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Víctor Jara: Jump To Navigation Jump To Search
Víctor Jara
Background information
Santiago, Chile
academic, social activist
Labels EMI-Odeon
DICAP/Alerce
Vreeswijk
Website FundacionVictorJara.cl
Contents
1Early life
2Artistic work
3Political activism
4Torture and murder
o 4.1Legal actions
5Legacy
6In popular culture
7Theater work
8Discography
o 8.1Studio albums
o 8.2Live albums
o 8.3Compilations
o 8.4Tribute albums
9Documentaries and films
10See also
11Notes
12References
13External links
o 13.1Resources in English
o 13.2Resources in Spanish
Early life[edit]
Víctor Jara was born in 1932 to two farmers, Manuel Jara and Amanda Martínez.
His exact place of birth is uncertain. For some, he was born in San Ignacio, near
Chillán; but there are also rumors he could have been born in Quiriquina, one of
the small towns nearby San Ignacio. In early childhood, moved with his family to
Lonquén. His father was illiterate and encouraged his children to work from an
early age to help the family survive, rather than attend school. By the age of 6, Jara
was already working on the land. His father could not support the family on his
earnings as a peasant at the Ruiz-Tagle estate, nor was he able to find stable
work. He took to drinking and became increasingly violent. His relationship with his
wife deteriorated, and he left the family to look for work when Víctor was still a
child.
Jara's mother raised him and his siblings, and insisted that they get a good
education. A mestiza with deep Araucanian roots in southern Chile, she was self-
taught, and played the guitar and the piano. She also performed as a singer, with a
repertory of traditional folk songs that she used for local functions like weddings
and funerals.[9]
She died when Jara was 15, leaving him to make his own way. He began to study
to be an accountant, but soon moved into a seminary, where he studied for the
priesthood. After a couple of years, however, he became disillusioned with
the Catholic Church and left the seminary. Subsequently, he spent several years in
army service before returning to his hometown to pursue interests in folk
music and theater.[10]
Artistic work[edit]
After joining the choir at the University of Chile in Santiago, Jara was convinced by
a choir-mate to pursue a career in theater. He subsequently joined the university's
theater program and earned a scholarship for talent. [10] He appeared in several of
the university's plays, gravitating toward those with social themes, such as Russian
playwright Maxim Gorky's The Lower Depths, a depiction of the hardships of lower-
class life.[10]
In 1957, he met Violeta Parra, a singer who had steered folk music in Chile away
from the rote reproduction of rural materials toward modern song composition
rooted in traditional forms, and who had established musical community centers
called peñas to incorporate folk music into the everyday life of modern Chileans.
Jara absorbed these lessons and began singing with a group called Cuncumén,
with whom he continued his explorations of Chile's traditional music. [10] He was
deeply influenced by the folk music of Chile and other Latin American countries,
and by artists such as Parra, Atahualpa Yupanqui, and the poet Pablo Neruda.
In the 1960s, Jara started specializing in folk music and sang at Santiago's La
Peña de Los Parra, owned by Ángel Parra. Through these activities, he became
involved in the Nueva Canción movement of Latin American folk music. He
released his first album, Canto a lo humano, in 1966, and by 1970, he had left his
theater work in favor of a career in music. His songs were inspired by a
combination of traditional folk music and left-wing political activism. From this
period, some of his best-known songs are "Plegaria a un Labrador" ("Prayer to a
Worker") and "Te Recuerdo Amanda" ("I Remember You Amanda").
Political activism[edit]
Early in his recording career, Jara showed a knack for antagonizing conservative
Chileans, releasing a traditional comic song called "La beata" that depicted a
religious woman with a crush on the priest to whom she goes for confession. The
song was banned on radio stations and removed from record shops, but the
controversy only added to Jara's reputation among young and progressive
Chileans.[11] More serious in the eyes of the Chilean right wing was Jara's growing
identification with the socialist movement led by Salvador Allende. After visits
to Cuba and the Soviet Union in the early 1960s, Jara had joined the Communist
Party. The personal met the political in his songs about the poverty he had
experienced firsthand.[11]
Jara's songs spread outside Chile and were performed by American folk artists.
