PARIS -- Argentinian singer, songwriter, poet and author Atahualpa Yupanqui was found dead early Saturday in a hotel room in Nimes in the south of France. He was 84.
Yupanqui, who lived in Argentina and Paris, was to have appeared in a festival this weekend and festival organizers reported his death. A doctor said he died of natural causes.
A member of his entourage said he had canceled plans to take part in an informal lecture Friday evening, saying he was very tired.
Yupanqui, whose real name was Hector Roberto Chavero, was a virtuoso guitarist who wrote hundreds of songs and several works of poetry and non-fiction. He had performed throughout the world, his songs evoking the plains and sierras of his country and the soul of the South American Indians.
'A poet has no biography, his whole life is in his work,' Yupanqui once said.
Yupanqui was born Jan. 31, 1908, north of Buenos Aires in the heart of the Argentinian pampas, to a South American Indian father and a Basque mother. Hetook up the guitar and the violin at the age of 6.
His childhood in a rural world 'woven with song and silence' greatly influenced Yupanqui's music.
After his father's death in 1921, Yupanqui did various jobs before going to Buenos Aires for the first time in 1928 for a short stint as a journalist.
But he preferred the wide spaces of his country and often traveled on horseback, leading the life of a peasant and listening to the sounds of nature that inspired his works.
His first songs were 'Camino del Indio' and 'Nostalgia Tucumana.' In 1940 Yupanqui published his first poetry collection, 'Piedra Sola.'
Yupanqui rapidly gained a following because of his emotional concerts where he sang songs of the injustice and violence against peasants, or that were inspired by the Argentinian plains, rivers and trees. 'Duerme Negrito,' 'Trabajo, Quiero Trabajo,' 'Los Ejes de mi Carreta' and 'Soy libre, soy bueno' were some of his most famous from this period.
'Everything the Indians feel but cannot or do not know how to say, I say in their place,' he said.
Yupanqui came to Paris in 1948 and associated with painter Pablo Picasso and singer Edith Piaf, who helped launch his career in France. He was immediately successful and gave over 60 concerts in Europe.
Yupanqui spent the following decade in Argentina and in 1961 participated in the National Folklore Festival at Cosquin where 10 years later a theater was opened and named after him.
He had a successful tour in Japan in 1974, after which he continued to sing and write for his fans across the world.
