Victor Jara was a communist. He was a singer of social songs. He sang songs of love and peace as well as Left-wing songs of struggle and social justice. Victor believed in fairness and human rights.
He supported Salvador Allende who was a communist politician elected by the people of Chile. Phil Ochs met Victor, befriended him and sang with him in support of a miners’ strike.
The USA, as part of its campaign against communism, sought to destabilise Chile under Allende. The CIA used a lot of underhand tactics. It culminated in the support of the fascist military overthrow of the Allende government in a sponsored coup. On September 11th 1973 Allende was murdered and his government overthrown. General Pinochet took over and proceeded to deal with the Allende supporters.
Thousands were rounded up and taken into the football stadium where they were systematically tortured and killed.
Victor Jara taught at the university. He was rounded up along with students and other teachers. When they identified who he was he was singled out for special treatment. He was gruesomely tortured and killed.
The rumour was that he was instructed to play and sing for the prisoners in the stadium. They then either chopped his hands off with and axe or crushed his hands and told him to sing. He stood and sang. They ripped out his tongue and teeth and he still tried to make a noise.
He was finally killed when a soldier played Russian roulette with him. He loaded one bullet into the chamber, spun it, held it against Victor’s head and pulled the trigger. He did this a number of times until it fired.
Pinochet was supported by the Likes of Thatcher and the USA for forty years.
Over a thousand people were ‘disappeared’ under Pinochet. The hunt for their remains continues to this day. Victor Jara, a teacher and singer, was just one of many but he came to symbolise the terrible travesty and viciousness of the Pinochet regime.
I had to listen to his canciones on my Open University Spanish course. Great insight.
sounds an interesting course.
Congratulations!!
I am nominating you for three awards:
The three awards are:
The Liebster Award
The Premio Dardos Award
The Dragons Loyalty Award
And this is what you have to do if you accept:
1. Display the awards on your homepage (I still haven’t worked out how you do this).
2. Thank the person who nominated you on your blog (that could be me)
3. Circulate links to their (my) site on your blog with a reason why they should visit
4. Write eleven points of interest about yourself
5. Nominate 11 other blogs for one or other or all of the awards.
That’s it!
I hope you accept because you and your blog are great. Nature needs protecting.
Cheers
Opher
Hi , thanks very much Opher, I will try but am not on much wifi at the moment. Sometimes it’s a quick catch up in a bar where’s there’s wifi! Not sure the younger generation understand not having 24 hours Internet access. I’ll look for the links.
Cheers.
But don’t sweat it. It is only a way of saying thanks and I appreciate what you do. The Awards are unimportant. The people are what counts.
Hi have tried to see how to link but also haven’t worked that out yet but some good links to bloggers who follow/ like you!
That’d be good!
Reblogged this on Opher's World and commented:
In memory of Victor Jara whose torturers and murderers were sentenced to 15 years yesterday!!