[12]
His popularity was due not only to his songwriting skills but also to his
exceptional power as a performer. He took a decisive turn toward political
confrontation with his 1969 song "Preguntas por Puerto Montt" ("Questions About
Puerto Montt"), which took direct aim at a government official who had ordered
police to attack squatters in the town of Puerto Montt. The Chilean political
situation deteriorated after the official was assassinated, and right-wing thugs beat
up Jara on one occasion.[12]
In 1970, Jara supported Allende, the Popular Unity coalition candidate for
president, volunteering for political work and playing free concerts. [13] He composed
"Venceremos" ("We Will Triumph"), the theme song of Allende's Popular Unity
movement, and welcomed Allende's election to the Chilean presidency in 1970.
After the election, Jara continued to speak in support of Allende and played an
important role in the new administration's efforts to reorient Chilean culture. [14]
He and his wife, Joan Jara, were key participants in a cultural renaissance that
swept Chile, organizing cultural events that supported the country's new socialist
government. He set poems by Pablo Neruda to music and performed at a
ceremony honoring him after Neruda received the Nobel Prize in Literature in
1972. Throughout rumblings of a right-wing coup, Jara held on to his teaching job
at Chile's Technical University. His popular success during this time, as both a
musician and a Communist, earned him a concert
in Moscow. So successful was he that the Soviet
Union tried to latch onto his popularity, claiming in
their media that his vocal prowess was the result
of surgery he had undergone while in Moscow. [15]
Backed by the United States, which opposed Allende's socialist politics, the
Chilean military staged a coup d'état on September 11, 1973,[16] resulting in the
death of Allende and the installation of Augusto Pinochet as dictator. At the
moment of the coup, Jara was on his way to the Technical University (today
the Universidad de Santiago). That night, he slept at the university along with other
teachers and students, and sang to raise morale.
Víctor Jara's grave in the General Cemetery of Santiago. The note reads: "Until victory..."
Legacy[edit]
Joan Jara currently lives in Chile and runs the Víctor Jara Foundation, [39] which was
established on 4 October 1994 with the goal of promoting and continuing Jara's
work. She publicized a poem that Jara wrote before his death about the conditions
of the prisoners in the stadium. The poem, written on a piece of paper that was
hidden inside the shoe of a friend, was never named, but it is commonly known as
"Estadio Chile". (Chile Stadium, now known as Víctor Jara Stadium, [40] is often
confused with the Estadio Nacional, or National Stadium.)
Joan also distributed recordings of her husband's music, which became known
worldwide. His music began to resurface in Chile in 1981. Nearly 800 cassettes of
early, nonpolitical Jara songs[41] were confiscated on the "grounds that they violated
an internal security law". The importer was given jail time but released six months
later. By 1982, Jara's records were being openly sold throughout Santiago. [42]
Jara is one of many desaparecidos (people who vanished under the Pinochet
government and were most likely tortured and killed) whose families are still
struggling to get justice.[43] Thirty-six years after his first burial, he received a full
funeral on 3 December 2009 in Santiago. [44] Thousands of Chileans attended his
reburial, after his body was exhumed, to pay their respects. President Michelle
Bachelet—also a victim of the Pinochet regime, having spent years in exile—said:
"Finally, after 36 years, Victor can rest in peace. He is a hero for the left, and he is
known worldwide, even though he continues buried in the general cemetery where
his widow originally buried him."
Jara has been commemorated not only by Latin American artists, but also by
global bands such as U2 and The Clash.[44] U2 has given concerts at Chile' National
Stadium in homage not only to Jara, but also to the many others who suffered
under the Pinochet dictatorship.
Although most of the master recordings of Jara's music were burned under
Pinochet's military dictatorship, his wife managed to get recordings out of Chile,
which were later copied and distributed worldwide. She later wrote an account of
Jara's life and music titled Víctor: An Unfinished Song.
