Gracias a la Vida!

[Xipe Totec]

Saludos a todos los Chilenos.

Y gracias a Dios, por Violeta Parra.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW3IgDs-NnA

[Judi Lynn]

1. Truly beautiful song. I never heard it before you linked it. Have listened to it 3 times already.

Absolutely wonderful.

Thanks you so much for sharing this. Wow.

[EFerrari]

2. The first time I heard that song was when Baez recorded it --

in the late 70s I think. This is lovely. Thanks!

[Judi Lynn]

3. Xipe Totec, tonight I & husband watched video on Victor Jara, Chilean political singer killed by

Pinochet's Nixon-created dictatorship at Chile Stadium.

The video is called "El Derecho de Vivir En Paz," which is also the name of one of his wonderful songs.

During this documentary they mentioned a great teacher and inspiration in his life was Violeta Parra. The moment they said her name I recalled having heard it for the first time by reading your post.

I had to come back to tell you how profoundly Victor Jara's life has touched me, too, and how pleased I was to know that he had known this singer you introduced to DU'ers right here.

Here's a song he wrote which he named after his daughter, Amanda, a name his mother also bore during her lifetime. "Te Recuerdo Amanda:"
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1yyp2_victor-jara-te-recuerdo-amanda_music

Also: "El Cigarrito"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hesTpJ4oGvk

"Luchin"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRVUF7--yuM

"Vamos por Ancho Camino"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qXkXTaZiXg

"El Derecho de Vivir En Paz"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdBMY3R4C0Q

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's interesting hearing his daughter, Amanda, was able to learn where her father's torturer and killer is, and that she and some supporters all showed up at his office to let him know what they thought of him.

Published on Tuesday, August 8, 2006 by CommonDreams.org
Who Killed Victor Jara? SOA Graduate Exposed in Chile
by Joao Da Silva

Among the thousands of political dissidents detained and executed in Chile during the days following the Military coup of 1973 which overthrew the democratically elected socialist government of Salvador Allende (also known as the Unidad Popular), Victor Jara’s brutal death is probably one of the most emblematic. The story of his detention, torture and assassination at the Estadio Chile (a sports arena which was converted into a detention and torture center to hold thousands of political dissidents) has been told and retold for decades, always with some variation, adding to the myth and further strengthening his mystique as a symbol of struggle against military oppression and injustice across Latin America.

Victor Jara was a popular Chilean folk singer/songwriter, educator, theatre director, poet, and political activist. He was involved in the development of the “Nueva Canción Chilena” (New Chilean Song Movement) which gained considerable popularity during the Unidad Popular government which he actively supported. On the morning of September 12 1973, Jara was detained, along with thousands of Chileans, and then held prisoner at the Estadio Chile (renamed “Estadio Víctor Jara” in September 2003) where he was repeatedly beaten and tortured, resulting in the breaking of bones in his hands and upper torso. Fellow political prisoners have testified that his captors, as he lay on the ground after the beating, mockingly suggested that he play guitar for them. Defiantly, he sang part of a hymn supporting the Unidad Popular.

He was murdered on September 15 after further beatings were followed by being machine-gunned (34 bullet wounds were found on his body) and left dead on a road on the outskirts of Santiago. His body was found the next day and was taken to a city morgue. Before his death, he wrote a poem about the conditions of the prisoners in the stadium, the poem was written on a paper that was hidden inside the shoe of a friend. The poem was never named, but is commonly known as “Estadio Chile”.

Jara's wife (a British citizen), Joan, was allowed to come and retrieve his body from the site (and was able to confirm the physical abuse he had endured). After holding a funeral for her husband, Joan Jara fled the country in secret.

Those responsible for the detention, torture and death of Victor Jara benefited from immunity during the remaining 17 years of dictatorship and from the Amnesty Law decreed by the Military Junta before Chile’s return to Democracy. In December 2004, Chilean judge Juan Carlos Urrutia prosecuted the then retired Lieutenant-Colonel, Mario Manriquez Bravo for the murder of Victor Jara. Lt. Bravo was the highest commanding officer in charge at the National Stadium during 1973, but the identity of the Jara's actual killer remained unknown.

