Violeta Parra
| Violeta Parra | |
|---|---|
Violeta Parra in the 1960s
|
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval |
| Born |
4 October 1917 San Carlos, Chile |
| Origin | San Carlos, Chile |
| Died | 5 February 1967 (aged 49) Santiago, Chile |
| Genres | Folk, experimental, nueva canción |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, Visual arts |
| Instruments | Vocals, Guitar, Charango, Cuatro, Percussion |
| Years active | 1939 – 1967 |
| Labels |
EMI-Odeon Alerce Warner Music Group (all posthumous) |
| Associated acts | Víctor Jara, Quilapayún, Inti-Illimani, Patricio Manns, Illapu, Ángel Parra, Isabel Parra, Roberto Parra, Sergio Ortega, Margot Loyola, Pablo Neruda, Nicanor Parra, Soledad Bravo, Daniel Viglietti, Mercedes Sosa, Joan Baez, Holly Near, Elis Regina, Dean Reed, Silvio Rodríguez |
| Website | Official Website |
Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval (4 October 1917 – 5 February 1967) was a Chilean composer, songwriter, folklorist, ethnomusicologist and visual artist. She pioneered the "Chilean' New Song", the Nueva canción chilena, a renewal and a reinvention of Chilean folk music which would extend its sphere of influence outside Chile, becoming acknowledged as "The Mother of Latin American folk". In 2011 Andrés Wood directed a biopic about her, titled Violeta Went to Heaven (Spanish: Violeta se fue a los cielos).
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 Chillán that Violeta 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.
...
Wikipedia