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Gustavo Cerati: Listeners Look Back At A Latin Rock Legend

Argentine musician Gustavo Cerati performs in the Dominican Republic in 2007.
Ricardo Hernandez
/
AFP/Getty Images
Argentine musician Gustavo Cerati performs in the Dominican Republic in 2007.
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Earlier this month, we were shaken by the death of Latin rock legend Gustavo Cerati, who died in his native Argentina on Sept. 4 after spending several years in a coma following a stroke. When we found out, we were just sitting down to record Alt.Latino. We decided that, rather than putting together a last-minute tribute, we should give this music legend the proper farewell he deserved. So we invited listeners and friends to share their most important Cerati moments with us.

The musicians we play on this show all owe some sort of debt to Cerati: In the '80s, with his band Soda Stereo, he helped create the Latin American rock legend. Rock music had been heard in parts of the continent, but the idea of a band touring the land and attracting tens of thousands of fans was unheard of. Soda Stereo ushered in the golden era of Spanish-language rock.

In the late '90s, Soda Stereo broke up, and Cerati embarked on a fruitful and creative solo career that continued to push boundaries and blow us away.

Join me and my friend Ernesto Lechner, co-host of a fantastic show called The Latin Alternative, as we reminisce about growing up in Argentina during the golden years of Soda Stereo, the band's best work, and the genius of Gustavo Cerati.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Jasmine Garsd is an Argentine-American journalist living in New York. She is currently NPR's Criminal Justice correspondent and the host of The Last Cup. She started her career as the co-host of Alt.Latino, an NPR show about Latin music. Throughout her reporting career she's focused extensively on women's issues and immigrant communities in America. She's currently writing a book of stories about women she's met throughout her travels.
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