Jara, Víctor (1932–1973)

Víctor Jara, Chilean songwriter and singer, became one of the most well-known cultural icons of Latin America after his assassination at the Estadio Chile at the hands of the military after the Chilean military coup of September 1973. A supporter of President Salvador Allende, Jara used his musical talents to entertain tired workers and to highlight the difficult social and economic conditions of the Chilean working classes.

Jara was born in Chillán, in the south of Chile and later moved with his family to Santiago. After the death of his mother in 1950, he entered the Seminary of the Redemptorist Order in Santiago in order to study for the Catholic priesthood and he learned how to sing Gregorian chants. After a year he left the seminary, completed his military service, and in 1953 he joined the choir of the Chilean University and the pantomime team of Mimos Noisvander. Between 1956 and 1962 he studied drama and theater at the School of Theatre of the Chilean University, while joining the folk group Cuncumén and singing all over Europe. From 1963 to 1968, Jara worked as director of the folk academy of the Casa de la Cultura of Ñuñoa in Santiago and taught drama at the School of Drama of the Chilean University (1964–1967). It was during Allende's presidential campaign of 1964 that Jara started singing in public in order to support the socialist candidate. He later became an artistic director of the musical group Quilapayún.

In 1965 his partner Joan, a British ballerina, gave birth to their daughter Amanda in a home that also included Manuela, Joan's daughter from her previous marriage. His connections with the English-speaking world continued through an invitation by the British Council to direct theater in England during 1968. By 1970 he had already won prizes as theater director and singer. When Allende became president, Jara became part of the communications department of the Santiago Technical University and an ambassador for culture on behalf of the Popular Unity political coalition, always arguing that music is a right for all workers.

On the day of the military coup, he was arrested at the Santiago Technical University and brought with hundreds of prisoners to the Chilean Stadium. There he was recognized and beaten to death. Joan, Manuela, and Amanda left to settle in England, and his music was smuggled out of Chile via diplomatic bags. Over the following years, his contribution to music as a cultural expression of a just society was widely recognized, and in 1993 Joan and others founded the Víctor Jara Foundation in order to preserve his cultural legacy.