Guatemalan singer Lorena Medina dies of cancer

• Singer Lorena Medina had a long battle with cancer.
• She had a long, illustrious career.
• Learn how she discovered her love of music.

On Sunday, February 5, Guatemalan singer-songwriter Lorena Medina’s death was reported through a statement. The singer had learned to play the guitar in a surprising way and she had no idea it would lead to such success in her country.

Medina left an incomparable legacy, since the inspiration for her music arose from the guerrillas of her nation. Desperately wanting it all to end, she began to get involved in what would become the greatest passion of her life.

A life of protest!

According to Prensa Comunitaria, Lorena Mediana got involved in social issues when she was very young. She participated in the Coordinadora de Educación Media (CEEM), which was created for the union of public and private schools in Guatemala.

In the 80s and 90s, hundreds of girls and boys protested against injustice in the framework of the internal armed conflict taking place in Guatemala at that time. FILED UNDER: Singer Lorena Medina dies

Medina learned how to play the guitar amid protests

Lorena Medina learned to play her first instrument in the midst of the protests and guerrillas in her country. Also during all this turmoil, she realized that she had an incomparable, powerful voice that would inspire her nation to rise up. «GOODBYE TO THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE.»

She learned the songs of Mercedes Sosa, Pablo Milanés and Silvio Rodríguez and it was very common to see and hear her sing during the protests and afterwards, when people met in a clandestine place to plan more actions and have a few drinks.

She was a guerrillera

Medina joined the Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP), went into exile and returned to Guatemala before the signing of peace in 1996. She was part of the legendary Kin Lalat group, one of the groups belonging to the new musical movement, a current of Latin America with a strong social commitment.

In later years, she took up painting and sold her work to survive her battle with cancer. She dedicated herself to painting indigenous women, cats and the life that she lived intensely as a militant and activist committed to just causes and to fighting against impunity.

A song for an entire country

She got involved in the peace process and wrote a song that became an EGP anthem, called Por mis hermanas y mis hermanos. She said she wrote it for a partner she shared her exile with, as they were both young mothers.

On January 31 at MUSAC, with great difficulty due to her illness, the singer-songwriter appeared to sing like every year, in homage to the students and peasants. That was her last performance and she sang with great feeling though her voice was weakened by the disease eventually took her. LISTEN TO LORENA’S SONG HERE.