Flamenco guitarist and poet Andris Kārklīņš, who performed under the stage name Andrés el Letón, died March 26 in a Rīga hospital after a serious illness, Latvian media report. He was 69.
Kārkliņš was a popular performer in the Latvian-American exile community and beyond.
“The guitar plays me” (”Ģitāra spēlē mani”) is a phrase Kārkliņš often repeated, as in a 2008 article about him in the Latvian website 
Andris Kārkliņš, known as Andrés el Letón, performs a concert of new music in Minneapolis during a 1983 U.S. tour. (Photo by Andris Straumanis)
