Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval (4 October 1917 – 5 February 1967) was a … Read Full Bio ↴Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval (4 October 1917 – 5 February 1967) was a Chilean composer, folklorist, ethnomusicologist, and visual artist. She pioneered the Nueva Canción Chilena (Chilean' New Song), a renewal and a reinvention of Chilean folk music which would extend its sphere of influence outside Chile. In 2011 Andrés Wood directed a biopic about her, titled Violeta Went to Heaven.
Parra was born in San Fabián de Alico, near San Carlos, Ñuble Province, a small town in southern Chile on 4 October 1917, as Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval. Violeta Parra was a member of the prolific Parra family. Among her brothers were the notable modern poet, better known as the "anti-poet", Nicanor Parra, and fellow folklorist Roberto Parra. Her son, Ángel Parra, and her daughter, Isabel Parra, are also important figures in the development of the Nueva Canción Chilena. Their children have also mostly maintained the family's artistic traditions.
Her father was a music teacher and her mother worked on a farm, but sang and played the guitar in her spare time. Two years after Violeta's birth, the family moved to Santiago, then, two years later, to Lautaro and, finally, in 1927, to Chillán. It was in Chillan that Violetta started singing and playing the guitar, together with her siblings Hilda, Eduardo and Roberto; and soon began composing traditional Chilean music.
After Parra's father died in 1929, the life circumstances of her family greatly deteriorated. Violeta and her siblings had to work to help feed the family. In 1932, at the insistence of her brother Nicanor, Parra moved to Santiago to attend the Normal School, staying with relatives. Later, she moved back with her mother and siblings to Edison street, in the Quinta Normal district.
The Parras performed in nightclubs, such as El Tordo Azul and El Popular, in the Mapocho district, interpreting boleros, rancheras, Mexican corridos and other styles. In 1934, she met Luis Cereceda, a railway driver, whom she married four years later, and with whom she had two children. Her husband was a militant communist, and, at his side, Parra became involved in the progressive movement and the Communist Party of Chile, taking part in the presidential campaign of Gabriel González Videla in 1944. Parra began singing songs of Spanish origin, from the repertoire of the famous Argentinian singers Lolita Torres and Imperio Argentina. She sang in restaurants and, also, in theatres, calling herself Violeta de Mayo. In 1945, she appeared with her children Isabel and Angel in a Spanish show in the Casanova confectionery. In 1948, after ten years of marriage, Parra and Luis Cereceda separated. Parra and her sister Hilda began singing together as "The Parra Sisters", and they recorded some of their work on RCA VICTOR. Also in 1946, Violeta met and married Luis Arce. Their daughter Carmen Luisa was born in 1949. Parra continued performing: she appeared in circuses and toured, with Hilda and with her children, throughout Argentina.
In 1952, Parra's second daughter, Rosita Clara, was born. In that same year, driven by her brother Nicanor, Violeta began to collect and collate authentic Chilean folk music from all over the Chile. She abandoned her old repertoire for folk songs, and began composing her own songs based on traditional folk forms. She gave recitals at universities, presented by Enrique Bello Cruz, a founder of cultural magazines. Soon, Parra was invited to the "Summer School" at the University of Concepción. She was also invited to teach courses in folklore at the University of Iquique. In Valparaiso, she was presented at the Chilean-French Institute.
Parra's two singles for EMI-Odeon label: "Que Pena Siente el Alma" and "Verso por el Fin del Mundo", and "Casamiento de Negros" and"Verso por Padecimiento" brought her a good measure of popularity.
Don Isaiah Angulo, a tenant farmer, taught her to play the guitarrón, a traditional Chilean guitar-like instrument with 25 strings.
Along the way, Parra met Pablo Neruda, who introduced her to his friends. In 1970, he would dedicate the poem "Elegia para Cantar" to her.
Between January and September 1954, Parra hosted the immensely successful radio program "Sing Violeta Parra" for Radio Chilena. The program was most often recorded in places where folk music was performed, such as her mother's restaurant in Barrancas. in the end of 1954, Parra participated in another folkloric programme, for Radio Agriculture.
Violeta was invited to the "World Festival of Youth and Students", in Warsaw, Poland, in July 1955. She then moved to Paris, France, where she performed at the nightclub "L'Escale" in the Quartier Latin. Meanwhile, back in Santiago her daughter Rosita Clara died. Violeta made contacts with European artists and intellectuals. Through the intervention of the anthropologist Paul Rivet she recorded at the National Sound Archive of the "Musée de l'Homme" La Sorbonne in Paris, where she left a guitarrón and tapes of her collections of Chilean folklore. She travelled to London to make recordings for EMI-Odeon and radio broadcasts from the BBC. Back in Paris, in March 1956, she recorded 16 songs for the French label "Chant du Monde" which launches its first two records with 8 songs each.
In November 1956, Violeta returned to Chile, and recorded the first LP of the series "The folklore of Chile" for the EMI Odeon label: "Violeta Parra and her guitar" which included three of her own compositions. In 1957 she followed with "La cueca" and "La tonada" (EMI Odeón) and "Composiciones de Violeta Parra".
In the following years she built her house “Casa de Palos” on Segovia Street, in the municipality of La Reina. She continued giving recitals in major cultural centers in Santiago, travelling all over the country to research, organize concerts and give lectures and workshops about folklore. She travelled north to investigate and record the pagan religious festival "La Tirana". Violeta Perra exerted a significant influence on Héctor Pavez and Gabriela Pizarro, who would become great performers and researchers in their own right. The product of this collaboration is evident in the play "La Celebración de la Minga" staged at the Teatro Municipal de Santiago.
She composed the music for the documentary "Wicker" and "Trilla", contributed to the film "Casamiento de negros", performed by Sergio Bravo.
