Victor Jara

Víctor Lidio Jara Martínez was a Chilean teacher, theater director, poet, singer-songwriter, and political activist. A committed Communist, he directed a wide range of theatrical works, from locally produced plays to world classics and experimental drama by writers such as Ann Jellicoe, and became one of the leading figures of the neo-folkloric movement that established the Nueva canción chilena. That movement fueled a resurgence of politically engaged popular music during the presidency of Salvador Allende. Jara was arrested by the Chilean military the day after the 11 September 1973 coup led by Augusto Pinochet, which overthrew Allende. Jara was beaten and tortured over several days of detention at Chile Stadium in Santiago, and was ultimately shot dead; his body, bearing 44 bullet wounds, was dumped in the street of a nearby shantytown. The contrast between the themes of his songs—love, peace, and social justice—and the brutality of his death turned Jara into a "potent symbol of struggle for human rights and justice" for the victims of the Pinochet dictatorship. From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Víctor_...) under Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...)