The Battle for a People's Art

Victor Jara was born the child of a poor family in southern Chile. He became a pupil of the famous Chilean singer, the late Violeta Parra. Jara also worked in theatre, becoming director of Theatre at the University of Chile in 1960.

In the late 1960's Victor began 'to convert into songs his feelings, his love for his people, his identification with them and their struggles for social justice. He began fighting the packaged, imported culture then invading Chile; he was engaged in establishing new values and accusing those guilty of maintaining misery and injustice.'

In 1970 Jara left theatre in order to devote himself to writing songs and singing for the people and the cause of President Allende's Popular Unity Government. He sang for the workers, in universities and at demonstrations.

During the 3 years of the Popular Unity there was a sort of cultural flowering in Chile 'you could call it an explosion, a real and massive participation of the people who had always been starved of any sort of cultural activity. New song groups, dance groups and theatre groups began to flourish, drab walls in Chile towns blossomed with colourful murals painted by the people.'

His widow, Joan Jara, described his music like this: 'He wanted to use the folklore as a base to develop new musical ideas and combine past and present. He wanted people to feel that folklore was a part of their lives, not an institution for museums, but a living thing that didn't stop growing.'