She wrote the book "Cantos Foklóricos Chilean" which gathered all the research conducted so far, with photographs by Sergio Larraín and musical scores performed by Soublette Gaston (Santiago, Nascimento, 1979). She also wrote the "Décimas autobiográficas", work in verse recounting her from her childhood to her trip to Europe.
She started a serious interest in ceramics, painting and arpillera embroidery As a result of a severe hepatitis in 1959 that forced her to stay in bed, her work as a painter and arpillerista was developed greatly, so much so that the same year she exhibited her oil paintings and arpilleras at the First and also the Second Outdoor Exhibition of Fine Arts of the Forest Park. On 4 October 1960, the day of her birthday, she met Swiss flautist Gilbert Favre with whom she became romantically involved. In 1961 she traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she exhibited her paintings, appearing in TV, giving recitals at the Teatro IFT and recording an album of original songs for EMI Odeon - which was banned.
In June 1962 she returned to Santiago. With her children Isabel and Angel, and her granddaughter Tita, she embarked, with the Chilean delegation, for Finland to participate in the 8th "World Festival of Youth and Students" held in Helsinki. After touring the Soviet Union, Germany, Italy and France, Violeta Parra moved to Paris, where she performed at La Candelaria and L'Escale, in the Latin Quarter, gave recitals at the "Théâtre Des Nations" of UNESCO and performed on radio and television with her children. Then she started living with Gilbert Favre in Geneva, dividing her time between France and Switzerland, where she also gave concerts, appeared in TV and exhibited her art.
In 1963 she recorded in Paris, revolutionary and peasant songs, which would be published in 1971 under the title "Songs rediscovered in Paris" She wrote the book "Popular Poetry of the Andes". The Parras took part in the concert of "L'Humanité" (official newspaper of the French Communist Party). An Argentine musician friend recorded at her home a version of "El Gavilán" ("The Hawk"),interpreted by Violeta Parra accompanied by her granddaughter on percussion. Violeta accompanied her children in the LP "Los Parra de Chillán" for the Barclay label. She began playing the cuatro, an instrument of Venezuelan origin, and the charango, an instrument of the high plateaus.
In April 1964 she did an exhibition of her arpilleras, oil paintings and wire sculptures in the Museum of Decorative Arts of the Louvre - the first solo exhibition of a Latin American artist at the museum. In 1965, the publisher François Maspero, Paris, published her book "Poésie Populaire des Andes". In Geneva, Swiss television made a documentary about the artist and her work, "Violeta Parra, Chilean Embroiderer".
Favre and Parra returned to South America, in June 1965. Violeta recorded two 45s, one with her daughter Isabel and another to instrumental music for cuatro and quena with Gilbert Favre, whom she christened "El Tocador Afuerino" (The outsider musician) Her music now incorporated the Venezuelan cuatro and the charango from the plateaus of the northern. The EMI Odeon circulated the LP "Remembering Chile (a Chilean in Paris)," whose cover was illustrated with her own arpilleras.
However, Favre and Parra broke up, provoked by his desire to live in Bolivia where he was part of a successful Bolivian music act, Los Jairas.
Parra’s energy was invested in reviving a unique version of the Peña (now known as La Peña de Los Parra), a community center for the arts and for political activism. Some have stated she established the first 'peña', but as said by the RAE, places such as these had been called that at least since 1936.
Parra’s Peña was a tent (somewhat similar looking to a circus tent) that she set up on a 30 x 30 meter piece of land in the Parque La Quintrala, at number 340 Carmen Street, in today’s La Reina municipality of Santiago, in the area once known as la Cañada. Her tent hosted musical spectacles where she often sang with her children, and she and her children also lived on the same land. In La Reina, at La Cañada 7200, she also established a cultural center called "La Carpa de la Reina" inaugurated on 17 December 1965. She also installed a folk peña in the International Fair of Santiago (FISA), where she was invited. On the same year, she participated in numerous national television programs and signed a contract with Radio Minería which would be the last radio station to be used as a platform for her work.
Under the EMi Odeón label, in 1966 was released the LP "La Carpa de La Reina" featuring three songs performed by Violeta Parra and nine by guest artists announced at the carpa by Violeta herself. She travelled to La Paz, Bolivia, to meet with Gilbert Favre, where she regularly appeared in the Peña. She came back to Chile with Altiplano groups, presenting them in her carpa, on television and in her children's Peña. She also performed in concert at the Chilean southern cities of Osorno and Punta Arenas, invited by René Largo Farias, under the "Chile Ríe y Canta" ("Chile Laughs and Sings") program. Accompanied by her children and Uruguayan Alberto Zapicán, she recorded for RCA Victor the LP "The Last Compositions of Violeta Parra". In that year, Favre returned briefly to Chile with his group, but declined to stay, because in the meantime he had established a life and married in Bolivia.
Her most renowned song, Gracias a la Vida (Thanks to Life), was popularized throughout Latin America by Mercedes Sosa, in Brazil by Elis Regina and later in the US by Joan Baez. It remains one of the most covered Latin American songs in history. Other notable covers of this tragic, but widely beloved, folk anthem include the Italian guitar-vocal solo of Adriana Mezzadri and La Oreja de Van Gogh at the 2005 Viña del Mar International Song Festival.
It has been treated by classically trained musicians such as in the fully orchestrated rendition by conservatory-trained Alberto Cortez.
The song has been re-recorded by several Latin artists and Canadian Michael Bublé to gather funds for the Chilean people affected by the earthquake in Chile, February 2010.
It opens with a very common shift between A minor and E major chords, then it goes to G7-C/C7 before returning to the Am/E motif.
