Violeta Parra

Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval (4 October 1917 – 5 February 1967) was a Chilean composer, singer-songwriter, folklorist, ethnomusicologist and visual artist. She pioneered the Nueva Canción Chilena (The Chilean New Song), a renewal and a reinvention of Chilean folk music that would extend its sphere of influence outside Chile.

Her birthdate (4 October) was chosen as "Chilean Musicians' Day." In 2011, Andrés Wood directed a biopic about her, titled Violeta Went to Heaven (Spanish: Violeta se fue a los cielos).

Early life

There is some uncertainty as to exactly where Violeta Parra was born. The stamp on her birth certificate says she was born in San Carlos, Ñuble Province, a small town in southern Chile on 4 October 1917, as Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval. However, both the Violeta Parra Foundation (Fundación Violeta Parra) and the Violeta Parra Museum (Museo Violeta Parra) state on their websites that she was born in San Fabián de Alico, 40 km from San Carlos.

Violeta Parra was one of nine children in the prolific Parra family. Her father, Nicanor Parra Alarcón, was a music teacher. Her mother, Clarisa Sandoval Navarrete had grown up in the countryside and was a seamstress. She sang and played the guitar, and taught Violeta and her siblings traditional folk songs. Among her brothers were the notable modern poet, better known as the "anti-poet," Nicanor Parra (1914–2018), and fellow folklorist Roberto Parra (1921–1995). 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.

Violeta Parra and some of her siblings would perform in Chillán and local towns to help support their family. Her father's lack of success in his own music career led to alcoholism. 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 Chillán that Violeta started singing and playing the guitar, together with her siblings Hilda, Eduardo and Roberto; and soon began composing traditional Chilean music.

Parra's father died in 1930 from tuberculosis, and her family's quality of life 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.

Musical career

In the beginning of her career, there was a greater interest in Eurocentric music by the vast majority of the population in Chile.

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.

Parra took a break from her musical career in 1938 to start a family. In 1944, Parra started to perform again under the name "Violeta de Mayo" (Violeta of May or May Violet). 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. In 1945, she appeared with her children Isabel and Angel in a Spanish show in the Casanova confectionery.

Parra and her sister Hilda began singing together as "The Parra Sisters," and they recorded some of their work on RCA VICTOR. Parra continued performing: she appeared in circuses and toured with Hilda and with her children throughout Argentina.

The folklorist

In 1952, encouraged by her brother Nicanor, Violeta began to collect and collate authentic Chilean folk music from all over the country. She abandoned her old folk-song repertoire and began composing her own songs based on traditional folk forms. She gave recitals at universities, presented by the well-known literary figure Enrique Bello Cruz, founder of several 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. At the end of 1954, Parra participated in another folkloric program for Radio Agriculture.

First trip to Europe

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.

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" 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 launched its first two records with 8 songs each.

Return to Chile

In November 1957, 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 (Canto y Guitarra), which included three of her own compositions. She followed with the second volume of The Folklore of Chile in 1958, Acompañada de Guitarra. In 1959, she released La cueca and La tonada. The following year, she founded the National Museum of Folkloric Art (Museo Nacional de Arte Folklórico) in Concepción, under the University of Concepción (Universidad de Concepción). During this time, she composed many décimas, a Latin American poetry form for which she is well known.

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 religious festival "La Tirana."

Violeta Parra 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 documentaries Wicker and Trilla, and contributed to the film Casamiento de negros, performed by Sergio Bravo.

She wrote the book Cantos Folklóricos Chilenos, which gathered all the research conducted so far, with photographs by Sergio Larraín and musical scores performed by Gastón Soublette (Santiago, Nascimento, 1979). She also wrote the Décimas autobiográficas, work in verse recounting her life from her childhood to her trip to Europe.

On 4 October 1960, the day of her birthday, she met Swiss clarinetist Gilbert Favre with whom she became romantically involved. In 1961, she traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she exhibited her paintings, appeared on TV, gave recitals at the Teatro IFT, and recorded an album of original songs for EMI Odeon – which was banned.