Fifty years ago this week, violent upheaval led to the overthrow of a regime and the untimely murder of a cultural icon (along with thousands of others).
I first consciously heard the name Victor Jara when I bought my first Calexico album album seven or eight years ago, with the opening track, Victor Jara's Hands. I thought nothing more of it, until a few years ago when I heard Manic Street Preacher's front man, James Dean Bradfield talking about the album and podcast he had made about Jara.
I was now a bit more intrigued. Victor Jara led an interesting, and sadly short, life as a Chilean cultural figurehead, whose legend only rose globally upon his death in 1973. So now, with the fiftieth anniversary of his brutal murder at the hands of Pinochet's army thugs here, we look at the life and legacy of Jara.
Warning: one section of this story is not an easy read - I have marked it in red text, so that you can pass over it if you want to.
Victor Lidio Jara Martinez was born on 28 September, the location lost in the mists of time, but somewhere in the Diguillin province, around the town of Chillán Viejo. His parents were tenant farmers living in the village of La Quiriquina, close to Viejo. By 1937, the family had moved to Lonquén, close to Chile's capital city, Santiago.
He had five brothers. His mother, Amanda, was a mestiza (mixed European and Indigenous heritage) with Araucanian ancestry, who had taught herself to play a little guitar and piano. She would sing folk songs at weddings and funerals. Jara's father, Manuel, descended into drink, often being away from home for days at a time, causing family tensions and leaving Amanda to do all of the work. Amanda finally moved with the children to Santiago, where she became a cook in the market district of Vega Poniente. She was successful and managed to pay for three of her children, including Victor, to attend school. She did when Jara was just fifteen.
Young Victor
Jara studied accounting for a brief period, before changing tack and heading into the seminary to train as a priest. After a few years though, he became disillusioned with the Catholic church and left, instead joining the Chilean Army. That lasted another couple of years, before Victor finally headed home and immersed himself in folk music and theatre.
At the University of Chile in Santiago he joined the choir, and then was tempted into joining the theatre programme, where he earned himself a scholarship. He liked the heavier plays, like Maxim Gorky's The Lower Depths. In 1957 he met Violeta Parra, a leading figure in the Chilean folk scene, who was leading the genre to adopt more modern compositions and who had helped establish a network of penās (community centres) helping to embed folk music into everyday life.
Violeta Parra (1917 - 1967) was one of nine children; her father a music teacher and her mother a seamstress. One of her brothers was the modernist poet Nicanor Parra, another was folklorist Roberto Parra.
She was a pioneer of the Nueva canción chilena movement - The Chilean New Song - a renewal of Chilean folk music, that would extend its influence outside its borders. Her most famous song is Gracias A La Vida, which is one of the most covered Latin songs, with versions by Kacey Musgraves, Michael Buble and most famously, Joan Baez. Her children, Ángel and Isabel, were also important in the growth of Nueva canción chilena. She took her own life in 1967 at the age of 49.
Neuva Canción
Jara started to play with the band Cuncumén, singing and playing guitar. His involvement with them ran from 1957 through to 1963. His involvement in the Nueva canción movement was complete as also regularly played at La Peña de los Parra, a spot owned by Ángel and Isabel Parra.
His debut album came in 1966, simply called Victor Jara - it would later be called Canto a lo Humano and also Sus Mejores Canciones. It contained Chilean folk tunes, along with a range of others, like the Argentinian folk song La Cocinerita, and Bolivian tune Ja Jai.
Victor Jara: Ja Jai https://youtu.be/XC7VMT45cz4?si=S2RvkIeTx2abp9At
The second album again went by the name Victor Jara, and as he recorded it, he was becoming closer in style to that of Parra, who was sadly dead by the time the album was released. It contains the somewhat controversial song, El Aparecido (The Ghost), said to be about Che Guevara and written in the months leading up to his death. The controversy is around the fact that socialist groups, like the Communist Party of Chile, were trying to move away from the guerrilla image of people like Guevara.
Victor Jara: El Aparecido https://youtu.be/HOn4vOv-iSc?si=Q5KtilQJDfQP8xP8
Jara and politics
Jara once said that, "Song has great power to create awareness in the face of today's challenges." He was certainly not shy of winding up his more conservative countrymen, demonstrated by his song La Beata, a ditty about a Catholic woman with a crush on her priest. It was banned from Chilean radio and was removed from shops, but (unsurprisingly) raised his profile among young, progressive Chileans.
In the early 60s, Jara visited both Cuba and Soviet Russia, and went on to join the Communist Party. He grew to be a fan of socialist politician, Salvador Allende.
His 1969 song, Preguntas Por Puerto Montt, was even more overtly political, being written about Edmundo Pérez Zujovic. Zujovic was a government minister who ordered police to attack squatters in the town of Puerto Montt, which resulted in eleven of them being massacred. Zujovic, coincidentally, was later assassinated.
In 1970, Jara threw his weight behind the Popular Unity Coalition of Allende, volunteering and playing free concerts for their benefit. He also composed the song Venceremos (We Will Triumph). The Coalition were working on a platform of reform, land redistribution, the nationalisation of major corporations (including copper mining) and the re-orientation of health, housing and education systems. They had won despite apparent attempts to interfere by US manufacturer ITT and the CIA.
Victor Jara: Manifesto https://youtu.be/uj-3mpjDC8M?si=OkodKoMyu0bIkO9E
Jara, and his wife Joan, organised cultural events, with Victor setting poems by Pablo Neruda to music (after he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1972). He was also teaching at the State Technical University and directing their theatre.
Joan Turner is a British born dance instructor (1927), who found herself in Chile in the mid-50s with the Josse Ballet. She ended up dancing with the Chilean National Ballet and met Jara at the University. They married in 1965.