"Gracias a la vida" was written and recorded in 1964-65 following Parra's separation with her long-time partner. It was released in Las Últimas Composiciones (1966), the last album Parra published before committing suicide in 1967.
Parra's lyrics are ambiguous at first: the song may be read as a romantic celebration of life and individual experience, however the circumstances surrounding the song suggest that Parra also intended the song as a sort of suicide note, thanking life for all it has given her. It may even be read as ironic, pointing out that a life full of good health, opportunity and worldly experience may not offer any consolation to grief and the contradictory nature of the human condition.
Gracias a la vida que me ha dado tanto
Me dio dos luceros que cuando los abro
Perfecto distingo lo negro del blanco
Y en el alto cielo su fondo estrellado
Y en las multitudes el hombre que yo amo
Translated into English:
Thanks to life, which has given me so much
It gave me two bright stars that when I open them,
I perfectly distinguish the black from white
And in the sky above, her starry backdrop
And within the multitudes the man I love
Another highly regarded original, the last song she wrote, "Volver a los Diecisiete" ("Being Seventeen-Old Again") similarly celebrates the themes of youthful life, in tragic contrast to her biography. Unlike much popular music, it moves through minor key progression creating an introspective if not melancholy mood and thus has lent itself to classical treatment as well as popular music.
Despite its originality, Parra's music was deeply rooted in folk song traditions, as is the case with Nueva Canción in general.
Parra committed suicide in 1967 by a gunshot to the head. Several memorials were held after her death, both in Chile and abroad. She was an inspiration for several Latin-American artists, such Victor Jara and the musical movement of the "Nueva Cancion Chilena", which renewed interest in Chilean folklore. In 1992, the Violeta Parra Foundation was founded at the initiative of her children, with the aim to group, organize and disseminate her still-unpublished work. In 1997, with the participation of Violeta Parra Foundation and the Department of Cultural Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile, her visual work was exhibited in the Museum of Decorative Arts of the Louvre Museum, Paris. In 2007, the 90th anniversary of her birth was commemorated with an exhibition of her visual work at the Centro Cultural Palacio La Moneda and the release of a collection of her art work titled, "Visual Work of Violeta Parra".
Violeta Went to Heaven (Spanish: Violeta se fue a los cielos) is a 2011 Chilean biopic about singer and folklorist Violeta Parra, directed by Andrés Wood. The film is based on an eponymous book, a biography, written by Ángel Parra, Violeta's son with Luis Cereceda Arenas. Parra collaborated on the film, The film was selected as the Chilean entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 84th Academy Awards, but it did not make the final shortlist. It was awarded the World Cinema Jury Prize (Dramatic) at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and had good reviews.Jeannette Catsoulis, in The New York Times, wrote:
By turns charming, selfish, passionate and dismissive, Parra (beautifully played by Francisca Gavilán) poured herself into her songs, emotionally resonant wails of romantic pain and social injustice. (...) [and] bulldozed all obstacles.
(...)"Violeta" has a wild, impressionistic tone that prizes emotion over fact. Skipping around in time, the director, Andrés Wood, skates over Parra’s involvement with Communism to focus on a personality awash in contradictions. Husbands and children appear as mere adjuncts to her art, whether dragged around the countryside while she collects traditional songs or abandoned for years while she frolics in Europe with her young lover, the Swiss flautist Gilbert Favre (Thomas Durand).
(...)Mr. Wood has created a poignant portrait of an artist unable to escape the stamp of her class or the burdens of aging. The grand exhibition tent she erects on a hilltop becomes, in the end, an apt metaphor for dashed dreams, its canvas unable to keep out the rain and its empty seats unable to turn back time.
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
Alcalde, Alfonso: Toda Violeta Parra (biography plus anthology of songs and poems) Ediciones de la Flor. Buenos Aires 1974
Escobar, A., 2012. Violeta Parra, una aproximación a la creación interdisciplinaria. Master Thesis. Universitat de Barcelona: Spain. URL: (accessed: 11 August 2014)
MANNS, Patricio. Violeta Parra. Madrid: Júcar, 1978; 2ª ed. 1984
PARRA, Ángel. Violeta se fue a los cielos. Santiago de Chile: Catalonia, 2006
PARRA, Eduardo. Mi hermana Violeta Parra. Su vida y su obra en décimas. Santiago de Chile: LOM, 1998.
PARRA, Isabel. El libro mayor de Violeta Parra. Madrid: Michay, 1985.
PARRA, Violeta. Violeta Parra, Composiciones para guitarra. Eds. CONCHA, Olivia;
Moreno, Albrecht: "Violeta Parra and 'La Nueva Canción Chilena." Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 5 (1986): 108—26.
SUBERCASEAUX, Bernardo y LONDOÑO, Jaime. Gracias A La Vida. Violeta Parra, testimonio. Buenos Aires: Galerna, 1976
Parra was born in San Fabián de Alico, near San Carlos, Ñuble Province, a small town in southern Chile on 4 October 1917, as Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval. Violeta Parra was a member of the prolific Parra family. Among her brothers were the notable modern poet, better known as the "anti-poet", Nicanor Parra, and fellow folklorist Roberto Parra. Her son, Ángel Parra, and her daughter, Isabel Parra, are also important figures in the development of the Nueva Canción Chilena. Their children have also mostly maintained the family's artistic traditions.
Her father was a music teacher and her mother worked on a farm, but sang and played the guitar in her spare time. Two years after Violeta's birth, the family moved to Santiago, then, two years later, to Lautaro and, finally, in 1927, to Chillán. It was in Chillan that Violetta started singing and playing the guitar, together with her siblings Hilda, Eduardo and Roberto; and soon began composing traditional Chilean music.
