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Chapter Reference: Revolution; Reaction
Chile has produced a rich artistic heritage well known throughout Latin America. Gabriela Mistral and particularly Pablo Neruda, the two Chilean poets who became Nobel laureates in the mid-twentieth century, were read from Mexico to Argentina. Similarly, Chilean folk music was heard throughout Latin America during the 1960s, when it was an important vehicle of protest. For Latin Americans of the sixties generation, Chilean folk music constituted the sound track of student radicalism, the way Bob Dylan and Joan Baez (among others) did for young people in the United States. An interesting research paper could put La Nueva Canción, or New Song, movement in the context of the tumultuous 1960s and early 1970s. Of particular note is the figure of Victor Jara, who emerged from the group around Violeta Parra to become the most important voice of protest music during the early 1970s, when the Chilean left reached high tide. Jara was tortured and executed during the U.S.-supported 1973 military takeover of Chile by General Augusto Pinochet. The center of the movement later moved to Cuba.
Questions for Analysis and Further Reflection:
- Who were the musicians that gathered around Violeta Parra to found the Nueva Canción movement? What were their backgrounds, and who were their audiences?
- The Nueva Canción movement spread throughout Latin America in part due to the resonance of its political message, but also because Chilean (and Argentine) artists toured widely after being forced into exile. How did military rulers treat artistic expression in the 1970s, and what were the consequences for makers of the Nueva Canción movement, as well as for other Latin American artists of the period?
Bibliography: (Titles with ** are good starting places.)
** Dicks, Ted, ed. Victor Jara: His Life and Songs. With a foreword by Pete Seeger.
Translations by Joan Jara. London: Elm Tree Books, 1976.
This book offers a synopsis of Jara's life and provides a selection of Jara's songs, with music and lyrics translated from Spanish into English.
González Rodríguez, Juan Pablo. "'Inti-Illimani' and the Artistic Treatment of Folklore. Latin American Music Review 10, no. 2 (1989): 267—86.
** Jara, Joan. Victor: An Unfinished Song. London: Jonathan Cape, 1983.
Victor Jara's wife recounts her time with him and the development of his music.
Mattern, Mark. "Popular Music and Redemocratization in Santiago, Chile, 1973—1989."
Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 16 (1997): 101—13.
Morris, Nancy E. "Canto porque es necesario cantar: The New Song Movement in Chile,
1973—1983." Research Paper Series, 16. Albuquerque: Latin American Institute,
University of New Mexico, 1984.
Morris's article is one of the more complete overviews of the movement written in English.
Moreno, Albrecht. "Violeta Parra and 'La Nueva Canción Chilena.'" Studies in Latin
American Popular Culture 5 (1986): 108—26.
Neustadt, Robert Alan. "Music as Memory and Torture: Sounds of Repression and Protest in
Chile and Argentina." Chasqui 33, no. 1 (2004): 128—37.
Other Resources:
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