In recent months, and after various testimonies from ex-prisoners, Victor Jara’s alleged killer was identified as Edwin Dimter Bianchi. A Chilean military officer with a bad reputation (he was also known as “El Loco Dimter”) who in 1970 attended the School of the Americas (SOA), then located in Panama, and completed a one month course in “Combat Arms Orientation”. Shortly after his stint at the SOA, Dimter participated in the failed coup attempt against Salvador Allende in June of 1973 known as the “Tanquetazo” led by a rouge military brigade. Dimter and his fellow conspirators were arrested and then set free shortly after the successful coup of September 11, 1973. Upon his release, he was assigned to serve in the Estadio Chile.

Survivors of the detention center have testified that on his arrival at the stadium he was full of spite and vengeful due to his recent imprisonment under the Unidad Popular and quickly gained a reputation as a sadist. Due to his good looks and arrogant swagger he received the nickname “The Prince”. An ex-prisoner, Chilean attorney Boris Navia, described “the Prince’s” modus operandi: “He would make rounds through the different levels of the Stadium screaming insults and intimidating prisoners. He would show up unexpectedly in a section of the Stadium and the prisoners had to remain silent in his presence. He behaved like a frustrated stage actor. He always carried a leather club and when he walked through the rows of prisoners who were waiting to be brought into the stadium and had been on their knees for hours and hours with their hands on their heads he would hit and insult them”. In another episode described by ex prisoners, “The Prince”, ordered another soldier to kill a prisoner by beating him with his rifle after he tripped and stumbled over his legs. According to testimonies such as these, Dimter was directly involved in the beating and death of Victor Jara.

Edwin Dimter Bianchi has not been formally charged by a Chilean court. He was discharged from the military in December 31st 1976 for unknown reasons. After his discharge, Dimter graduated as an Accountant and found his way into anonymity by working for the military government in the pensions and audit department. Surprisingly, in 1999 he applied for government benefits under the “Ley de Exonerados Politicos” which was created to benefit victims of human rights violations under the military dictatorship. The law was introduced as a means of compensating political prisoners under the Pinochet regime who had lost their jobs, could not find employment and had lost all pension entitlement. The law provided a compensation payment and pension rights for the period concerned. Dimter was granted those benefits as of January 20th of 2000. This wasn’t the first time that these benefits were granted to a criminal (probably due to the intervention of a sympathetic senator); a similar situation took place with former Chilean Air Force Intelligence agent Rafael González Verdugo, who was processed for the assassination of U.S. citizen Charles Horman (the film “Missing” is based on his story).

More:

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0808-30.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Chile Documentary: Outing Victor Jara's Killer

http://c.hileno.com/2007/11/chile-documentary-outing-victor-jaras.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

viernes, mayo 26, 2006
This is Victor Jara's Killer!!!

http://radiovampiro.blogspot.com/2006/05/this-is-victor-jaras-killer.html

[Judi Lynn]

4. Biographical notes on Violeta Parra:

Violeta Parra - mother of the New Chilean Song Movement

Silvia Cuevas-Morales
2 November 2007

Chile, that thin strip of land lulled to sleep by the Pacific and the Andes, has given birth to many people that have left their mark in the hearts of millions all across the planet: the Nobel Prize winners Gabriela Mistral and Pablo Neruda, the amazing composer Victor Jara, tortured and assassinated by Pinochet, our comrade Salvador Allende — and one of the greatest exponents of Chilean music, Violeta Parra.


Parra was born on the October 4, 1917, in a small southern town called San Carlos. At an early age, Violeta suffered the pain of unemployment and the scarcity of resources. Weighed down by that situation, her family moved from one city to another in search of work. Her father, desperate from unemployment, is said to have found refuge in alcohol. Violeta completed her primary studies but later abandoned them for work. To help her family’s income, she began to sing in trains, small towns, restaurants and circuses.