After Parra's father died in 1929, the life circumstances of her family greatly deteriorated. Violeta and her siblings had to work to help feed the family. In 1932, at the insistence of her brother Nicanor, Parra moved to Santiago to attend the Normal School, staying with relatives. Later, she moved back with her mother and siblings to Edison street, in the Quinta Normal district.
The Parras performed in nightclubs, such as El Tordo Azul and El Popular, in the Mapocho district, interpreting boleros, rancheras, Mexican corridos and other styles. In 1934, she met Luis Cereceda, a railway driver, whom she married four years later, and with whom she had two children. Her husband was a militant communist, and, at his side, Parra became involved in the progressive movement and the Communist Party of Chile, taking part in the presidential campaign of Gabriel González Videla in 1944. Parra began singing songs of Spanish origin, from the repertoire of the famous Argentinian singers Lolita Torres and Imperio Argentina. She sang in restaurants and, also, in theatres, calling herself Violeta de Mayo. In 1945, she appeared with her children Isabel and Angel in a Spanish show in the Casanova confectionery. In 1948, after ten years of marriage, Parra and Luis Cereceda separated. Parra and her sister Hilda began singing together as "The Parra Sisters", and they recorded some of their work on RCA VICTOR. Also in 1946, Violeta met and married Luis Arce. Their daughter Carmen Luisa was born in 1949. Parra continued performing: she appeared in circuses and toured, with Hilda and with her children, throughout Argentina.
In 1952, Parra's second daughter, Rosita Clara, was born. In that same year, driven by her brother Nicanor, Violeta began to collect and collate authentic Chilean folk music from all over the Chile. She abandoned her old repertoire for folk songs, and began composing her own songs based on traditional folk forms. She gave recitals at universities, presented by Enrique Bello Cruz, a founder of cultural magazines. Soon, Parra was invited to the "Summer School" at the University of Concepción. She was also invited to teach courses in folklore at the University of Iquique. In Valparaiso, she was presented at the Chilean-French Institute.
Parra's two singles for EMI-Odeon label: "Que Pena Siente el Alma" and "Verso por el Fin del Mundo", and "Casamiento de Negros" and"Verso por Padecimiento" brought her a good measure of popularity.
Don Isaiah Angulo, a tenant farmer, taught her to play the guitarrón, a traditional Chilean guitar-like instrument with 25 strings.
Along the way, Parra met Pablo Neruda, who introduced her to his friends. In 1970, he would dedicate the poem "Elegia para Cantar" to her.
Between January and September 1954, Parra hosted the immensely successful radio program "Sing Violeta Parra" for Radio Chilena. The program was most often recorded in places where folk music was performed, such as her mother's restaurant in Barrancas. in the end of 1954, Parra participated in another folkloric programme, for Radio Agriculture.
Violeta was invited to the "World Festival of Youth and Students", in Warsaw, Poland, in July 1955. She then moved to Paris, France, where she performed at the nightclub "L'Escale" in the Quartier Latin. Meanwhile, back in Santiago her daughter Rosita Clara died. Violeta made contacts with European artists and intellectuals. Through the intervention of the anthropologist Paul Rivet she recorded at the National Sound Archive of the "Musée de l'Homme" La Sorbonne in Paris, where she left a guitarrón and tapes of her collections of Chilean folklore. She travelled to London to make recordings for EMI-Odeon and radio broadcasts from the BBC. Back in Paris, in March 1956, she recorded 16 songs for the French label "Chant du Monde" which launches its first two records with 8 songs each.
In November 1956, Violeta returned to Chile, and recorded the first LP of the series "The folklore of Chile" for the EMI Odeon label: "Violeta Parra and her guitar" which included three of her own compositions. In 1957 she followed with "La cueca" and "La tonada" (EMI Odeón) and "Composiciones de Violeta Parra".
In the following years she built her house “Casa de Palos” on Segovia Street, in the municipality of La Reina. She continued giving recitals in major cultural centers in Santiago, travelling all over the country to research, organize concerts and give lectures and workshops about folklore. She travelled north to investigate and record the pagan religious festival "La Tirana". Violeta Perra exerted a significant influence on Héctor Pavez and Gabriela Pizarro, who would become great performers and researchers in their own right. The product of this collaboration is evident in the play "La Celebración de la Minga" staged at the Teatro Municipal de Santiago.
She composed the music for the documentary "Wicker" and "Trilla", contributed to the film "Casamiento de negros", performed by Sergio Bravo.
She wrote the book "Cantos Foklóricos Chilean" which gathered all the research conducted so far, with photographs by Sergio Larraín and musical scores performed by Soublette Gaston (Santiago, Nascimento, 1979). She also wrote the "Décimas autobiográficas", work in verse recounting her from her childhood to her trip to Europe.
She started a serious interest in ceramics, painting and arpillera embroidery As a result of a severe hepatitis in 1959 that forced her to stay in bed, her work as a painter and arpillerista was developed greatly, so much so that the same year she exhibited her oil paintings and arpilleras at the First and also the Second Outdoor Exhibition of Fine Arts of the Forest Park. On 4 October 1960, the day of her birthday, she met Swiss flautist Gilbert Favre with whom she became romantically involved. In 1961 she traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she exhibited her paintings, appearing in TV, giving recitals at the Teatro IFT and recording an album of original songs for EMI Odeon - which was banned.
In June 1962 she returned to Santiago. With her children Isabel and Angel, and her granddaughter Tita, she embarked, with the Chilean delegation, for Finland to participate in the 8th "World Festival of Youth and Students" held in Helsinki. After touring the Soviet Union, Germany, Italy and France, Violeta Parra moved to Paris, where she performed at La Candelaria and L'Escale, in the Latin Quarter, gave recitals at the "Théâtre Des Nations" of UNESCO and performed on radio and television with her children. Then she started living with Gilbert Favre in Geneva, dividing her time between France and Switzerland, where she also gave concerts, appeared in TV and exhibited her art.
