like the sun, Alice, and doves, a good cigar, a spanish guitar, jumping walls, and opening windows, and when a woman cries. I like wine as much as flowers, and rabbits, but not tractors, homemade bread and Dolores' voice, and the sea wetting my feet. I like to always be lying on the sand, or chasing Manuela on a bicycle, or all the time to see the stars with Maria in the hayfield. I'm not from here, I'm not from there, I have no age, nor future, and being happy is my color of identity."
"I'm amazed to form part of this amazing universe and I'm proud of the hunger that keeps me awake. Because when man is full he falls asleep."
"May God want for man to be able to be a child again to understand that he is mistaken if he thinks he can find happiness with a checkbook."
"I don't waste time taking care of myself. Life is beautiful danger. From the danger of love, my mother had seven kids. If she had guarded herself against my father and his fervor, a singer would be missing from tonight's meeting."
"My poor patron thinks that I'm the poor one."
"This is a new day to begin again, to look for the angel that appears in our dreams, to sing, to laugh, to be happy again. In this new day I will leave the mirror, and try to finally be a good man. I will walk with my face to the sun, and I will fly with the moon."
"Forgive me Lord but sometimes I get tired of being a citizen. The city tires me, the offices, my family and the economy. Forgive me Lord, I am tired of this hell, this mediocre market where everyone has a price. Forgive me Lord but I will go with you through your mountains, your seas, and your rivers. Forgive me Lord but sometimes I think you have something better than this for me. Forgive me Lord, I don't want to be a citizen, I want to be a man, Lord, like you created me."
"I am my own inventor because that is the task with which God has trusted me. God, or the Devil because they are the same thing. The Devil is a pseudonym that God uses when he has to create something of morally doubtful character, in order to not tarnish his good name, he uses the pseudonym."
"The poor man that walks through this borrowed life without a song, in addition to being poor is a ghost, and in addition to being a ghost, is nothing."
"We are crossing through life on the train of death seeing how progress is putting an end to people."
"And God created woman and she said 'My Lord, if Mary conceived without sin, couldn't I sin without conceiving?'"
"I stop in San Francisco where there's always something to hear, at least when Krishna Murti is nearby, he who knows that the fundamental revolution is to revolutionize one's self. I stop in Crete where there is always something to love,
I raise my voice in Italy and I am silent in India, because I am and I live in the present, because I am made of dreams, of emptiness, of wine, and of wheat, they call me MAN. It's true that I am dust, but sacred dust I am, even though you know that when I say I am, I am saying you are, invincible, unnameable. Highest Lord, don't worry about our daily bread because that is up to us, that's why we are men, but don't leave us without our nightly dream because without it we are nothing, we who are perhaps only a dream that you dream."
"If I am a thief, it's because of private property."