Since his death, Jara has been honored in numerous ways:
Rolling Stone named him one of the fifteen top protest artists. [20]
On 22 September 1973, less than two weeks after Jara's death, the Soviet
astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh named a newly found asteroid 2644
Víctor Jara.
The American folk singer Phil Ochs, who met and performed with Jara
during a tour of South America, organized a benefit concert in his memory in
New York in 1974. Titled "An Evening With Salvador Allende", the concert
featured Ochs, Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, and Arlo Guthrie.
The anthology For Neruda, for Chile contains a section called "The Chilean
Singer", with poems dedicated to Jara.[45]
An East German biographical movie called El Cantor ("The Singer") was
made in 1978. It was directed by Jara's friend Dean Reed, who also played the
part of Jara. That same year, the Dutch-Swedish singer-songwriter Cornelis
Vreeswijk released an album of Jara songs translated into Swedish, Cornelis
sjunger Victor Jara ("Cornelis sings Victor Jara").
In 1989 Simple Minds dedicated Street Fighting Years track to Victor Jara.
In the late 1990s, British actress Emma Thompson started to work on a
screenplay that she planned to use as the basis for a movie about Jara.
Thompson, a human rights activist and fan of Jara, saw his murder as a symbol
of human rights violations in Chile, and believed a movie about his life and
death would raise awareness.[46] The movie was to feature Antonio Banderas as
Jara and Thompson as his wife, Joan. [47] However, the project was not
completed.
English poet Adrian Mitchell translated Jara's poems and lyrics and wrote
the tribute "Víctor Jara", which Guthrie later set to music.
The Soviet musician Alexander Gradsky created the rock
opera Stadium (1985) based on the events surrounding Jara's death. [48]
The Portuguese folk band Brigada Víctor Jara is named after him.
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's Wrecking Ball Tour made a stop
in Chile on 12 September 2013, just days before the 40th anniversary of Jara's
death. Springsteen, guitarist Nils Lofgren and trumpet player Curt Ramm paid
tribute to Jara by covering his song "Manifiesto", which Springsteen sang in
Spanish. In a short speech before the song, Springsteen said (in Spanish): "In
1988, we played for Amnesty International in Mendoza, Argentina, but Chile
was in our hearts. We met many families of desaparecidos, which had pictures
of their loved ones. It was a moment that stays with me forever. If you are a
political musician, Víctor Jara remains a great inspiration. It’s a gift to be here,
and I take it with humbleness."[49]
In popular culture[edit]
"Cancion Protesta" by Aterciopelados, a Colombian rock band, is a tribute to
protest songs. The music video makes visual a quote from Jara, who said, "The
authentic revolutionary should be behind the guitar, so that the guitar becomes
an instrument of struggle, so that it can also shoot like a gun."
"The Manifest - Epilogue" by the Israeli band Orphaned Land, a song from
the 2018 album "Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs" features a quote from
Victor Jara. The line is "Canto que ha sido valiente, Siempre será canción
nueva".
"I Thought I Heard Sweet Víctor Singing", a 2014 song by Paul Baker
Hernandez (a British singer-songwriter living in Nicaragua), originated in Joan
and Víctor Jara's garden in Santiago during events to cleanse Chile Stadium in
1990–91. The chorus goes: "Don't give up, don't give up, don't give up the
struggle now. Keep on singing out for justice, don't give up the struggle now!"
Baker Hernandez has written singing English interpretations of some of Victor's
best-loved songs, such as 'Te Recuerdo Amanda', 'Plegaria a un labrador', and
'Ni Chicha Ni Limona'. He shares them with non-Spanish-speaking audiences
during his frequent tours of the US/UK, and is currently (2017) recording a bi-
lingual CD./ [50]
In Barnstormer's album Zero Tolerance (2004), Attila the
Stockbroker mentions Jara in the song "Death of a Salesman", written just after
the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. "You were there in Chile,
11 September '73. 28 years to the day – what a dreadful irony. Victor Jara
singing 'midst the tortured and the dead. White House glasses clinking as
Allende's comrades bled."
