Jorge Cafrune

Jorge Antonio Cafrune Herrera, popularly known as el Turco Cafrune (El Carmen, August 8, 1937-Benavídez, February 1, 1978), was a singer Argentine folklorist and musician. He was also a researcher, compiler and disseminator of the native culture of his country.

Biography

Jorge Antonio Cafrune Herrera was born into an Argentine family with typical gaucho customs and ancestors of Arab origins, in which his grandparents were immigrants from Syria and Lebanon rooted in Argentina since they were young and dedicated to the trade of fabrics and other tasks. His parents were José Jorge Cafrune and Matilde Argentina Herrera. He received the nickname "El Turco" as they called his father, a popular gaucho from the region who sang bagualas and knew how to star in tough Creole duels.

She was born on the “La Matilde” farm in El Sunchal, near El Carmen, province of Jujuy. He attended secondary school in San Salvador de Jujuy while taking guitar lessons with Nicolás Lamadrid.

Artistic career

In his youth, Cafrune moved with his entire family to Salta, and there he met Luis Alberto Valdez, José Eduardo Sauad, Tomás Campos and Gilberto Vaca, with whom he formed his first group: Las Voces del Huayra. With this formation he recorded his first acetate album in 1957, in the Salta record company H. y R. At that time they were "discovered" by Ariel Ramírez, who summoned them to accompany him on a tour of Mar del Plata and several provinces. Then Cafrune and Valdez were called up for mandatory military service and the group alternated its original formation with replacements by José Eduardo Sauad and Luis Adolfo Rodríguez. These new members would be part of the formation that that same year recorded a 12-track album for the Columbia label. Later they would be summoned to record a second album for the same company, but disagreements between the members finally led to the dissolution of the group.

Faced with a new call from Ramírez, Cafrune, together with Tomás Campos, Gilberto Vaca and Javier Pantaleón, formed a new group, "Los Cantores del Alba". After that presentation, Cafrune decides to continue his solo path and leaves the new group. In this new stage he debuted in 1960 at the Argentine Center in the city of Salta to immediately undertake a long tour that would take him through the provinces of Chaco, Corrientes, Entre Ríos and Buenos Aires. Faced with a lukewarm reception in the Argentine capital, where he did not get a place on radio or television, he decided to continue the tour through Uruguay and Brazil. In the first he would make his television debut, on Channel 4 in the eastern country.

In 1962 he returned to Capital and contacted Jaime Dávalos, who had a television program. He tells him that he should try his luck at the Cosquín Festival. Cafrune travels to the city of Cordoba and gets a place to perform outside the bill, establishing himself by public choice as first revelation. Then came his first solo album and the definitive consecration with new performances on radio, television and theaters, in addition to long tours in which he always preferred small towns to big cities. It was in one of those small towns, Huanguelén, in the province of Buenos Aires, where he met and promoted a young singer named José Larralde. During this period he also continued to perform every year in Cosquín and there, in 1965, without the organization's knowledge, he introduced a singer from Tucumán named Mercedes Sosa.

In 1967 he presented the tour "On horseback for my homeland", in tribute to Chacho Peñaloza. On this tour Cafrune toured the country in the style of the old gauchos, taking his art and his message to every corner. His objectives also included capturing the landscapes through photography and filming television short films, as well as collecting data on the ways of life, customs, culture and tradition of the various regions. The tour was ruinous for his finances, but it was a great success considering the true objectives they had set for themselves.

Between 1972 and 1974, Jorge Cafrune formed a duo with the then boy Marito (1960-) with whom he recorded albums and made several tours around the country, Spain and France.

At the end of this tour, Cafrune was summoned to join some Argentine artistic delegations that visited the United States and Spain. The success in the Iberian Peninsula was fabulous, and Cafrune came to live there for several years, starting a family with Lourdes López Garzón.

His return to the country was in 1977, when his father died. They were difficult times for the entire nation, since the government of Isabel Perón had been overthrown by a coup d'état and was in the hands of the last Argentine civil-military dictatorship (1976-1983), then headed by Jorge Rafael Videla. Unlike other committed artists, who went into exile when the threats and prohibitions began, Cafrune, who was recognized for his affinity to Peronism, decided to stay and continue doing what he knew how to do best: singing and giving his opinion, singing and doing. So it was that at the Cosquín festival in January 1978, when his audience asked him for a song that was banned at the time, "Zamba de mi Esperanza", Cafrune agreed while declaring: «although it is not in the repertoire Authorized, if my people ask me for it, I will sing it. According to a testimony from Teresa Celia Meschiati, that was too much for the military, and in the infamous Cordoban clandestine concentration center of La Perla, the then first lieutenant Carlos Enrique Villanueva opined that “he (Cafrune) had to be killed to prevent the others".

Death

On January 31, 1978, as a tribute to José de San Martín, Cafrune undertook a journey on horseback to carry from Plaza de Mayo to Yapeyú, birthplace of the liberator, a chest with soil from Boulogne-sur- Mer, place of his death. That night, shortly after leaving, he was hit near Benavídez by a stubble truck driven by a young man of 19 or 20 years, Héctor Emilio Díaz. Cafrune died that same day at midnight, being only 40 years old.

Although it was believed—and still is—that Cafrune's death would have actually been a planned murder by the military dictatorship (and ordered by Colonel Carlos Enrique Villanueva), the fact was never completely clarified and remained just like an accident, forever surrounded by suspicion.

Initially buried in the Chacarita Cemetery, five years later, when the niche granting period expired, he was cremated and his ashes were given to his daughters.

Private life

Cafrune was the father of six children: Yamila, Victoria, Zorayda Delfina, Eva Encarnación, Facundo and Macarena.

Discography

This is the official discography of Jorge Cafrune published in Argentina. Includes studio albums, long-plays and compilation albums.

Studio albums

Long-Plays

Compilation albums

Filmography