The group Sanampay: song and resistance during the Argentine exile in Mexico (1974-1983)

Between 1974 and 1983, during the Argentine exile in Mexico, there were various musicians linked to political movements, whose presence was significant for the practices of protest and solidarity, within the Mexican context. This article analyzes the experience of the Argentine-Mexican group Sanampay, the musical and political trajectories of its members in Argentina in the early seventies –especially concerning the group Huerque Mapu– and the level of artistic and political continuity and rupture that they suffered in exile. To this end, the article will examine oral testimonies, newspaper accounts, records produced in Mexico, and the documentary Creo escuchar, una historia posible de Sanampay (I think I'm listening, a possible history of Sanampay), by Camila Bejarano Petersen (2014). Recovering this history and its corresponding songs not only serves to contribute elements for the political and cultural memory of a part of the Argentine artistic exile, but also helps to understand the traces that this experience in Mexico left in the musical culture and in the repertoire of Latin American social movements.