Joan Báez, biography of a singer and social activist

Joan Báez is a woman who has overwhelming energy and faith and who knows how to masterfully influence others. Her fight for life and human rights has been the constant of her life.

Joan Báez is an icon of her generation, music and social activism. Her real name is Joan Chaudas Báez and she was born in New York in 1941. From a very young age she was involved in a multitude of civil causes, surely due to the influence of her family’s anti-war ideals. Her weapon of struggle is music, through which she has carried out a large number of protests and social demands in more than half the world.

Báez has traveled to numerous countries to become the voice of the marginalized, the persecuted, the missing and the massacred. He has also founded numerous organizations against war and violence, putting his life in danger on numerous occasions. Joa Báez is a very relevant figure in social activism since she was 60 years old.a woman who has lived and worked according to her ideals, a convinced pacifist.

His early years as an activist

Daughter of a Scottish mother and Mexican father. His family moved house on numerous occasions. for the work of the father of the family, a renowned scientist. They toured the United States, Europe and the Middle East. Joan Báez’s father rejected several important offers to work in the arms race. He was a man of strong convictions, a trait that his daughter inherited.

Joan Báez began at a very young age to compose music that allowed him to raise his protests against wars and all forms of violence and social oppression. During her adolescence she actively participated in the March on Washington for jobs and freedom, greatly influenced by Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech. In fact, it was in that march where she would be linked for life to his song We shall Overcome.

He also took a firm stand against the Vietnam War and supported the Fiscal Resistance initiative, which consisted of citizens retaining 60% of their income taxes so that they would not be used for war. In 1965 he founded the Institute for Nonviolence.

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Initiatives for peace

In the 1970s, Joan participated in the founding of the American chapter of Amnesty International. Shortly after, founded Humanitas Internationala group very active in the defense of human rights. On the other hand, he disseminated a critical vision of democratic governments and authoritarian regimes indistinctly from Humanitas International. For all this, he received many attacks, both from right-wing and left-wing factions.

Little by little, she became increasingly critical of United States policy in the Vietnam War. He addressed publications to the most important newspapers in the United States, expressing his disagreement with his country’s attacks on Vietnamese soil. Finally, he joined a peace delegation in 1972.

Activism outside your country

During the 1980s, Joan Báez toured several countries under totalitarian regimes, where she received numerous death threats and where her safety was seriously compromised. In 1981, he made a trip to Chile, Brazil and Argentina, and upon his return to the United States, She became the voice of the mothers and grandmothers of the thousands of disappeared people in Chile and Argentina. In addition, he presented a report on the matter to the North American government.

“We cannot choose how we are going to die or when we are going to do it. We can only decide how we are going to live”.

-Joan Báez-

In 1989 he composed the song China, inspired by the protests in Beijing against the violence of the Chinese regime, and began another humanitarian trip to Asia, bringing food and medicine to Cambodia. Shortly after, would actively participate against the North American invasion of Iraqagainst the death penalty and the repression of the gay community in the United States.

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Now that we have entered the 21st century, Joan Báez, far from retiring and resting, has continued to participate in numerous initiatives encouraging university students to vote for pacifist leaders. In addition, he has started several movements against poverty and marginalization in the United States, especially of the immigrant community.

He has received the Thomas Norton Award and many other awards for his tireless activism. She is a woman who has overwhelming energy and faith and who knows how to masterfully influence others. His fight for life and human rights has been his constant. Even today, at 75 years old, she has actively participated in the feminist marches in the United States against the Trump government and continues to be the inspiration of many young people, and not so young, around the world.