Detroit musician Sixto Rodriguez has been posthumously recognized by the Wayne County Commission as National Hispanic Heritage Month gets underway across the country.
The 15-member body highlighted a resolution Tuesday, Sept. 15 honoring the late singer-songwriter, who came to wide acclaim via the 2012 Oscar-winning documentary “Searching for Sugar Man.”
The resolution was presented to the musician’s three daughters during a ceremony inside the commission chambers “as a lasting record of respect and admiration for his impressive and inspiring career.”
Rodriguez, who died in 2023, was heralded for his body of folk-rock work at the turn of the ’70s and his record of activism on behalf of impoverished Detroiters. The musician, a lifelong Detroiter and son
of Mexican immigrants, was 81.
Though he’d been an enigmatic star in apartheid-era South Africa and was known around pockets of Detroit, Rodriguez enjoyed broader notoriety only after the success of the 2012 doc, which recounted South African fans’ journey to track him down.
“In the years leading up to his death, Rodriguez’s reputation had been transformed from one of unappreciated greatness to that of a truly important artist, whose limited musical output is nonetheless spoken of in the same breath as giants of the musical counterculture,” the resolution reads.
The annual National Hispanic Heritage Month is observed in the U.S. from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15.
Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Wayne County honors Detroit's Rodriguez for Hispanic Heritage Month