Belgian singer Julos Beaucarne relates Jara's death in his song "Lettre à
Kissinger" ("Letter to Kissinger").[51]
British musician Marek Black's record I Am A Train (2009) features the song
"The Hands of Victor Jara".
Chuck Brodsky also wrote and recorded a song called "The Hands of Victor
Jara".[52] This 1996 tribute included the lyrics:
The blood of Victor Jara
Will never wash away
It just keeps on turning
A little redder every day
As anger turns to hatred
And hatred turns to guns
Children lose their fathers
And mothers lose their sons
Theater work[edit]
1959. Parecido à la Felicidad (Some Kind of Happiness), Alejandro
Sieveking
1960. La Viuda de Apablaza (The Widow of Apablaza), Germán Luco
Cruchaga (assistant director to Pedro de la Barra, founder of ITUCH) [59]
1960. The Mandrake, Niccolò Machiavelli
1961. La Madre de los Conejos (Mother Rabbit), Alejandro Sieveking
(assistant director to Agustín Siré)
1962. Ánimas de Día Claro (Daylight Spirits), Alejandro Sieveking
1963. The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Bertolt Brecht (assistant director to
Atahualpa del Cioppo)
1963. Los Invasores (The Intruders), Egon Wolff
1963. Dúo (Duet), Raúl Ruiz
1963. Parecido à la Felicidad, Alejandro Sieveking (version for Chilean
television)
1965. La Remolienda, Alejandro Sieveking
1965. The Knack, Ann Jellicoe
1966. Marat/Sade, Peter Weiss (assistant director to William Oliver) [60]
1966. La Casa Vieja (The Old House), Abelardo Estorino
1967. La Remolienda, Alejandro Sieveking
1967. La Viuda de Apablaza, Germán Luco Cruchaga (director)
1968. Entertaining Mr Sloane, Joe Orton
1969. Viet Rock, Megan Terry
1969. Antigone, Sophocles
1972. Directed a ballet and musical homage to Pablo Neruda, which
coincided with Neruda's return to Chile after being awarded the Nobel Prize for
Literature.
Discography[edit]
Studio albums[edit]
Year of release Title
Canciones folklóricas de
1967
América (with Quilapayún)
1972 La Población
1974 Manifiesto
Live albums[edit]
See also[edit]
List of peace activists
Notes[edit]
1. ^ "Report of the Chilean Commission on Truth and Reconciliation Part III Chapter 1
(A.2)". usip.org. 10 April 2002. Archived from the original on 31 December 2006. Retrieved 6
January 2007.
2. ^ Chilean Communist Party. "(History of the Chilean Communist Party (Reseña
Histórica del Partido Comunista de Chile)" (PDF) (in Spanish). Chilean Communist Party. p. 1.
3. ^ Jara, Joan. Víctor: An Unfinished Song, 249-250
4. ^ "Jara v. Barrientos". Center for Justice and Accountability. 4 July 2013. Retrieved 3
October 2014.
5. ^ Charlotte Karrlsson-Willis (6 September 2013). "Family of Víctor Jara turns from Chile
to US in quest for justice". The Santiago Times. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014.
Retrieved 3 October 2014.
6. ^ Former Chilean Army Officer Found Liable for 1973 Murder of Víctor Jara After U.S.-
Backed Coup. Democracy Now! June 29, 2016.
7. ^ Peter Kornbluh (July 2016). Justice, Finally, for One of Pinochet’s Most Famous
Victims. The Nation.
8. ^ "Victor Jara murder: ex-military officers sentenced in Chile for 1973
death". Reuters in Santiago via The Guardian. 3 July 2018. Retrieved 4 July 2018.
