Víctor Jara: The popular singer from Latin America was born in 1932

Published at: 28/09/2024 08:00 AM

On September 28, 1932, the Chilean singer-songwriter and revolutionary, Víctor Jara, was born. He was also a theatrical director, researcher of folklore and indigenous instruments, actor, playwright and librettist, but he achieved the greatest importance as a composer and singer of the town.

Of peasant origin, he inherited his love for music from his mother. When they were abandoned by their father, the family moved to Santiago, to the town of Los Nogales. At the age of 15, he was orphaned and entered the Redemptorist Seminary of San Bernardo. He stayed there for two years. In 1957 he entered the Theater School of the University of Chile. At that time he met Violeta Parra, who welcomed him as a disciple.

In 1960, he received the title of theater director and became part of the board of directors of the Institute of Theater of that house of studies. He directed several plays and won the Laurel Gold Award for best director of the year. In 1967 he was invited to Great Britain, where he received another award for his theatrical direction. While there, he composed one of his best-known songs, Te Recuerdo Amanda, dedicated to his parents Amanda and Manuel.

In 1968 he became the artistic director of the popular music group Quilapayún. In 1967 he released his first musical album, entitled Víctor Jara. His second album, Pongo en Tus Manos Abiertas (1969), coincided with the support he gave to the candidacy of the Popular Unity of Salvador Allende as a member of the Communist Youth. In 1970 he published Canto libre, El Derecho de Vivir en Paz and La Población, creations of great beauty and poetic force that made him one of the greatest exponents of the revival and innovation of popular songs in Latin America.

Their songs were about their people and their problems, along the lines of the singer-songwriters of the time; however, their international success took them beyond their native Chile to be sung at any progressive demonstration or university concentration in many other countries, particularly in Spain during the transition.

During the period of Allende's administration, he was appointed cultural ambassador of the government, in whose position he carried out extensive work up to the date of his death. He was married to the English dancer Joan Turner, who had been his professor of body expression at the University of Chile.

Strongly committed to his political environment, his commitment ended up costing him his life. After the coup d'etat of the general, and eventually dictator, Augusto Pinochet, which took place on September 11, 1973, locked himself in with other students at the State Technical University, in Santiago, to show his repudiation and willingness to resist; however, the army soon took over the premises and took Jara prisoner to the National Stadium in Santiago de Chile, where he was brutally tortured and murdered on September 16.

In September 2003, on the thirtieth anniversary of the military coup, the Chilean government renamed the stadium the Víctor Jara National Stadium. In mid-2008, the judicial investigation into his murder reopened; Lieutenant Colonel Mario Manríquez was charged with the murder.

Mazo News Team