After her father’s death, Violeta moved to Santiago. With her sister she formed The Parra Sisters, folkloric musical duet. Three years later, she married and gave birth to Isabel and Angel, both inheritors of her musical tradition. In 1948 she separated from her husband and the following year she remarried. From this new marriage two girls were born.

Apart form being a great composer, Violeta was one of the greatest researchers in Chilean folklore. Together with her son and daughter, she travelled throughout Chile offering concerts and recording popular folk tunes she heard — songs she later incorporated into her repertoire. In 1953, after a reading at Neruda’s house, Chile Radio invited her to a number of programs that introduce her talent into thousands of homes.

In 1954 Parra was chosen as the best folkloric artist of the year and was invited to Poland. She travelled throughout the Soviet Union and Europe. For two years she lived in Paris and recorded her first long-play record (1956). Following the sudden death of her youngest daughters, Violeta returned home. She accepted a position at the University of Concepcion where she directed the Museum of Popular Art and continued with her concerts and her research. She recorded another five long-play records.

By the end of the ’50s, she had begun to focus on her painting, her sculpture and ceramics and her famous tapestries. Between 1961 and 1964, combining her art work and her music, she toured through Argentina, Europe and the Soviet Union, and settled in Paris again. Violeta achieved success not only through her music — she was also the first Latin American artist to exhibit at the Louvre Museum. During this period she recorded another album, that included two songs in French. It is also around this time (1962) when she composed her famous song “La Carta”. While in Paris, she received a letter informing her that her brother Roberto had been detained after the infamous Jose Maria Caro massacre, during the government of Jorge Alessandri.

In 1964 Angel and Isabel returned to Santiago and opened the famous “Pena de los Parra”. Many of Chile’s best known composers began playing at La Pena, including Quilapayun and Jara. Today, “La Pena de los Parras” is home to the “Violeta Parra Foundation” (for more information, visit <http://www.violetaparra.scd.cl>).

In 1965 Violeta returned and set up her home in a huge tent on the outskirts of Santiago, “La Carpa de la Reina”, where she set up a centre for folkloric culture. However, the political climate was not very positive for her project. For the government, music committed to the workers’ struggles became a nuisance. Many radio stations excluded certain singers, record companies were disinterested in recording the exponents of the protest-song movement, and the few programs that dared air their music lose their sponsors. Music magazines preferred to dwell on foreign music.

“La Pena” enjoyed increasing public support but “La Carpa” had to struggle to survive. Anguished by this situation and by her problems with her lover, and following a recurrent crisis of loneliness, Violeta tried to commit suicide. After this failed attempt, she killed herself on February 5, 1967. It is ironic that just before this she composed one of her most famous songs — “Gracias a la vida” (“Thanks to life”).

This is how the mother of the New Chilean Song Movement ended her life — a special woman who brought recognition to our folkloric tradition, who inspires us to feel proud of our roots and native instruments, who was brave enough to leave aside the foreign invasion of imperialist rhythms that harassed our continent. Thanks to life for giving us that unforgettable woman — thanks Violeta Parra.
(snip)

http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/730/37826

[Xipe Totec]

6. I am touched. Thank you

Here is a song by Horacio Guarany, that seems to evoke the memory of Victor Jarra.

Si se calla el cantor - Sung by Mercedes Sosa

(When the singer is silent)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g_RdwI_J-I

[Judi Lynn]

7. Wonderful song. Transfixing. There is nothing in this culture which could compare to that song.

It'so much more spiritual, as in courageous, generous, tolerant, perceptive, warm, moral, dignified, self-respecting, and positive that the tones we usually hear in conventional music. We have nothing, NOTHING similar, and it's our loss, a poverty of depth and meaningfulness.

Beautiful imagery employed, also.

You have expanded our horizons far beyond what went before. Had almost forgotten how powerful and transcendant well motivated music can be.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Violeta Parra song, sung by Isabel Parra, her daughter.

Isabel Parra - Que Palabra Te Dijera (Chile)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PCntG_O6vA&feature=related