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Victor Jara


Chile: Judge Miguel Vazquez indicts assassins of Victor Jara

28/12/2012 - 12/28/2012.- Judge Vazquez of the Santiago Appeals Court initiated a discovery process for the murder of singer Victor Jara Martinez, executed on September 16, 1973, at the Estadio Chile.

The judge indicted:

- Hugo Sánchez-Marmonti, homicide.
- Pedro Barrientos-Núñez, homicide.
- Roberto Souper Onfray, accomplice to murder.
- Raul Jofre González, accomplice to murder.
- Edwin Dimter Bianchi, accomplice to murder.
- Mazzei Hasse-Nelson, accomplice to murder.
- Luis Bethke Wulf, accomplice to murder.

The judge ordered the international arrest of the accused Barrientos Nunez, who is living abroad, while the other defendants will be detained at the Military Police Battalion Number 1.

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Victor Jara Singer of Hope

26/12/2010 - This is a poem by Carlos Muñoz, El Diantre, which I put music to. Muñoz captured the popular feelings of many Chileans regarding Victor Jara and he summarizes those feelings on his introduction:

Yesterday you sang for me
To give me hope
Your songs gave me strength
Today I sing for you.

To play the song click here.

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Song, How Imperfect You Are!

26/12/2010 - This is the last poem of Victor Jara written while in prison at the Estadio Chile and delivered after his death to his widow Joan Jara via an underground courier.

We are five thousand
Confined in this little part of town
We are five thousand
How many of us are there throughout the country?

To listen to the song click here.
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Victor Jara Foundation

26/12/2010 - The Victor Jara Foundation is a non-profit, cultural organization, legally established on October 4, 1994. The Foundation's founding members are Victor's wife and children: Joan Turner de Jara, Manuela Bunster and Amanda Jara Turner.

The purpose of the organization is not only to promote the knowledge of Victor's work, but also to continue his work. The Foundation has the only most extensive archive on Victor Jara's life, including recordings, books, newspaper clips, video tapes, photographs and posters.
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Victor Jara in YouTube

August 10, 2007.- Sometimes capitalism creates non-traditional media that revolutionize the dissemination of ideas. The fundamental reason for this almost always has to do with profit making. That is the case of a project to publish low-resolution non-commercial video, which in few years has grown in geometrical progression: YouTube. This project started in San Bruno, California early in 2005 headed by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim. In one year alone this succesfull project caught the attention of Google Inc. which bought the company at a price of $1.65 millions in October 2006.

Inevitably, this type of public media leaves the door open for the participation of progressive people, competing with all the consumerist trash. That is how today we can find some old videos of our dear Victor Jara. You can also find new renditions of his songs.

To see Victor Jara in YouTube click here

For a translation of his song "Te Recuerdo Amanda" click on the [+] below.

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Victor: An Unfinished Song

01/05/2003 - This book was first published in Great Britain 1983 by Jonathan Cape Ltd., copyrighted by the author, Joan Jara.
It was re-Published again in 1998 by Bloomsbury, England (www.bloomsbury.com). As of the publishing of this web page (5/2003) it was still available from Bloomsbury. If you need more information about where to buy the book contact the Victor Jara Foundation.

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Victor Jara of Chile, Presente! Now and Forever

01/01/2000 - Victor Jara was born on September 28, 1932, on the outskirts of Lonquen, where the land of the Ruiz Tagle family ended and the estate of Fernando Prieto began. Lonquen is a small peasant village, or rather a rural area, where the main objective is to house those who work for the few large latifundia who exploit equally the land, animals and the people.

Victor's wife, Joan recalls, "Victor was the son of a Chilean ploughman and a Chilean folk singer, by that I mean a real folk singer... His mother was a woman who played the guitar, who went round singing at harvest parties and funeral parties. Chilean peasants have a party when somebody dies. His family were very poor. They lived on one of these enourmous farms. where the peasants really lived in a feudal state. They had practically no salary at all --where paid in kind, with bags of flour and fruit. Very little fruit. Each family had a sort of house made of "adobe" which is mud and straw. One of Victor's earliest memories is being yanked out of bed to go and wash his feet in the ditch at the side of the house. To get firewood, to light the fire, and to heat water to make a sort of herb tea for breakfast. Victor remembers once a year when there was meat to eat. What a party it was! A fiesta!"
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Boston Globe Music Review: Sergio Reyes. "A Tribute to Victor Jara"

16/09/1997 - Cambridge, MA September 16, 1997.- He is a rare revolutionary flower, Cambridge's Sergio Reyes is. With his bell-clear voice and passionate way with the acoustic guitar, Reyes could perform often. But he does not, because he says he only feels the need to play at politically significant events -- at a picket line, on International Workers Day, or, as was the case Friday, in remembrance of a slain political hero.

Reyes, accompanied by Ruskin Vaughn on percussion and Meredith West on piano, performed a touching tribute to Victor Jara, a 35- year-old Chilean folk singer who died at the hand of the government of Augusto Pinochet when Pinochet took control of the country in September 1973.
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