"Los Hermanos" is a poetic

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...

 folk

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 song composed and first performed by Argentine

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 nueva canción

Nueva canción

Nueva canción is a movement and genre within Latin American and Iberian music of folk music, folk-inspired music and socially committed music...

singer Atahualpa Yupanqui

Atahualpa Yupanqui

Atahualpa Yupanqui was an Argentine singer, songwriter, guitarist, and writer. He is considered the most important Argentine folk musician of the 20th century....

.

Song information

"Los Hermanos" is often considered a protest song

Protest song

A protest song is a song which is associated with a movement for social change and hence part of the broader category of topical songs . It may be folk, classical, or commercial in genre...

. Some claim it criticizes the dictatorship

Dictatorship

A dictatorship is defined as an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by an individual, the dictator. It has three possible meanings:...

 of the Latin America

Latin America

Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages  – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...

n countries, done to secure the fidelity of the region to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and, - by doing that -, avoiding undesirable leftist governments. That can be perceived on the song lyrics, which is an ode to fraternity and freedom with an implicit urge for Latin American union:
"Yo tengo tantos hermanos

Que no los puedo contar

Y una novia muy hermosa...

Que se llama Libertad".

"I have so many brothers

That I can't even count them

I also have a beautiful girlfriend...

And her name is Freedom".
Though some take it as political, others contend that it has a broader universal appeal, with its verses about the common Argentine man, recognizing the others by the look in their eyes and realizing the difficulties they face in everyday life.

Cover versions

There are more than 25 versions of this song.The widely acclaimed Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

ian MPB

Música Popular Brasileira

Música Popular Brasileira or MPB designates a trend in post-Bossa Nova urban popular music. It is not a discrete genre but rather a constellation that combines original songwriting and updated versions of traditional Brazilian urban music styles like samba and samba-canção with contemporary...

 singer Elis Regina

Elis Regina

Elis Regina Carvalho Costa, known simply as Elis Regina was an important singer of Brazilian popular music. She became nationally renowned in 1965, after singing Arrastão in the first edition of TV Excelsior festival song contest, and soon joined O Fino da Bossa, a television program on TV Record...

 recorded "Los Hermanos" for her 1976 studio album

Studio album

A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...

 Falso Brilhante

Falso Brilhante

Falso Brilhante is the name of a 1976 studio album released by the critically acclaimed Brazilian MPB singer Elis Regina.On the year of 1975 Elis Regina opened her solo concert entitled Falso Brilhante, where she launched the career of a new composer, Antonio Carlos Belchior,...

. The singer was noted for being an avid critic of the Brazilian dictatorship government (while being interviwed in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, she said that the country was being run by "gorillas"). Mercedes Sosa

Mercedes Sosa

Haydée Mercedes Sosa, known as La Negra, was an Argentine singer who was popular throughout South America and some countries outside the continent. With her roots in Argentine folk music, Sosa became one of the preeminent exponents of nueva canción. She gave voice to songs written by both...

 covered the song on her 1977 album 'Mercedes Sosa Interpreta a Atahualpa Yupanqui' and also Alfredo Zitarrosa

Alfredo Zitarrosa

Alfredo Zitarrosa Alfredo Zitarrosa Alfredo Zitarrosa (b. March 10, 1936, d. on January 17, 1989 in Montevideo, Uruguay; a Uruguayan singer, composer, poet, writer and journalist...

on his 1973 album 'En La Argentina'.

External links

• "Los hermanos" lyrics.