Mauricio Cardozo Ocampo

Mauricio Gardozo Ocampo was not just a Paraguayan musician: he was the one who shaped an era where folklore blended with craftsmanship and research. His sound was not confined to a guitar or a flute, but to that way of listening to the guarania and the polca paraguaya as something alive, breathing in the radios of Asunción and Buenos Aires. From an early age, music was his language: first with the flute and the guitar, later with harmony and composition, always attentive to what the Paraguayan people carried in their songs. He was not a mere interpreter; he was someone who dismantled melodies to understand their essence and then reassembled them with precision.

In the 1930s, when the duo Martínez-Cardozo —alongside Eladio Martínez— toured stages to raise funds during the Chaco War, that commitment that would accompany him for life was already evident: using art as a tool for something greater. But his greatest contribution was not on stage, but in classrooms and institutions. In 1936, when he helped found the Argentine Society of Authors and Composers, he was not only protecting the work of musicians, but ensuring that the songs he loved would not be lost. His efforts before President Federico Cháves to secure a copyright law for Paraguay were a key step: he turned folklore into a right, not just a memory.