As Gustavo Sierra Fernández, Spanish folk specialist wrote, Elisa Serna (Madrid, 1943) is one of the best Spanish female songwriters. She was member of the songwriter collective of Castile “Canción del Pueblo” (People’s Song) and, later, in the collective “La Trágala” (the name of an antique song dated in the Liberals revolts against king Ferdinand VII, and later, adopted by the Loyalist). Elisa always used her songs to denouncing Franco’s dictatorship, and, as a result of that, she suffered prison, fines and a time of exile. In the first 70s, she went to Paris (where many Spanish artists were forced to move for working, as well as many people due to their political ideas); there, she recorded her first LP, with the help of great songwriter Paco Ibáñez (Cicerone and godfather of all those songwriters and artists that came up to Paris): Quejido, in the French seal “Le Chant du Monde”. Two years after, the LP was edited in Spain, in the discography EDIGSA, under the name of Este tiempo ha de acabar (“This time must ends”), but without two songs that were censured. Elisa, who was the first Spanish songwriter mixing Castilian folklore with African rythms, is unfairly forgotten, and, although she is in retirement from music, sometimes plays in Paco Ibáñez during "Quejido"'s recording. Photo by Hans Geene excpecional acts, and is involved in the movement of retrieval of the Historical Memory –a movement wich finality is the absolute and final conviction of Francoism and, above all, the retrievement of those who, despite their ideologies, fought for freedom in Spain since 1936 to 1980-, and in all of those movements in which is fighting for a fair cause. As Andrés Sorel wrote in the review of Elisa Serna’s 1972 LP, Quejido, in French: “Elisa is the dodged moan of this Spain that won’t shut up in despite of judgements, jails, threats, repression and censorship.” Discography -Cuatro poemas de Miguel Hernández, Antonio Machado, Jesús L. Pacheco según Elisa Serna (1969). Ep -La luciérnaga (1969). Ep -No quiso ser (1970). Single. -Quejío (1972). -Este tiempo ha de acabar (1974). -Brasa viva (1975). -¡Choca la mano! (1977). -Regreso a la semilla (1978). -Alkimia (1992). Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.