Violeta Parra
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval (4 October 1917 – 5 February 1967) was a Chilean composer, songwriter, folklorist, ethnomusicologist and visual artist. She pioneered the "Chilean New Song", the Nueva canción chilena, a renewal and a reinvention of Chilean folk music which would extend its sphere of influence outside Chile, becoming acknowledged as "The Mother of Latin American folk". In 2011 Andrés Wood directed a biopic about her, titled Violeta Went to Heaven (Spanish: Violeta se fue a los cielos).
Biography
Parra was born in San Carlos, province of Ñuble, a small town in southern Chile. She was involved in the progressive movement and the Socialist Party of Chile. She revived the Peña, (now known as La Peña de Los Parra). A Peña is a community center for the arts and for political activism. Some think she established the first 'peña' but according to the records of the Royal Academy of Spanish Language, places such as these had been called that since 1936 (RAE). During the government of President Salvador Allende there were Peñas mushrooming all over Chile. These were subsequently banned by the military regime that toppled the Allende government, making exiles and political prisoners out of whole sectors of the Chilean artistic and intellectual community. Nevertheless, there are still many Peñas operating throughout Chile, Latin America, North America, Europe, and Australia. They continue to serve the expat communities that fled Chile after the coup on 11 September 1973 that overthrew President Salvador Allende.
Violeta Parra was a member of the prolific Parra family. Her brother is the notable modern poet, better known as the "anti-poet", Nicanor Parra. Her son, Ángel Parra, and her daughter, Isabel Parra, were also important figures in the development of the Nueva Canción Chilena. Their children have also mostly maintained the family's artistic traditions.
Violeta Parra committed suicide with a gunshot to her head in 1967, because of her depression over the breakup of her relationship with Gilbert Favre.
Her most renowned song, Gracias a la Vida (Thanks to Life), was popularized throughout Latin America by Mercedes Sosa and later in the US by Joan Baez. It remains one of the most covered Latin American songs in history.
