Ramón Leonardo Blanco Quesada, known as Ramón Leonardo, is a Dominican singer-songwriter. He is widely called the father of protest song in the Dominican Republic, and he ran a parallel career as a writer of romantic ballads that sold heavily through the seventies and eighties.

Santiago

He was born in Santiago de los Caballeros in 1948. His social formation came through the youth pastoral movement of his city, where he led study groups, and later through courses on Catholic social doctrine at CEFASA, the centre for social and agrarian training run by Jesuits. That grounding shaped the subject matter of everything he wrote afterwards.

Yo Canto al Amor

His first album, Yo Canto al Amor, was recorded in the United States and set out the shape of his catalogue: six romantic songs on one side and six of social and Christian content on the other, all of them his own. Todos Somos Iguales and Juventud circulated quickly, and he made his professional debut in April 1970, at twenty-two.

He then recorded for Karen Records, where his romantic material became commercial success: Camino Hacia el Altar, Lo Que Yo Quiero de Ti, La Vida Se Va y No Vuelve, Los Celos, Un Gran Amor y Nada Más and La Distancia among them.

Protest song

The social songs on that first record led to the founding of Expresión Joven, which he led musically alongside Cholo Brenes. Through the seventies he set lyrics by the writer Chico González, and the results reached the radio under the government of Joaquín Balaguer.

The state answered the songs directly. He was jailed on five separate occasions and barred from entering cities where he was booked to perform. When the festival Siete Días con el Pueblo opened at the end of November 1974, he was in prison and could not appear, though he was one of the figures the event was built around. Francisco Alberto, Abran las Rejas, Soldado and Universidad belong to those years, and the album Obrero Acepta Mi Mano was released in 1974.

Writing

He has published books alongside the music: a volume on popular art, society and commitment written during a stay in New Jersey, one on national democratic socialism, and Historia de Mi Voz, which he issued to mark more than forty years of singing.

Still committed

He has continued to record social material, most recently on an album whose title states the position plainly, Mucho Más Comprometido.