Welcome to The Cahokian... A thousand years ago Cahokia — across the Mississippi from what is now St. Louis — was one of the biggest cities in the world. Now it's an empty green spot next to the highway. I'm a middle-aged gay man living in New York City, center of the world, future footnote on somebody's future map. Welcome to the new world.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
The Tragedy of Victor Jara
This song always makes me weepy, and I just discovered this haunting video on youtube. Victor Jara was a revolutionary Chilean singer who was murdered after the Pinochet coup of 1973. He was actually the biggest Chilean pop star, and his murder at the hands of the US/CIA-backed junta should have shocked the world. This song, "Vamos por ancho camino" (We're going by the wide road) is a poetic metaphor for the Chilean socialists' doomed strategy of popular front; uniting all the segments of society behind their broad banner, and tragically opening the door for the coup and the right-wing resurgance which lasted decades. The song, with its Andean flutes and percussion, recorded long before they became cliched, evokes hopeful innocence, belied by its future soon to be drowned in blood.
May Victor Jara always be remembered.
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Victor Jara was gay, as you probably know, and he was no probably killed because of that, although many other reasons exist for the murder of this amazing human being. Pleas visit my website, http://www.thepoweroftheirsong.org, to learn more. I hope to finish the film this year, but need funding. Comments are always welcome. Best regards, John Summa
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ReplyDeleteVictor Jara was gay, as you probably know, and he was no [doubt]probably killed because of that, although many other reasons exist for the murder of this amazing human being. Pleas[e] visit my website, http://www.thepoweroftheirsong.org, to learn more. I hope to finish the film this year, but need funding. Comments are always welcome. Best regards, John Summa
John, call me clueless but I had no idea about Victor Jara being gay. How interesting! Thanks. I'll check out your site.
ReplyDeleteMy mistake about Victor. It was Chilean singer-songwriter Ricardo Alarcon, who died in 1973, who was gay. Victor Jara was NOT gay, but the fascist coup plotters used homophobia against him and many other artists on the left. Victor was brutally tortured and executed following the 9/11/73 coup in Chile. You can learn more at my film website www.vjvive.com. Cheers!
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