In 1963 she recorded in Paris, revolutionary and peasant songs, which would be published in 1971 under the title "Songs rediscovered in Paris" She wrote the book "Popular Poetry of the Andes". The Parras took part in the concert of "L'Humanité" (official newspaper of the French Communist Party). An Argentine musician friend recorded at her home a version of "El Gavilán" ("The Hawk"),interpreted by Violeta Parra accompanied by her granddaughter on percussion. Violeta accompanied her children in the LP "Los Parra de Chillán" for the Barclay label. She began playing the cuatro, an instrument of Venezuelan origin, and the charango, an instrument of the high plateaus.
In April 1964 she did an exhibition of her arpilleras, oil paintings and wire sculptures in the Museum of Decorative Arts of the Louvre - the first solo exhibition of a Latin American artist at the museum. In 1965, the publisher François Maspero, Paris, published her book "Poésie Populaire des Andes". In Geneva, Swiss television made a documentary about the artist and her work, "Violeta Parra, Chilean Embroiderer".
Favre and Parra returned to South America, in June 1965. Violeta recorded two 45s, one with her daughter Isabel and another to instrumental music for cuatro and quena with Gilbert Favre, whom she christened "El Tocador Afuerino" (The outsider musician) Her music now incorporated the Venezuelan cuatro and the charango from the plateaus of the northern. The EMI Odeon circulated the LP "Remembering Chile (a Chilean in Paris)," whose cover was illustrated with her own arpilleras.
However, Favre and Parra broke up, provoked by his desire to live in Bolivia where he was part of a successful Bolivian music act, Los Jairas.
Parra’s energy was invested in reviving a unique version of the Peña (now known as La Peña de Los Parra), a community center for the arts and for political activism. Some have stated she established the first 'peña', but as said by the RAE, places such as these had been called that at least since 1936.
Parra’s Peña was a tent (somewhat similar looking to a circus tent) that she set up on a 30 x 30 meter piece of land in the Parque La Quintrala, at number 340 Carmen Street, in today’s La Reina municipality of Santiago, in the area once known as la Cañada. Her tent hosted musical spectacles where she often sang with her children, and she and her children also lived on the same land. In La Reina, at La Cañada 7200, she also established a cultural center called "La Carpa de la Reina" inaugurated on 17 December 1965. She also installed a folk peña in the International Fair of Santiago (FISA), where she was invited. On the same year, she participated in numerous national television programs and signed a contract with Radio Minería which would be the last radio station to be used as a platform for her work.
Under the EMi Odeón label, in 1966 was released the LP "La Carpa de La Reina" featuring three songs performed by Violeta Parra and nine by guest artists announced at the carpa by Violeta herself. She travelled to La Paz, Bolivia, to meet with Gilbert Favre, where she regularly appeared in the Peña. She came back to Chile with Altiplano groups, presenting them in her carpa, on television and in her children's Peña. She also performed in concert at the Chilean southern cities of Osorno and Punta Arenas, invited by René Largo Farias, under the "Chile Ríe y Canta" ("Chile Laughs and Sings") program. Accompanied by her children and Uruguayan Alberto Zapicán, she recorded for RCA Victor the LP "The Last Compositions of Violeta Parra". In that year, Favre returned briefly to Chile with his group, but declined to stay, because in the meantime he had established a life and married in Bolivia.
Her most renowned song, Gracias a la Vida (Thanks to Life), was popularized throughout Latin America by Mercedes Sosa, in Brazil by Elis Regina and later in the US by Joan Baez. It remains one of the most covered Latin American songs in history. Other notable covers of this tragic, but widely beloved, folk anthem include the Italian guitar-vocal solo of Adriana Mezzadri and La Oreja de Van Gogh at the 2005 Viña del Mar International Song Festival.
It has been treated by classically trained musicians such as in the fully orchestrated rendition by conservatory-trained Alberto Cortez.
The song has been re-recorded by several Latin artists and Canadian Michael Bublé to gather funds for the Chilean people affected by the earthquake in Chile, February 2010.
It opens with a very common shift between A minor and E major chords, then it goes to G7-C/C7 before returning to the Am/E motif.
"Gracias a la vida" was written and recorded in 1964-65 following Parra's separation with her long-time partner. It was released in Las Últimas Composiciones (1966), the last album Parra published before committing suicide in 1967.
Parra's lyrics are ambiguous at first: the song may be read as a romantic celebration of life and individual experience, however the circumstances surrounding the song suggest that Parra also intended the song as a sort of suicide note, thanking life for all it has given her. It may even be read as ironic, pointing out that a life full of good health, opportunity and worldly experience may not offer any consolation to grief and the contradictory nature of the human condition.
Gracias a la vida que me ha dado tanto
Me dio dos luceros que cuando los abro
Perfecto distingo lo negro del blanco
Y en el alto cielo su fondo estrellado
Y en las multitudes el hombre que yo amo
Translated into English:
Thanks to life, which has given me so much
It gave me two bright stars that when I open them,
I perfectly distinguish the black from white
And in the sky above, her starry backdrop
And within the multitudes the man I love
Another highly regarded original, the last song she wrote, "Volver a los Diecisiete" ("Being Seventeen-Old Again") similarly celebrates the themes of youthful life, in tragic contrast to her biography. Unlike much popular music, it moves through minor key progression creating an introspective if not melancholy mood and thus has lent itself to classical treatment as well as popular music.
Despite its originality, Parra's music was deeply rooted in folk song traditions, as is the case with Nueva Canción in general.
