Victor Jara (1932-73)
Victor Jara has a great influence on the music and culture of Chile. His life was a reflection of his country, of the tumultuous times in which he lived, and of his personal philosophies. Victor Jara began his life in a small town of Chile and with his music talent and great love for the people of Chile, became one of the best known and most influential musical figures of Latin America.
Victor Jara was born in Loquen, Chile, a small town outside of Santiago. His parents were rural farmers. His father, Manuel, worked as a simple laborer while his mother, Amanda, performed many odd jobs to make money for the family.
Victor Jara's father had a drinking problem, and their home was often not happy because of the many fights when Victor's drunken father used to hit Amanda. After some years of this unhappiness, Victor's father moved to the countryside to work as a farmer, and Amanda was left on her own to raise Victor Jara and his brothers and sisters.
She was an extremely hard worker, and in the words of Victor Jara, her optimistic outlook on life gave strength to the family. She was an extremely important part of Victor Jara's life. She sang and played the guitar, and taught Victor to play the guitar and also taught him many traditional folk songs of Chile. The time he spent with his mother had a great influence on his musical style.
Amanda had a great belief in the power of education, so when Victor finished elementary and high school he began studying accounting. Sadly, Amanda died when Victor was only 15 years old. He left his accounting studies and entered into the seminary. He was very sad over the death of his mother, and also believed that the profession of a priest was the most important in the world. But after two years, he became disenchanted with religion, and left to join the army for a few years.
After this he returned to Lonquen, but had no job or prospects and thus began to study the folk music of Chile with a group of friends. During this time he developed an interest in theatre, and began to study acting in the School of Theatre, University of Chile. There he showed an inclination towards directing, and after his acting degree was completed, he began in the directing program.
During these years and in the future, Victor Jara participated in countless theatre productions. He was also beginning to further sing and study folk music when he first met Violeta Parra. She was an extremely talented singer and artist, an admirer of the traditional music and instruments of Chile, and the owner of a small café in Santiago.
Victor began to help in this cafe, and soon began singing more and more. During this time he also began to get involved in the politics of Chile. In 1966, he made his first solo disk, self titled "Victor Jara." In the following years he continued as a theatre director but began to spend more and more time with his songs and political activities. Finally, in 1970, he left the life of the theater to spend all of his time working for the people of Chile through his songs.
The songs of Victor Jara are filled with his thoughts on the simple people of Chile. He had a great love for the hard working people of small towns and villages, and many of his songs celebrate the lives of these people. Also, because of his great love for his country, many of his songs attack injustices in society or political scandals.
Victor Jara is an essential part of the great Latin American musical movement known as "Nueva Cancion" or New Song. This movement is involved with many revolutionary activities in Latin America, and all of the artists of Neuva Cancion share many common goals and thoughts. His political ideas where an important part of his songs. He believed in the general communist philosophy, like many progressive singers of Latin America, because of its promise to better the lives of the poor.
You can see the devotion of Victor Jara to his political ideals most strongly in his support of the presidency of Salvador Allende in 1973. Allende was a part of the Popular Unity party (a subsection of the Communist Party of Chile) and Victor Jara, along with other Chileans singers, gave concerts in favor of Allende and his political goals.
Allende was a progressive candidate who had a great love for the people of the small towns of Chile. The Popular Unity party had plans to increase education, and to supply increased housing and free socialised medical care. One of the concerts representative of this campaign for Allende was the concert given in the Stadium of Chile, where many political artists sang in favor of Allende. In the end, the Allende campaign was a success, and he was elected president of Chile, after some political compromise and maneuvering.
However, there was much opposition to the election of Allende and the military organized a coup to overthrow the newly placed president. In the resulting coup, Allende was killed and the military seized control of the government. On the day of this tragedy, Victor Jara was at his job in the State Technical University, which was surrounded by the military, who took Victor Jara prisoner for five horrible days. During these days, he was forced to live in cold and dirty prisons without proper food or water, but other prisoners there with him testify that during these sufferings, he was only concerned with the welfare of his fellow prisoners.
Finally, the military brought Victor Jara and other political prisoners to the Stadium of Chile, the place where the concert for Allende has previously been held. There the military men tortured and killed many people.
They broke Victor Jara's hands (Note: many stories indicate that Victor Jara's hands were cut off, but Joan Jara's book about Victor indicates that when she saw him after his death, his hands were broken, so that is the version being used in this essay) so that he couldn't play his guitar, and then taunted him to try and sing and play his songs.
Even under these horrible tortures, Victor Jara magnificently sang a portion of the song of the Popular Unity party. After this, he received many brutal blows, and finally was brutally killed with a machine gun and carried to a mass grave.