9. ^ Jara, Joan. Víctor: An Unfinished Song, 24-27
10. ^ Jump up to:a b c d "Victor Jara Biography - life, family, childhood, children, parents, death,
wife, school". www.notablebiographies.com. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
11. ^ Jump up to:a b "'They Couldn't Kill His Songs,'" BBC News, World: Americas]
12. ^ Jump up to:a b "Victor Jara," All Music Guide, http://www.allmusic.com (16 January 2007)
13. ^ Jara, Joan. Víctor: An Unfinished Song,
14. ^ Mularski, Jedrek. Music, Politics, and Nationalism in Latin America: Chile During the
Cold War Era. Amherst: Cambria Press. ISBN 9781604978889.
15. ^ Minkova, Yuliya (2013). OUR MAN IN CHILE, OR VICTOR JARA'S POSTHUMOUS
LIFE IN SOVIET MEDIA AND POPULAR CULTURE. Virginia Tech. p. 608.
16. ^ Hitchens, Christopher (2001). The Trial of Henry Kissinger. New York: Twelve.
p. 304. ISBN 978-1455522972.
17. ^ "Stadium's Renaming an Ode to Singer Martyred There". Los Angeles Times. 9
September 2003. Retrieved 12 August 2011.
18. ^ "Victor Jara - Chilean musician". Retrieved 20 July 2016.
19. ^ Augustyn, Adam. "Victor Jara Chilean Musician." Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica, n.d. Web. 9 December
2015.http://www.britannica.com/biography/Victor-Jara
20. ^ Jump up to:a b c d "Complaint: Jara v. Barriento" (PDF). Official Florida court legal filing.
Retrieved 5 September 2013.
21. ^ "Former Chilean military officers charged in 1973 murder of singer Víctor Jara". The
Guardian. 23 July 2015. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
22. ^ Jump up to:a b c Reuters (16 May 2008). "Judge rules in Pinochet-era case of murdered
singer". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 6 June 2015.
23. ^ "New probe into Victor Jara murder". BBC News. 4 June 2008. Retrieved 27
May 2010.
24. ^ "Chilean singer Jara is exhumed". BBC. 4 June 2009. Retrieved 5 June 2009.
25. ^ "A oficial que ajustició a Víctor Jara, le decían "El Loco "". Red Nacion. Archived
from the original on 17 October 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2013.
26. ^ Carroll, Rory. "Ex-Pinochet army conscript charged with folk singer Victor Jara's
murder". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 October 2013.
27. ^ "Chile: A Proper Funeral for Víctor Jara". Global Voices Online. 5 December 2009.
Retrieved 6 December 2009.
28. ^ Mariano Castillo (29 December 2012). "Charges brought in Chilean singer's death, 39
years later". CNN.
29. ^ "Ex-army officers implicated in Victor Jara death". BBC. 28 December 2012.
Retrieved 18 July 2013.
30. ^ "Mark D. Beckett | Chadbourne & Parke LLP". www.chadbourne.com. Retrieved 16
July2016.
31. ^ "Christian Urrutia | Chadbourne & Parke LLP". www.chadbourne.com. Retrieved 16
July2016.
32. ^ "Clients | CJA". Retrieved 28 August 2016.
33. ^ "Jara v. Barrientos No. 3:13-cv-1075-J-99MMH-JBT (2013)". Center for Justice and
Accountability. 4 September 2013. Retrieved 5 September 2013.
34. ^ "Victor Jara killing: Chile ex-army officer faces US trial". Retrieved 15 April 2015.
35. ^ Luscombe, Richard (27 June 2016). "Former Chilean military official found liable for
killing of Victor Jara". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 July 2016.
36. ^ Jump up to:a b De la Jara, Antonio; Laing, Aislinn (3 July 2018). "Eight Chilean military
officers sentenced for singer Victor Jara's murder". Reuters. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
37. ^ Jump up to:a b c "Victor Jara killing: Nine Chilean ex-soldiers sentenced". BBC News. 4
July 2018. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
38. ^ Haberman, Clyde (18 November 2020). "He Died Giving A Voice to Chile's Poor. A
Quest for Justice Took Decades". New York Times. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
39. ^ "FUNDACION VICTOR JARA". Retrieved 20 July 2016.