Parra committed suicide in 1967 by a gunshot to the head. Several memorials were held after her death, both in Chile and abroad. She was an inspiration for several Latin-American artists, such Victor Jara and the musical movement of the "Nueva Cancion Chilena", which renewed interest in Chilean folklore. In 1992, the Violeta Parra Foundation was founded at the initiative of her children, with the aim to group, organize and disseminate her still-unpublished work. In 1997, with the participation of Violeta Parra Foundation and the Department of Cultural Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile, her visual work was exhibited in the Museum of Decorative Arts of the Louvre Museum, Paris. In 2007, the 90th anniversary of her birth was commemorated with an exhibition of her visual work at the Centro Cultural Palacio La Moneda and the release of a collection of her art work titled, "Visual Work of Violeta Parra".
Violeta Went to Heaven (Spanish: Violeta se fue a los cielos) is a 2011 Chilean biopic about singer and folklorist Violeta Parra, directed by Andrés Wood. The film is based on an eponymous book, a biography, written by Ángel Parra, Violeta's son with Luis Cereceda Arenas. Parra collaborated on the film, The film was selected as the Chilean entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 84th Academy Awards, but it did not make the final shortlist. It was awarded the World Cinema Jury Prize (Dramatic) at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and had good reviews.Jeannette Catsoulis, in The New York Times, wrote:
By turns charming, selfish, passionate and dismissive, Parra (beautifully played by Francisca Gavilán) poured herself into her songs, emotionally resonant wails of romantic pain and social injustice. (...) [and] bulldozed all obstacles.
(...)"Violeta" has a wild, impressionistic tone that prizes emotion over fact. Skipping around in time, the director, Andrés Wood, skates over Parra’s involvement with Communism to focus on a personality awash in contradictions. Husbands and children appear as mere adjuncts to her art, whether dragged around the countryside while she collects traditional songs or abandoned for years while she frolics in Europe with her young lover, the Swiss flautist Gilbert Favre (Thomas Durand).
(...)Mr. Wood has created a poignant portrait of an artist unable to escape the stamp of her class or the burdens of aging. The grand exhibition tent she erects on a hilltop becomes, in the end, an apt metaphor for dashed dreams, its canvas unable to keep out the rain and its empty seats unable to turn back time.
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
Alcalde, Alfonso: Toda Violeta Parra (biography plus anthology of songs and poems) Ediciones de la Flor. Buenos Aires 1974
Escobar, A., 2012. Violeta Parra, una aproximación a la creación interdisciplinaria. Master Thesis. Universitat de Barcelona: Spain. URL:
MANNS, Patricio. Violeta Parra. Madrid: Júcar, 1978; 2ª ed. 1984
PARRA, Ángel. Violeta se fue a los cielos. Santiago de Chile: Catalonia, 2006
PARRA, Eduardo. Mi hermana Violeta Parra. Su vida y su obra en décimas. Santiago de Chile: LOM, 1998.
PARRA, Isabel. El libro mayor de Violeta Parra. Madrid: Michay, 1985.
PARRA, Violeta. Violeta Parra, Composiciones para guitarra. Eds. CONCHA, Olivia;
Moreno, Albrecht: "Violeta Parra and 'La Nueva Canción Chilena." Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 5 (1986): 108—26.
SUBERCASEAUX, Bernardo y LONDOÑO, Jaime. Gracias A La Vida. Violeta Parra, testimonio. Buenos Aires: Galerna, 1976
Según El Favor Del Viento
Violeta Parra Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Según el favor del viento
Va navegando el leñero
Atrás quedaron las rucas
Para llegar hasta el puerto
Corra sur o corra norte
La baquichuela guimiendo
Llorando estoy
Según el favor del viento
Me voy, me voy
Del norte viene el Pellin
Que colorea en cubierta
Habrá que venderlo en Castro
Aunque la lluvia esté abierta
O queme el sol de lo alto
Como un infierno sin puerta
Llorando estoy
O la mar este revuelta
Me voy , me voy
En un rincón de la barca
Está hirviendo la tetera
A un lado pelando papas
Las manos de alguna isleña
Será la madre del indio
La hermana o la compañera
Llorando estoy
Navegan lunas enteras
Me voy, me voy
No es vida la de un chilote
No tiene letra ni pleito
Tamango lleva en sus pies
Mikao y aji en su cuerpo
Pellin para calentarse
Del frío de los inviernos
Llorando estoy
Que le quebrantan los huesos
Me voy, me voy
Quisiera morir cantando
Dentro de un barco leñero
Y cultivar en sus aguas
Un libro más justiciero
Con letras de oro que digan
No hay padre para el isleño
Llorando estoy
Ni viento pa' su leñero
Me voy, me voy
Ni viento pa' su leñero
Me voy, me voy
Va navegando el leñero
Atrás quedaron las rucas
Para llegar hasta el puerto
Corra sur o corra norte
La baquichuela guimiendo
Llorando estoy
Según el favor del viento
Del norte viene el Pellin
Que colorea en cubierta
Habrá que venderlo en Castro
Aunque la lluvia esté abierta
O queme el sol de lo alto
Como un infierno sin puerta
Llorando estoy
O la mar este revuelta
Me voy , me voy
En un rincón de la barca
Está hirviendo la tetera
A un lado pelando papas
Las manos de alguna isleña
Será la madre del indio
La hermana o la compañera
Llorando estoy
Navegan lunas enteras
Me voy, me voy
No es vida la de un chilote
No tiene letra ni pleito
Tamango lleva en sus pies
Mikao y aji en su cuerpo
Pellin para calentarse
Del frío de los inviernos
Llorando estoy
Que le quebrantan los huesos
Me voy, me voy
Quisiera morir cantando
Dentro de un barco leñero
Y cultivar en sus aguas
Un libro más justiciero
Con letras de oro que digan
No hay padre para el isleño
Llorando estoy
Ni viento pa' su leñero
Me voy, me voy
Ni viento pa' su leñero
Me voy, me voy
The song "Según El Favor Del Viento" by Violeta Parra tells the story of a woodcutter who sails on the sea to sell his wood in the town of Castro. The woodcutter leaves behind his humble house and family to navigate the unpredictable sea, where he encounters both good and bad weather conditions. The woodcutter's journey is not an easy one, and he struggles to keep his spirits up despite the hardships he faces. The woodcutter is accompanied on his journey by other sailors who share his struggles. They cook, eat, and sleep together in a cramped boat where they find solace in each other's company.
