12 Facts About Alfredo Zitarrosa

Alfredo Zitarrosa was a Uruguayan singer-songwriter, poet and journalist.

Alfredo Zitarrosa is widely regarded as one of the most influential singer-songwriters of Latin America.

Alfredo Zitarrosa pioneered a new path in Uruguayan popular music, merging the rural folk tradition with the urban influences of tango.

Alfredo Zitarrosa's work combined social and political themes with reflections on human relationships and existential concerns.

Alfredo Zitarrosa worked, among other duties, as a seller of furniture, subscriptions to a medical society, clerical and in a print shop.

Alfredo Zitarrosa began his artistic career in 1954, as a radio broadcaster, entering as a presenter and entertainer, librettist and informativist, or even as an actor.

Alfredo Zitarrosa cultivated a contemptuous and manly style, and his thick voice and a typical accompaniment of guitars gave his hallmark.

Alfredo Zitarrosa entered and adhered to the Frente Amplio of the Uruguayan left, fact which earned him ostracism and finally exile during the years of dictatorship.

Alfredo Zitarrosa's songs were banned in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay during the dictatorial regimes that ruled those countries.

Alfredo Zitarrosa lived then successively in Argentina, Spain and Mexico, starting from February 9,1976.

Alfredo Zitarrosa was too old to be my best friend, but when being a widower he asked me not to leave him, I felt that more than being my stepfather he was my brother, and I accompanied him until the end, and I buried him, with the help of his genuine nephews, after rescuing him naked, from the morgue of the Military Hospital.

Alfredo Zitarrosa paid tribute to the same Carlos Duran, who had been, among other trades, police by necessity, dedicating one of its most emblematic, Chamarrita de los milicos.