Violeta Parra

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Violeta Parra
Violeta Parra in the 1960s
Background information
Birth name	Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval
Born	4 October 1917(1917-10-04)
Origin	San Carlos, Chile
Died	5 February 1967 (aged 49)
Genres	Folk, Singer-Songwriter, Andean music, Latin music, Chilean music, Experimental Music
Occupations	Vocalist, Songwriter, Plastic Arts
Instruments	Vocals, Guitar, Charango, Cuatro, Percussion
Years active	1949-1965
Labels	EMI-Odeon Alerce Warner Music
Associated acts	Víctor Jara, Quilapayún, Inti-illimani, Patricio Manns, Illapu, Ángel Parra, Isabel Parra, Roberto Parra, Sergio Ortega, Margot Loyola, Pablo Neruda, Nicanor Parra, Soledad Bravo, Daniel Viglietti, Mercedes Sosa, Joan Baez, Holly Near, Elis Regina, Dean Reed, Silvio Rodriguez
Website	Official Website

Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval (4 October 1917 – 5 February 1967) was a notable Chilean folklorist and visual artist. She set the basis for "New Song," La Nueva Canción chilena, a renewal and a reinvention of Chilean folk music which would absorb and extend its influence far beyond Chile.

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^[1] 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.

Discography

Studio albums

• Chants et danses du chili. Vol. 1 (1956)
• Chants et danses du chili. Vol. 2 (1956)
• Violeta Parra, Canto y guitarra. El Folklore de Chile, Vol. I (1956)
• Violeta Parra, acompañada de guitarra. El Folklore de Chile, Vol. II (1958)
• La cueca presentada por Violeta Parra: El Folklore de Chile, Vol. III. (1958)
• La tonada presentada por Violeta Parra: El Folklore de Chile, Vol. IV. (1958)
• Toda Violeta Parra: El Folklore de Chile, Vol. VIII (1960)
• Violeta Parra, guitare et chant: Chants et danses du Chili. (1963)
• Recordandeo a Chile (Una Chilena en París). (1965)
• Carpa de la Reina (1966)
• Las últimas composiciones de Violeta Parra (1967)

Posthumous discography

• Violeta Parra y sus canciones reencontradas en París (1971)
• Canciones de Violeta Parra (1971)
• Le Chili de Violeta Parra (1974)
• Un río de sangre (1975)
• Presente / Ausente (1975)
• Décimas (1976)
• Chants & rythmes du Chili (1991)
• El hombre con su razón (1992)
• Décimas y Centésimas (1993)
• El folklore y la pasión (1994)
• Haciendo Historia: La jardinera y su canto (1997)
• Violeta Parra: Antología (1998)
• Canciones reencontradas en París (1999)
• Composiciones para guitarra (1999)
• Violeta Parra - En Ginebra, En Vivo, 1965 (1999)
• Violeta Parra: Cantos Campesinos (1999)

Further reading

• Moreno, Albrecht: "Violeta Parra and 'La Nueva Canción Chilena.'" Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 5 (1986): 108—26.

References

1. ^ Mena, Rosario. "Eduardo Parra: My Sister Violetta Parra". http://www.nuestro.cl/eng/stories/profiles/lalo_parra.htm. Retrieved 20 May 2009. 

External links

• Violeta Parra
• Discography
• Issac 2001 Triptych version of Gracias A la Vida
• Remembering Violeta Parra
• Violeta Parra's Gravesite