The song reflects the challenging life of Chilean woodcutters who had to endure harsh weather conditions and arduous journeys to sell their wood. The woodcutters' lives were characterized by poverty, isolation, and a constant struggle for survival. Violeta Parra's song captures the resilience and determination of the woodcutters who continued to brave the sea despite the odds they faced.
Line by Line Meaning
Según el favor del viento
The direction of the wind determines where the lumberman goes
Va navegando el leñero
The lumberman sails on his boat
Atrás quedaron las rucas
The lumberman has left his hut behind
Para llegar hasta el puerto
He's traveling to the port
Corra sur o corra norte
Whether he's sailing south or north
La baquichuela guimiendo
The boat creaks and groans
Llorando estoy
The lumberman cries
Me voy, me voy
He says that he must go
Del norte viene el Pellin
Pellin, a type of fish, is coming from the north
Que colorea en cubierta
Its bright colors can be seen on the deck
Habrá que venderlo en Castro
The lumberman plans to sell it in Castro
Aunque la lluvia esté abierta
Even if the rain is pouring down
O queme el sol de lo alto
Or if the sun is burning hot
Como un infierno sin puerta
Like a hell without an exit
En un rincón de la barca
In a corner of the boat
Está hirviendo la tetera
The kettle is boiling
A un lado pelando papas
Someone is peeling potatoes on one side
Las manos de alguna isleña
Perhaps a woman from one of the nearby islands
Será la madre del indio
She could be the mother of the Indian
La hermana o la compañera
Or his sister or companion
Navegan lunas enteras
They sail for entire moons
No es vida la de un chilote
The life of a Chilote is not easy
No tiene letra ni pleito
They have no wealth or arguments with others
Tamango lleva en sus pies
Tamango, a type of grass, is on their feet
Mikao y aji en su cuerpo
Mikao and aji, two types of chili, are in their body
Pellin para calentarse
They use Pellin to warm themselves up
Del frío de los inviernos
To protect themselves from the cold of the winters
Que le quebrantan los huesos
That can break their bones
Quisiera morir cantando
The lumberman wants to die singing
Dentro de un barco leñero
While on a lumberman's boat
Y cultivar en sus aguas
And cultivate justice in the waters
Un libro más justiciero
A book that is more just
Con letras de oro que digan
With golden words that say
No hay padre para el isleño
The islander has no father
Ni viento pa' su leñero
Nor wind for his lumberman's boat
Me voy, me voy
He repeats that he's leaving
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
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f q.o
Según el favor del viento
Va navegando el leñero
Atrás quedaron las rucas
Para entrar en el puerto
Corra sur o corra norte
La barquichuela gimiendo
Llorando estoy
Sea con hambre o con sueño
Me voy, me voy
Del norte viene el pellín
Que colorea en cubierta
Habrán de venderlo en castro
Aunque la lluvia esté abierta
O queme el sol de lo alto
Como un infierno sin puerta
Llorando estoy
O la mar está revuelta
Me voy, me voy
En un rincón de la barca
Está hirviendo la tetera
A un lado pelando papas
Las manos de alguna isleña
Será la madre del indio
La novia o la compañera
Llorando estoy
Navegan lunas enteras
Me voy, me voy
No es vida la del chilote
No tiene letra ni pleito
Tamango llevan sus pies
Milcao y ají su cuerpo
Pellín para calentarse
Del frío de los gobiernos
Llorando estoy
Que le quebrantan los huesos
Me voy, me voy
¡Despierte el hombre, despierte
Despierte por un momento
Despierte toda la patria
Antes que se abran los cielos
Y venga el trueno furioso
Con el clarín de san pedro
Llorando estoy
Y barra los ministerios
Me voy, me voy
Quisiera morir cantando
Sobre de un barco leñero
Y cultivar en sus aguas
Un libro más justiciero
Con letras de oro que diga
No hay padre para el isleño
Llorando estoy
Ni viento pa su leñero
Me voy, me voy
ov mc
Según el favor del viento
Va navegando el leñero
Atrás quedaron las rucas
Para llegar hasta el puerto
Corra sur o corra norte
La baquichuela guimiendo
Llorando estoy
Según el favor del viento
Me voy, me voy
Del norte viene el Pellin
Que colorea en cubierta
Habrá que venderlo en Castro
Aunque la lluvia esté abierta
O queme el sol de lo alto
Como un infierno sin puerta
Llorando estoy
O la mar este revuelta
Me voy , me voy
En un rincón de la barca
Está hirviendo la tetera
A un lado pelando papas
Las manos de alguna isleña
Será la madre del indio
La hermana o la compañera
Llorando estoy
Navegan lunas enteras
Me voy, me voy
No es vida la de un chilote
No tiene letra ni pleito
Tamango lleva en sus pies
Mikao y aji en su cuerpo
Pellin para calentarse
Del frío de los inviernos
Llorando estoy
Que le quebrantan los huesos
Me voy, me voy
Quisiera morir cantando
Dentro de un barco leñero
Y cultivar en sus aguas
Un libro más justiciero
Con letras de oro que digan
No hay padre para el isleño
Llorando estoy
Ni viento pa' su leñero
Me voy, me voy
Ni viento pa' su leñero
Me voy, me voy
Deborah Diaz
segun el favor del viento
va navegando el leñero,
atras quedaron las rucas
pa adentrarse en el puerto.
