MANIFIESTO
Image courtesy of the Popular Music Archive at the University of Liverpool
MAYU TANIGUCHI
Over the past six months of studying abroad in the UK, I have experienced several cultural shocks, and without a doubt, one of the most memorable has been the industrial strike action taking place in the UK over the past year. Employees that do not hesitate to withdraw their labour are firmly united by a common goal (wages or gender equality, for example) and are making collective demands. What struck me the most was that participants protested in an optimistic, cheerful atmosphere - some sang with instruments while others danced. This experience changed my perception of “protest”, where I imagined people assembling placards and marching in a depressing manner. A month went by before this particular cultural shock made sense to me. I realised that the relationship between music performance and “optimistic protest” was not unique to current-day Britain, but that it had previously existed in Chile in the 1970s.
Who is Victor Jara?
Victor Jara was born on 23 September 1932, in a small village to the south ofSantiago, to a peasant family. It was his mother, Amanda, who taught him Chilean folk songs while she played the guitar and sang. Victor had a set of exceptional talents, having learned to play the piano and guitar, and became a theatre director and composer in Santiago. He also became a singer and a member of the Nueva Canción Chilena movement (The New Chilean Song Movement). He started to devote himself to the creation of democratic Chile as a socialist folk singer. One of his biographies cites Victor’s words as follows:
“Ever since I was born I have seen injustice, poverty and social misery in my country. I believe it is for this reason that I felt the need to sing for the people. I firmly believe that man must become free during the course of his life and that he must work for justice.”
For people in Chile, Victor was the leading folk singer of the movement and the key figure who continued to stand up with and for the people of Chile.
What is “Manifesto”?
“Manifiesto” is often regarded as one of Victor Jara’s masterpieces. It was the last song Victor worked on before his death, brought about by the military coup led by General Pinochet on 11th September, 1973. This piece is indeed a representation of Victor Jara himself- his persistent will, tenderness and modest dedication to be on the side of the people of Chile as projected in one of the lines of lyrics (English translation):
“I don’t sing for the love of singing or to show off my voice, I sing because my guitar has both feeling and reason…My guitar is not for killers greedy for money and power but for the people who labour so that the future may flower.”
“Manifiesto” is also the name of the re-released album, which contains his works recorded between 1968 to 1973. The re-release was intended to coincide with a fund-raising concert for the Jara Foundation in Chile and went on sale just weeks before Pinochet was arrested in Britain.
Story Behind “Manifiesto”
Victor Jara wrote “Manifiesto” just before Pinochet came into power. Jara was rushed to finish this piece because he anticipated persecution - it was clear that the government of Salvador Allende, Latin America’s first democratically elected socialist leader, was facing significant opposition from the military forces.
Victor Jara’s fate was due to the fact that he had become a politically influential folk singer, closely engaging with the New Chilean Song Movement at that time. This worldwide movement originated in the early 1960s, founded in Chile and Latin America and was defined by Victor as “popular” in the true sense of the term, “of the people”. The movement was intended to call for social justice, including people’s freedom from state oppression and labour exploitation.
If you look closer at the lyrics of “Manifesto,” you may wonder who “Violeta” is, a woman’s name Victor mentions in Manifiesto. According to Victor, Violeta Parra was like a “star which will never be extinguished,” who played a vital role in the movement as a composer. Violeta travelled across the country, saw people’s lives and spent time living with peasants, fishermen and Mapuche Indians. Her deep understanding of working-class people, acquired over 20 years of detailed observation, enabled her songs to reflect the reality of the people and their suffering. The whole social movement was not just a passing trend: it was a reflection of voices from suffering people and the insistent demand for social change.
Influence of Victor’s Piece on Politics and People?
Having served as a socialist folk singer was life-threatening once the military coup took hold. Just a day after the coup that deposed Salvador Allende, Victor was arrested and imprisoned in the Chilean National Stadium alongside thousands of other protestors, where he was severely tortured and murdered. Despite his terrible injuries, Victor boldly sang “Venceremos!” (English translation: We shall overcome) as he was killed. He died on 16th September 1973, five days after the former President Salvador Allende.
Three years after Victor’s death, his music was still prohibited under Pinochet’s regime. His dictatorship, with military force, imposed economic depression, chronic poverty and nepotism. People were forcibly taken by police at night and disappeared. Pinochet also made it explicit that there would be no election in his and his successor’s regime. During the military rule under Pinochet, Chile was anything but democratic.
Despite Victor’s tragic death and the authoritarian regime that followed, people remained strongly united and many groups continued searching for ways to combat and survive the fascist government. People kept protesting for their wages, for the freedom of trade unions and the liberation of illegally imprisoned protestors. Although Victor was silenced, his passion for democratisation, courage to resist illegitimate authority and love for his own country were indeed passed onto people and served as solidarity among people. His songs are indeed still alive today.
