Search - Victor Jara :: Vientos Del Pueblo

Chile's Pete Seeger & Woody Guthrie!

Gerrie Casey | Manhattan, New York | 01/18/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the best way to understand the profound social importance and musical beauty of Victor Jara's songs. This album contains songs Victor wrote before & during the days of the Popular Unity government of President Salvador Allende (1970-1973). Each song documents the struggles of peasants and working people; including love songs, lullabies and celebrations of nature. Victor Jara was a visionary and a communist. He was jailed, tortured and then killed by the facist military dictatorship that toppled Allende's democractially-elected government in September, 1973. Documents from the Watergate Trial of Richard Nixon proved that the U.S. government, especially President Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and the multi-national corporation, ITT paid for the military coup and trained the fascist junta of General Pinochet. After the military Junta assasinated President Allende, they rounded up thousands of activists and detained them in the National Stadium in Santiago, where thousands of people were tortured and killed. When the military junta realized that the famous musician Victor Jara was one of the captured activists, they cut-off both of Victor's hands and taunted him, daring him to sing if he could. And Victor Jara did sing, once more, to all the prisoners in the stadium, until they shot him dead. That is quite an indication of how powerful Victor Jara's music and vision were. In the U.S. Pete Seeger spoke about Allende and Victor Jara, singing his songs on national tours. Interested listeners can also listen to the song Arlo Guthrie wrote about Chile's blessed poet/musican: "Victor Jara of Chile" and Holly Near's song, "It could Have Been Me.""

To the reviewer below

Gerrie Casey | 01/07/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I think people who appreciate this music know who is making a fool of themselves (see next review). The music on this disc represents an important period in Chile's history and an important milestone in the development of La Nueva Cancion. The CD includes many of Victor's best songs and is a perfect introduction to his work. Pick this one up before any others."

The voice of the Chilean people

Gerrie Casey | 08/04/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's extremely difficult to listen to this record without getting tears in your eyes. The whole period of the democratic Allende period in Chile and the hope that it instirred in the people is reflected in the music by this heroic man. Juan sin tierra is a good example of this period of nueva cancion. Before the horror came and this man was killed during the 1st week of the Pinochet regime. The music lives on, and the memories."