By: Diana Betancur
Sixto Rodriguez is an american songwriter who has been recently recognized by the documentary film “Searching for Sugar Man”; a film that puts on the screen his life and the singular way in that his career has developed. Rodríguez was born in 1942, in Detroit, Michigan; his parents were Mexican immigrants who worked in the american industries that, by the first half of the 20th century, were starting to employ an increased mexican workforce. During his childhood and adolescence, he faced hard periods of discrimination that happened against mexican people in that region of the United States. This marginalization would be reflected later in his songs.
In 1967, was released his first single “I’ll slip away”; a beautiful and melodious song that went unnoticed that time. In 1970, was released his first album “Cold Fact” on the label Sussex. As his first single, Cold Fact was unsuccessful; it couldn’t obtain the sales that the label and the artist expected in the United States. However, in other countries like Australia and South Africa the album would become very popular later. In 1971, his second album “Coming from reality” was released, but it neither achieved commercial success. Because of these failures, the label decided not to continue working with him.
Rodríguez wasn’t signed to another record label and, as a result, he disappeared from the musical scene. He stayed in Detroit, working in construction industries and earning a low income. By that time, he got married and had three daughters. In 1979 and 1981, he was invited to Australia to offer two concert tours; but, when the tours were finished, he returned to his country and kept his modest life. He always proved a special interest for the politics; he wanted to help his people and, in an attempt to do it, in 1989 he registered for the council in his city; however, he wasn’t successful and didn’t help him the fact that his name was misspelled in the ballot.
While he lived anonymously in The United States, in South Africa, millions of people listened to his albums, and his songs became generational anthems in the hard times of Apartheid. South African people, considered Rodríguez an exceptional artist and they compared him with others remarkable artists like Bob Dylan or John Lennon. His fame was even higher, because it was rumored that he had committed suicide during a concert in the 1970s. The Rodriguez’s life was completely unknown in that country so, people didn’t have any hope to see him playing in a concert.
In 1998, one of his daughters discovered on the internet, a website dedicated to her father. He realized that some people in South Africa was looking for his father, who had become a hero in that country. Soon, Rodríguez was approached for the creators of the website and he traveled to Africa with his daughters. He was received there, like a hero, like the legend that a complete generation had been waiting for many years. He played six concerts that marked a successful return to the musical scene. Since then, Sixto Rodríguez began to get all the recognition that hadn’t had in the beginnings of his career as a musician. He returned to Australia and started a new tour of concerts.
In 2012, was released “Searching for Sugar Man”, an awarded documentary film that tells the story of the Rodríguez’s success in South Africa, the anonymous life that he lived in The United States, the legend that he represents for South African people, and the particular way in that his fans found him after years to think that he was dead. The film showed the world “the greatest 1970's music icon that never was" how has been usually called Sixto Rodríguez, he got the attention of The United States, Europe and many countries around the world that today know his work.
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