40. ^ Waldstein, David. The New York Times, 18 June 2015. Web. 9 December 2015. "In
Chile’s National Stadium, Dark Past Shadows Copa América Matches"
41. ^ E., Morris, Nancy (1 July 1984). "Canto porque es necesario cantar: The New Song
Movement in Chile, 1973-1983". Retrieved 20 July 2016.
42. ^ Morris, Nancy E. "Canto Porque Es Necesario Cantar; the New Song Movement in
Chile, 1973-1983." Latin America Institute 16 (1984): n. pag. Web. 1 December
2015.http://repository.unm.edu/handle/1928/9709
43. ^ Henao, Luis A. (23 July 2015). "10 Former Chilean Soldiers Charged in Victor Jara
Killing". The Washington Times. Retrieved 14 June 2016.
44. ^ Jump up to:a b Long, Gideon. The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited, 5
December 2009. Web. 8 December 2015. "Murdered Chilean Folk Singer Laid to Rest after 36
Years"
45. ^ Lowenfels 1975, pp. 79–90.
46. ^ Stasio, Marilyn (Fall 1998). "Emma Thompson: The World's Her Stage".
ontheissuesmagazine.com.
47. ^ Beatrice Sartori (7 January 1999). "Antonio Banderas se mete en la piel del poeta
torturado". elmundo.es. Retrieved 3 February 2006.
48. ^ A website dedicated to the Alexander Gradsky's rock opera Stadium (Stadion) (in
Russian)
49. ^ "Springsteen News". Backstreets.com. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
50. ^ "Pense oir al dulce Victor en la noche cantar". Estribillo: 'No se rindan, no se rindan,
no se rindan ya! A la justicia cantemos, no se rindan ya!'
51. ^ Julos Beaucarne – Lettre a Kissinger. 10 December 2011.
52. ^ "Music". Chuck Brodsky. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
53. ^ Allmusic link
54. ^ Video on YouTube of Adrian Mitchell's poem "Victor Jara", with music by Arlo Guthrie,
performed by Guthrie and his band Shenandoah in 1978
55. ^ "Rod MacDonald Band The Death Of Victor Jara". youtube.com. Retrieved 24
February2017.
56. ^ "Brief Descriptions of some of Rory's recorded and released songs".
Rorymcleod.com. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
57. ^ In Greek: Κι αν είμαι ροκ (lyrics: Dora Sitzani, music: Manos Loizos)
58. ^ "La memoria de los peces (1998)". Ismael Serrano. Archived from the original on 1
May 2012. Retrieved 1 May 2012.
59. ^ Instituto de Teatro de la Universidad de Chile (Theatre Institute of the University of
Chile)
60. ^ Oliver, William (1967). "Marat/Sade in Santiago". Educational Theatre
Journal. JSTOR 3205029.
61. ^ An Evening with Salvador Allende was a recording of the Friends of Chile benefit
concert held in New York City (1974) to honor Allende, Neruda and Víctor Jara. The double
album appeared as a limited edition several years after the concert event; it was never reissued
after its limited release. It featured Melanie, Bob Dylan, the Beach Boys, Phil Ochs and it was
where Pete Seeger for the first time performed an English translation of Víctor Jara's last
poem: Estadio Chile.
References[edit]
Jara, Joan (1983). Victor: An Unfinished Song. Jonathan Cape,
London. ISBN 0-224-01880-9
Lowenfels, Walter (1975). For Neruda, for Chile: An International Anthology.
Boston: Beacon Press. ISBN 978-0-8070-6383-5. Retrieved 26
September 2013.
Kósichev, Leonard. (1990). La guitarra y el poncho de Víctor Jara. Progress
Publishers, Moscow
External links[edit]
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Resources in English[edit]