corra sur o corra norte
la barquicha va gimiendo llorando estoy,
sea con hambre o con sueño me voy, me voy
del norte viene el pellin,
que colorea en cubierta
habra de venderlo en castro
aunque la lluvia este abierta
o queme el sol de lo alto
como un infierno sin puertas, llorando estoy
o la mar etse revuelta me voy, me voy
en un rincon de la barca
esta hirviendo la tetera,
a un lado pelando papas
las manos de una isleña.
sera la madre del indio
la hermana o la compañera.
llorando estoy, navegando lunas enteras
me voy, me voy
chupando su matecito
o bien su pescado seco,
acurrucado en su lancha
va meditando el isleño,
no sabe que hay otro mundo
de raza y de terciopelo,
llorando estoy que se burla
del invierno me voy, me voy
no es vida la del chilote
no tiene letra ni pleito
tamango lleva en sus pies,
milkao y aji en su cuerpo
pellin para calentarse
del frio de los gobiernos
llorando estoy
que le quebrantan los
huesos me voy, me voy
quisiera morir cantando
sobre d eun barco leñero,
y cultivar en sus aguas
un libro mas justiciero,
con letras de oro que digan
no hay patria para el isleño
llorando estoy, ni viento pa
sus leñeros me voy, me voy
con su carita de lenta,
que viene a vender al puerto,
compra un kilo de azucar para
endulzar sus tormentos
y hasta su cabo de velas,
para alumbrar sus recuerdos
llorando estoy,segun el favor
del viento me voy, me voy.
Tomado de AlbumCancionYLetra.com
despierte, el hombre despierte
despierte por un momento
despierte toda la patria
antes de que se abran los cielos
y venga el trueno furioso
con el clarin de san pedro
llorando estoy y borra los
ministerio me voy me voy.
Sofia Paz
El youtuber que se llama Ignacio es mi papá😜😍
Gerald Wilson Romero Reyes
sin duda tienes un buen padre
f q.o
Según el favor del viento
Va navegando el leñero
Atrás quedaron las rucas
Para entrar en el puerto
Corra sur o corra norte
La barquichuela gimiendo
Llorando estoy
Sea con hambre o con sueño
Me voy, me voy
Del norte viene el pellín
Que colorea en cubierta
Habrán de venderlo en castro
Aunque la lluvia esté abierta
O queme el sol de lo alto
Como un infierno sin puerta
Llorando estoy
O la mar está revuelta
Me voy, me voy
En un rincón de la barca
Está hirviendo la tetera
A un lado pelando papas
Las manos de alguna isleña
Será la madre del indio
La novia o la compañera
Llorando estoy
Navegan lunas enteras
Me voy, me voy
No es vida la del chilote
No tiene letra ni pleito
Tamango llevan sus pies
Milcao y ají su cuerpo
Pellín para calentarse
Del frío de los gobiernos
Llorando estoy
Que le quebrantan los huesos
Me voy, me voy
¡Despierte el hombre, despierte
Despierte por un momento
Despierte toda la patria
Antes que se abran los cielos
Y venga el trueno furioso
Con el clarín de san pedro
Llorando estoy
Y barra los ministerios
Me voy, me voy
Quisiera morir cantando
Sobre de un barco leñero
Y cultivar en sus aguas
Un libro más justiciero
Con letras de oro que diga
No hay padre para el isleño
Llorando estoy
Ni viento pa su leñero
Me voy, me voy
Helena B Arcas
Yo naci en el pais vecino donde hay un "gran nombre" de cantora folklórica famosa internacional, quien ya no vive. En su repertorio, interpretó varias obras de Violeta. Pero para mí, no hay cantora ni compositora que supere a Violeta Parra en Hispanoamerica, aunque injustamente no haya sido reconocida, y esta cancion es unica en su fuerza, su pasion, realmente inolvidable, gracias por compartir.
69miosmios
Soy Mexicano pero desde que tenia 15(ahora tengo 44)mi tio compro un disco con canciones de Violeta Parra y a pesar de que en mi juventud yo escuchaba solo musica disco y algunas cumbias, al escuchar las canciones de Violeta su mensaje penetro hasta lo mas profundo de mi corazon y me abrio la mente para poder apreciar lo mas puro de los sentimientos de un ser humano, la letra en las canciones de Violeta Parra encierran una grande y muy profunda filosofia que hacen vibrar todo mi ser. Gran Mujer.
María José Álvarez Vásquez
69miosmios z
valentina aucapan
Es verdad... Yo la escuchaba cuando niña porque mi madre era y es fans de violeta. Antes no le ponía atención a sus letras ni el sonido de su guitarra, pero ahora tengo 38 y realmente me estaba perdiendo su música y sus mensajes... Saludos!!!
CriX
Me hubiese encantado preguntarte
absolmute
yo soy hijo de Guatemaltecos inmigrantes a Canada.. llevo toda mi vida escuchando a Violeta, Victory y Inti Illimani.. me siento igual que vos
我吃面
Visité Chiloé hace unos meses. Mi mejor amigo de infancia en Suiza tiene sus orígenes chilenas en Chiloé, entonces cuando viajé por Latinoamérica, tuve que visitar esta isla legendaria. De verdad unas de las regiones más lindas y especiales que he visto
Qué vive el pueblo chilote, que vive Chile!
Un día, venceremos
Saludos desde mi otra patria, las Filipinas