Violeta Parra

Violeta Parra playing guitar and singing her poems in front of one of her yarn paintings

Lately, I've been enamored of the music of the late Chilean singer Violeta Parra. Her most well-known song is "Gracias a La Vida", which you can listen to here (the English translation is below):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW3IgDs-NnA

Violeta Parra is one of Chile's most famous artists. In fact, she comes from a family of famous artists that span three generations and include the famous Chilean "anti-poet" Nicanor Parra. As a visual artist, she made yarn "paintings" that include folk art and modern themes. (There is a currently a retrospective of her work at the Centro Cultural Palacio de La Moneda.)

Her poetry and music also draw from Chilean folk art traditions -- she was one of the most well-known song-writers of the Chilean "Nueva Cancion" (New Song) movement in 1960s. Nueva Cancion in Chile was in many ways very similar to the folk music revival in the US in the 1960s. For example, the songs were incorporated into the left-wing social movements of the 1960s and 70s and the opposition to the dictatorship (for which reason many of the singers were tortured, killed or forced into exile.) And she helped popularize the Pena, community centers for artists and activists to meet, just like La Pena in Oakland, CA or the Women's Building in San Francisco. Tragically, she killed herself in 1967 over a broken heart.


Thanks to life which has given me so much,
It gave me two eyes that when I open them,
I can distinguish perfectly black from white,
And in the high heaven its starry background,
And in the multitudes the man I love.


Thanks to life which has given me so much,
It's given me sound and the alphabet,
And with it the words that I think and declare,
Mother, friend, brother, and burning light,
The route of the soul of the one that I love.


Thanks to life which has given me so much,
It's given me sound that in all its magnitude,
Records night and day, crickets and canaries,
Hammers, turbines, dogs' barks, storms,
And the tender voice of the one that I love.


Thanks to life which has given me so much,
It's given me the steps of my tired feet,
With them I walked though cities and puddles,
Beaches and deserts, mountains and plains,
And your house, your street, and your patio.


Thanks to life which has given me so much,
It's given me laughter, it's given me tears,
Thereby I distinguish good fortune from ruin,
The two materials that make up my song,
And your song, as well, which is my own song,
And the song of everyone that is my own song.