Uruguay bids farewell to musician Rubén Rada
Uruguay has bid farewell to musician Rubén Rada, who died at the age of 83 from bilateral pneumonia. On Thursday, a public farewell ceremony for the artist was held at the Legislative Palace, where the country's parliament meets, MercoPress reports.
Day of mourning and ceremony in parliament
Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsi declared a day of official mourning. The decree provides for national flags to be flown at half-mast on government buildings, at embassies abroad, barracks, fortresses, air bases and military ships. The document also provides for funeral honors and payment of burial expenses from the state treasury.
Permission to hold the ceremony in the Salón de los Pasos Perdidos from 2:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. was signed by Vice President Carolina Cosse in her capacity as president of the General Assembly. Rubén Rada's children, his wife Patricia Jodara, and musicians León Gieco, Natalia Oreiro, Ricardo Mollo and Jorge Nasser gathered by the coffin. They performed the song Blumana, after which those present sang Muriendo de plena and clapped out a candombe rhythm.
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Spontaneous farewell in Montevideo
The first farewell was spontaneous, on Wednesday evening: hundreds of people gathered near Isla de Flores Street, between the Sur and Palermo neighborhoods in Montevideo. People came with drums after news of the musician's death; the gathering was arranged through social media and by word of mouth. This part of the city is the historic center of candombe, and Rada grew up there among carnival drum groups.
The gathering was a response to the artist's wish, expressed in the song Muriendo de plena: he asked people not to mourn him, but to sing. Orsi, former President Julio María Sanguinetti, National Party chairman Álvaro Delgado, Colorado Party secretary-general Andrés Ojeda, Broad Front chairman Fernando Pereira, and former Vice President Lucía Topolansky also attended the ceremony in parliament.
According to Topolansky, young people left apples by the coffin in memory of the musician's early hit Las manzanas. The PIT-CNT trade union confederation recalled Rada's performances in the band Tótem during the civil-military dictatorship. The funeral is scheduled for Friday: the procession will depart at 11:00 a.m. from the intersection of Isla de Flores and Santiago de Chile in the Barrio Sur district to the Northern Cemetery.
