photo courtesy of Memoria Chilena
Violeta Parra needs no introduction in Latin America: not only did she record the greatest album in Chilean history, she also collected two thousand folk songs, danced in the Poor Circus, sang in the streets, and –incredibly– exhibited at the Louvre. Over the years she also broke …*checks notes*… 48 guitars over people’s heads.
Discover the larger than life story of Violeta Parra with our guest Ericka Verba, author of Thanks to Life, A Biography of Violeta Parra. And Find Ericka Verba’s incredible Spotify playlist to accompany the book here.
Memoria Chilena
Memoria Chilena
photo from Sounds and Colors
Memoria Chilena
Violeta Parra Museum
Memoria Chilena
Memoria Chilena
Violeta Parra Museum
Violeta Parra Museum
Ericka Verba is Director and Professor of Latin American Studies at California State University, Los Angeles. Her research interests include the cultural Cold War, the role of music in social movements, and the intersection of gender and class politics in twentieth-century Latin America. She is the author of the book Thanks to Life, A Biography of Violeta Parra. As a musician and founding member of the US-based New Song groups Sabiá and Desborde, she has been performing Parra’s music since 1976. In 1996, she was the musical director and arranger for a tribute concert to Violeta Parra, supported by an Artists in the Community grant from the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department and recorded and released as Desborde, Tribute Concert to Violeta Parra.
Music featured in this episode includes
Violeta Parra recorded by Alan Lomax in 1953 in the Lomax Digital Archive
“Puerto Montt is Trembling” and “Gracias a la Vida” by Violeta Parra
“Las Hermanas Parra” recorded for RCA Victor in 1952
“Corazon Maldito” and “El Guilatun” by Desborde
“Pink Flamenco” by Doug Maxwell
“Sus Remedios” by Casa Rosa
“Cha Cha Chang”o by Quincas Moreira
“Despair and Triumph by Kevin MacLeod”
“Spirit of Fire” by Jesse Gallagher.
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