Claudio Agrelo, an interview

I met the singer and guitarist Claudio Agrelo in 1993 at Celia Rocha’s Fortín. Celia Rocha, an interpreter of the Canto Sureño known throughout Argentina, had founded a cultural center with her husband Manuel in an old soda factory in 1988. This cultural center is located in the Mataderos neighborhood, in the southwest of the Buenos Aires capital, where during For centuries cattle have come from the humid pampas to be slaughtered.I met the singer and guitarist Claudio Agrelo in 1993 at Celia Rocha’s Fortín. Celia Rocha, an interpreter of the Canto Sureño known throughout Argentina, had founded a cultural center with her husband Manuel in an old soda factory in 1988. This cultural center is located in the Mataderos neighborhood, in the southwest of the Buenos Aires capital, where during For centuries cattle have come from the humid pampas to be slaughtered.

Celia and Manuel, however, are dedicated in their cultural center to the struggle to preserve and disseminate Argentine folklore. A close friend of Celia and Manuel is Claudio Agrelo, who from his youth has been interested in the life of the gauchos and the Southern Song.

Claudio was born on November 14, 1957 and grew up in the Flores neighborhood. His grandfather, a country man, gave his grandson a guitar when Claudio was seven years old. When he was a little older, his father gave him a red horse. Since then, Claudio has had these two passions: the guitar and horses.

At the age of 20, Claudio began working in the national farm market as a “resero”. They are gauchos on horseback who receive and distribute the cattle, that is, thousands of animals that arrive every day from the pampas and are later sold in this market.

For three years Claudio learned everything a gaucho should know and listened to the stories and songs of his companions. Since then he has dedicated himself to southern singing and has won several awards such as the Santos Vega Award.

When we met for the first time in January 1993 at Celia Rocha’s Fortín, Claudio sang several songs for me: a milonga by Atahualpa Yupanqui, a track by Ruiz Díaz, and a traditional style. Manuel commented on some of these songs with the so-called flourishes. They are tributes to the singer, to his way of playing and singing, to the lyrics and much more.

Claudio told me what characterizes the milonga, the style and the number and explained the difference between a singer and a payador. And Celia Rocha told me why she had founded her cultural center.

It was a wonderful afternoon in very good company and with some beers in homage to the Southern Song. Listen for yourselves to everything that these three important personalities for Argentine folklore told me and sang.an interview