Argentines lining the streets tossed flowers and applauded to honor the late Mercedes Sosa on Monday as a hearse carried the folk singer from honors at Argentina's Congress to the Chacarita cemetery.
A large crowd sang, wept, danced and prayed together, vowing to keep her memory alive.
The legendary singer, who died Sunday at 74, will be cremated and her ashes scattered in Argentina's capital as well as the Argentine provinces of Mendoza and Tucuman, her family said. A column of police on motorcycles led a caravan of black limousines from Congress, where she lay in state while thousands of fans, including Argentina's president and celebrities, came to pay their respects Sunday and Monday.
The leftist Sosa was forced into exile by Argentina's military dictatorship of the 1970s but never backed down, lending her voice to inspire many who suffered. Colombia's Shakira, who sings on Sosa's last, Grammy-nominated album, said "we are all better for having known her, she showed us that a song can teach us so much."