Episode #8 - Nueva Canción

Mercedes Sosa, Victor Jara, Violeta Parra, Atahualpa Yapanqui and more.

Nueva Canción (which translates simply as “New Song”) was a genre of music that developed throughout Latin America in the 1960s - primarily in Chile, Argentina and Cuba. Artists like Violeta Parra, Atahualpa Yapanqui, Victor Jara, Silvio Rodriguez and Mercedes Sosa raised their voices and lifted their guitars to bring awareness to the plight of their compatriots and advocate for change. Their music, according to author Jan Fairley was linked by a “common attitude, a commitment to improve living conditions for the majority of people in Latin America, a reluctance to accept inequality as inevitable, and a desire to see everyone share in the wealth and potential of their country and continent.”

On a musical level, Nueva Cancion renewed an interest in folkloric traditions, uniting indigenous sounds with modern poetry and songwriting. This generation of artists risked their lives singing about injustice, oppression and a dream of a better reality. In some cases the music was so powerful, so threatening to their respective governments that some Nueva Canción artists were forced to flee their countries... Some were tormented or murdered. In 1969, Salvador Allende, the president of the Popular Unity government of Chilé celebrated his election with a festival of music. Nueva cancioneros gathered with the president at a Santiago basketball stadium under a banner reading “There can be no revolution without songs.”

There can be no revolution without songs.

This week on Sonic Latitudes. Nueva Canción. The powerful, poetic, revolutionary music of Latin America. Our show starts with one of the most defining moments of the Nueva Canción movement. In 1973, after 4 years of Salvador Allende’s reign at the helm of a government focused on the common good, a military coupe backed by the U.S. government and corporations who feared the spread of socialist revolutions throughout Latin America toppled Allende’s regime. On Sept. 11, 1973, Victor Jara, who was just 35 years old, was arrested by the military who opposed Allende’s Popular Unity government. He was taken to a stadium in central Santiago, Chile, with hundreds of others on the Chilean left, and tortured, his hands broken, finally murdered and dumped outside a cemetery. Victory Jara was gone, but his unstoppable spirit and ideas would endure through his music. We begin with the a song by Quilapayún, El Pueblo Unido Jamas Será Vencido (The United Community Will Not Be Defeated).