After his horrible death Joan Jara, the wife of Victor, was shown to his body and gave him a proper funeral and burial. Because of all of the problems in Chile following his horrible coup, she was forced to leave the country in secret with tapes of Victor Jara's music. Even today, the political and intensely human songs of Victor Jara are respected all over the world, and the ideals of Nueva Cancion and political music in general remain extremely strong. The life of Victor Jara is a beautiful example of an intelligent and sincere singer who spoke strongly through his songs. As a result, the songs of Victor Jara are a testimony to his strength and positive view of life.
Go to http://www.msu.edu/~chapmanb/jara/eindex.html for much more information and song lyrics.
Mikis Theodorakis
by Katie Georgiou
Legendary Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis was born in Crete. From a very young age he showed his love for poetry and his passion for music. This year he completes 65 years of creating inspirational music.
Looking back at this brilliant career as a composer, we can divide it in time periods as follows:
1960-65 is the period of enthusiasm after an enormous number of people respond to his popular work. His music is full of passion, power and optimism.
1965-1970 it is the hardest period for the Greek nation after a military coup took over from a democratic regime. During this time, Theodorakis composed revolutionary and patriotic songs like Romiosini, Mauthausen and other pieces. Although his music was banned and he lost contact with his people, it was through his music that people kept their spirit and strength to fight to restore democracy. During his imprisonment, as a political prisoner, he composed Epiphania, a cycle of poems by Nobel Prize winner George Seferis, Averof, Spiritual March, State of Siege where he expresses his fears and agonies about the future of this homeland Hellas.
1970-74While Theodorakis was exiled, Laikes Sinavlies (popular concerts) with his songs were performed everywhere in Greece and all over the world where Greeks live. That gave Theodorakis the strength and the enthusiasm and he composed masterpieces such as Canto General with poetry by Pablo Neruda, Lianotragutha by Yiannis Ritsos the poet of Greeknos and Ballantes.
1974-86 His songs are everywhere, shops, houses, restaurants, factories, and streets.
1986 Theodorakis takes a new direction towards the Lyricos Vios with the central point being the “lyric tragedies”.
Taking a look back at his work we underline some of his best.
1960-65 Epitaphios, Archipelogos, Politia, Epiphania, Tou Nekrou Athelfou (The Dead Brother), Yitonia Ton Angelon (Neighbourhood of Angels), Mikres Kiklades (Small Cyclades).
1967 – Mauthausen, Romiosini, Romancero Gitano by Frederico García Lorca.
1967-70 Ta Laika, Odes, Ta Tragouthia Tou Agona
1970-74 18 Lianotragouthia Tis Pikris Patrithas, Prothomenos Laos, Ta Lirika, Fedra, Dionissos, and these are only a few of his works.
But it is the oratorio Axion Esti by O. Elytis, Nobel Prize winner, that will always be at the mind and hearts of all Greeks around the world, in which people of all paths of life can identify themselves, and in which Theodorakis brilliantly combined classic, popular, demotic folklore and Byzantine sounds and which, with Canto General and Mauthausen, stand out of all his work internationally.
Yiannis Ritsos
by Katie Georgiou
Multi-award winner, Yiannis Ritsos was born in Monemvasia in 1909. He was a spiritual leader of this time and was pronounced “the Poet of the Century”.
Ritsos led a full life and his poetry, from early years, was translated into many languages and known all over the world.
From a young age, he knew where he stood politically and wrote poetry that expressed the struggle of workers for a fairer world and justice. It was then, that through the working class, Ritsos’ poetry became popular. But his poetry is not only for the working class; his work conveys the spirit of Greek culture and society as a whole.
The poetry of Ritsos combines the Cretan poetry of the 17th Century, demotic songs and Maniatico lament. It expresses powerfully and energetically the pain and feelings of the whole nation. Such a powerful poem is Epitaphios where a mother’s pain and lament about the death of her sixteen-year old son, give way to the meaning of his sacrifice, and she takes his place in the front line to fight for justice.
When in 1937, Ritsos wrote the poem, My Sister’s Song, Costis Palamas, one of the greatest poets, saluted Ritsos saying: “We step aside poet, for you to step forward.”
During his exile, as a political prisoner, Yiannis Ritsos wrote Kapsimeno Tsoukali and Grammata Sto Zolio Kiouri, poems with astonishing simplicity, yet with a direct impact.
But it was Romiosini, Epitaphios and 18 Lianotragouthia For the Bitter Homeland through Theodorakis music that made Yiannis Ristos a household name not only in Greece but also all over the world.
Yiannis Ritsos wrote innumerable famous poems and it is very difficult indeed to praise any one over the other. However, Kira Ton Ambelion, Sonata Tou Selinofotos, Romiosini and Epitaphios will always stand above all of his amazing work.
When on 11 November 1990 Ritsos died, the world of poetry became poorer. But the poet of Greekness, the “Poet of the Century”, will always shine as one of the greatest. And in saying so, I do remember another great poet, Pablo Neruda, who, the day he was receiving the Nobel Prize for literature, said “This prize and honour belongs to the poet of Greekness, Yiannis Ritsos.”
Yiorgos Seferis
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