She had a young daughter from a previous relationship (Manuela), who became close to Victor, before they had a daughter of their own (Amanda).
A very American Coup
The financial screws were turning on Allende, led by the World Bank (who had a US Director) who cut off Chile's loans. $8m of 'meddling money' was spent by the CIA, with Henry Kissinger making the United States position very clear in June 1970, "I don't see why we need stand by and watch a country go communist just because of the irresponsibility of its people."
Allende's reign was under constant threat; his poor economic choices upset the army officers, and the nationalisation of the copper industry also didn't go well. Despite that, the election of March 1973 saw Allende's majority actually increase, but the plotting against him continued by both military and some sections of the business world.
On 9th September 1973, the Chilean military, with US support, overthrew Allende and his government. Allende ended up committing suicide and General Augusto Pinochet was installed as the new fascist dictator.
Jara was trapped at the university, but on the 11th he managed to call home to tell Joan to make sure that she and girls stayed home. He called several more times that day.
Many Chileans with leftist leanings were rounded up on the 12th, including Jara. He, along with thousands of other prisoners were held at the Estadio Chile (a sports complex in western Santiago).
Joan got a message on the 13th from a man who called by the house - "Victor, the man said, didn't think he'd be able to get out, but that Joan should 'take care of the children, Have courage and his love." She went to the British Embassy for help, but the UK government had already recognised the new Chilean government and had taken a stance - "no refugees, no asylum." In fact, somewhat shamefully, almost alone among European nations, Britain refused shelter in Santiago to all but UK nationals.
On 16th September 1973, Victor Jara was shot in the head, before his body was riddled with around forty bullets. His body was displayed where others could see it, as a grim warning.
(From the documentary Massacre At The Stadium): "An army officer threw a lit cigarette on the ground, made Jara crawl for it, then stamped on his wrists. Jara was first separated from the other detainees, then beaten and tortured in the bowels of the stadium. At one point, he defiantly sang Venceremos [We Will Triumph], Allende's 1970 election anthem, through split lips. On the morning of the 16th, according to a fellow detainee, Jara asked for a pen and a notebook and scribbled the lyrics to Estadio Chile, which were later smuggled out of the stadium. 'How hard is it to sing when I must sing of horror / horror which I am living, horror which I am dying.' Two hours later, he was shot dead, then his body was riddled with machine gun bullets and dumped in the street. He was 40."
Joan was able to retrieve Victor's body, give it a quick, secret burial, before fleeing the country with Amanda and Manuela. She would later reflect, "I am one of the lucky ones. So many people here in Chile, so many families, they still don't know the destiny of their loved ones. That is worst fate." (to Sean Mattison, Retro Report)
Pete Seeger: Estadio Chile (1975 live)
Calexico: Victor Jara's Hands https://youtu.be/nYSeQXWJJZQ?si=UVlGUw_0H8E5ofuV
In December 2009, Victor Jara was finally given a proper re-burial in front of huge crowds in Santiago.
The long road to justice
In May 2008, retired Colonel Mario Manriquez Bravo, Chief of Security at the stadium was convicted of Jara's death. Judge Fuentes closed the case, but Jara's family appealed. In June that year, it was re-opened with forty new pieces of evidence to examine.
The following May, José Adolfo Paredes Márquez, a former conscript, was arrested in San Sebastián and charged with his murder. He was one of the two conscripts who had fired bullets into Jara's body - but after he was probably dead. Then in June 2009, the officer who had shot Jara in the head was identified. He had played Russian roulette until he shot him.
Jumping forward to December 2012, eight former officers were due to be arrested, including an international warrant for Pedro Barrientos Núñez, the one accused of shooting him in the head. Núñez was now living in Florida, where he stood trial in 2015, eventually being found liable for Jara's death, and the family were awarded $28m.
Back in Chile in July 2018, the eight officers were each sentenced to fifteen years for the murder of Jara and one of his associates, plus a further three years for kidnapping - a ninth man received five years for the cover up. In November of that year, extradition proceedings were started against Núñez.
In seventeen years under Pinochet, over 2,300 people are known to have 'disappeared' and at least 27,000 tortured - but of course, the real figures are likely to be much higher than that.
Cultural References
Arlo Guthrie - Victor Jara (1976)
Leon Schidlowsky (Chilean composer) - Misa Sine Nomine (Mass Without Name)
The Clash - Washington Bullets (from, Sandanista!, 1980)
"Remember Allende and the days before, before the army came. Please remember Victor Jara in the Santiago stadium."
U2 - One Tree Hill (Joshua Tree, 1987)
"Jara sang, his song a weapon, in the hands of love, though his blood still cries from the ground."
Simple Minds - Street Fighting Years (1989 - album dedicated to Jara)
Calexico - Victor Jara's Hands (Carried To Dust, 2008)
James Dean Bradfield - Even In Exile (2020 - concept album on Jara's life and death)
U2: One Tree Hill (beautiful outtake from Rattle & Hum)
James Dean Bradfield: Santiago Sunrise (live session)
In 2013, on the 40th anniversary of his murder, Bruce Springsteen performed in Santiago, playing Manifesto, which was a Jara song he never got to perform in public. Springsteen said, "It's a gift to be here, and I take it with humbleness."
The Centre for Justice and Accountability say of Jara:
"Victor Jara's music was an inspiration to Chile's peasants and working classes. His music focused on themes of social and economic inequality and the plight of the indigenous poor."
References:
Wikipedia
New York Times: 'He Died Giving A Voice To Chile's Poor' (2018)
NME (1975)
Retro Report
The Centre for Justice and Accountability
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