Latin America And The Caribbean

Attila The Hun ~ No not that one. This Attila (real name Raymond Quevedo) was a highly popular Calypso singer from Trinidad in the 1940's known for his songs attacking the wealthy and establishment figures (and a tribute to FDR) who successfully ran for Port Of Spain city council in 1946 and later for the national parliament for a time.

ATTILA THE HUN ~ "FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT";


Susana Baca - A respected singer and folklorist of Peru's Afro-Latin music Baca became Minister of Culture in 2011, she left later that year but became President of the Commission of Culture for the Organization of American States from 2011 to 2013.

SUSANA BACRA;


Ruben Blades ~ The Grammy Award winning Panamanian salsa star and actor ("Once Upon A Time In Mexico", "The Cradle Will Rock", "Predator 2") wrote the unofficial national anthem ("Patria") and is highly popular throughout Latin America. He is also a lawyer with two legal degrees and a degree in political science and a well known activist who ran for President of Panama in 1994 on a nationalist/reformist platform and finished a respectable third place to the American backed candidate who was later implicated in numerous corruption charges. In 2004 Blades was appointed as minister of tourism by President Martin Torrijos, however he still finds time to perform and act.

RUBEN BLADES ~ "DECISIONES";



Amando Boudou ~ Argentina Finance Minister and successful Vice President candidate in 2011. As a university student he earned extra pesos busking with his electric guitar and promoting rock concerts on campus. He still drags out the guitar an campaign stops.

Manno Charlemagne ~ 69 ~ Haitian singer-songwriter, guitarist and politician, Mayor of Port-au-Prince (1995–1999)

Alan Garcia ~ Right wing president of Peru from 1980-85 and again starting in 2006 to the present. While studying in Paris and Madrid made extra cash as a guitar playing street busker.

Gilberto Gill; One of the best known musicians in Brazil since the 1960's, with his fusion of samba, reggae and African music, Gil was an international star as well when he became Minister of Art & Culture in the government of Lula Da Silva from 2003 to 2008. Gil was also known in Brazil for his opposition to the military governments of the 2970's and 80's which got him banned from the country in the 1970's. After serving in government Gil returned to his musical career.

GILBERTO GIL;


Ana de Hollanda; Succeeding Gil as Minister of Art and Culture Hollanda had also previously been a singer whose brother, Chico Buarque, has been a popular singer-songwriter and author since the 1970's.

Victor Jara ~ Chile's greatest folk singer, Jara was talented, handsome and charismatic and known for his support of Salvador Allende's Unidad Popular Parti for whom he acted as an organizer, campaigner and composer of the party anthem "Venceremos" ("We Will Triumph"). After Allende's election Jara acted as a cultural attache but when Allende was overthrown in a CIA inspired coup Jara was brutally tortured and murdered.

VICTOR JARA ~ "TE RECUERDO AMANDA";


Wyclef Jean ~ The Haiti born rapper was a member of the hugely successful hip hop group The Fugees in the 1990's and later had a solo career including a duo with Shakira. He also busied himself with charitable works for his native Haiti, especially after the earthquake of 2010. In July of that year it was announced that he was considering running for the presidency and had filed the paperwork for this, however his candidacy was rejected by Haiti's election commission for not meeting residency requirements, he also speaks little French. Jean would later endorse another candidate, fellow musician Michel Martelly and while campaigning on his behalf would be shot in the hand.

WYCLEF JEAN ~ "WISH YOU WERE HERE";



Michel Martelly ~ Also known as Sweet Mickey, Martelly is probably the most popular musician in Haiti with several hits to his credit as well as appearing in collaboration with Wyclif Jean and running a successful night club. He has long been outspoken in his support of various figures from Haiti's ruling class (who often hang out at his club) and for his opposition to President Aristide. In 2010 he announced that he would be running for the presidency of Haiti as did Jean. This would have been the first time two pop stars faced of against each other in an election, however Jean was disqualified as a candidate. As it happened Sweet Mickey didn't win either but finished a strong third in an election that was widely dismissed as rigged. Both Martelly and Jean would jointly protest the results and the second place candidate would surprisingly drop out allowing Martelly to stay in for a second runoff round which he surprisingly won in April 2011.

MICHEL MARTELLY ~ "MON COLONEL";



Javier Milei ~ The flamboyant Anachro-Capitalist President of Argentina from 2023 was in his youth the singer in a band called Everest which specialized in Rolling Stones covers.

Pablo Neruda ~ The great Chilean poet/revolutionary was elected to the senate in 1945 as a Communist but was forced into exile when the party was outlawed in 1948. He continued to campaign for various causes in exile, returning to Chile in 1952 he was invited to run for the senate again but declined. In 1970 the Communists invited him to be their candidate for the presidency but he decided to instead support and campaign for the Socialist candidate Salvador Allende who won and appointed Neruda to be ambassador to France. Neruda was suffering form cancer and was hospitalized immediately after the U.S. backed coup in 1973 dying days later. Despite a ban on public demonstrations by the new junta Neruda's funeral was attended by thousands who lined the streets in tribute. As Latin America's most honored poet he has had many of his works adapted to music by both classical composers and folk and prog rock bands both while he was alive and afterward, including the Canadian band Red Rider.

LUCIANA SOUZA SINGS NERUDA


Francesco Petrozzi - Peruvian opera tenor who served as MP and Minister Of Culture from 2016-2019, he died in 2024

Francisco Everado Oliviera Silva; Known by his stage name Tiririca, he is an highly popular comedian, clown and singer-songwriter who ran for Congress as a joke in 2010 on an anti-corruption, help the children and support the arts platform using adds in which he sang and danced while wearing a clown hat and mocked other politicians. To his surprise not only did he win, he won the second largest vote getter in Brazil's history. His time in congress was not happy though and he announced he would not run for reelection.

Johnny Ventura - A Grammy winning Dominican salsa & meringue singer and band leader from the early sixties, he was elected Mayor of Santo Domingo (1998–2002). He died in 2021 aged 81

JOHNNY VENTURA;