Commi the People

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By Mike Glick

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Voc, Jara’s La Poblacion is the story the squatters who lived in the shanty em and around the big cities in Chile. i. lives, their dreams. and their strug- ble es told in this record both by the peo- an ees, in poetry and narrative, Songs by Jara.

as Ictor Jara’s songs, in this record as ex Where, are not the stuff of fantasy, in “pt those flights of fancy that serve as ‘piration to change <eality. He was very _sclous of the need to use culture to Ne t imperialism. In a symposium in Casa Italia, Americas, with Daniel Viglietti and N composer Luigi Nono, among oth-

/ he said: ‘‘Our duty is to give our people in cbons to fight against -this (cultural Perialism—MG); to give our people its fol centity so they can identify with the tie which is, after all, the most ~~ vhentic language a country has, to make

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our people understand their reality through the protest song, to understand the. reality of their friends as well as their enemies, and through music — without the labels of ‘classic’ or ‘popular’ — to help our people unmask the world around them, to trans- form it, not with paternalistic prophecies, but together with the people.”

La Poblacion is the story of workers — dispossessed — who emerged with new hope during the years of the Popular Unity government in Chile. Victor’s songs of the squatters could only have been written through an intense personal interaction with them. This is not the method of a ‘star’? but of a people’s singer, committed

to the future of the workers and campesinos.

Musically, ‘“‘En El Rio Mapocho’’ is perhaps the best cut on the record, mixed as it is with the sound of the elements and a chorus singing in a windy, sighing har-

Victor Jara

mony. ‘‘La Toma — 16 Marzo 1967” tells of the taking of land by the squatters and effectively mixes in a narrative by the villagers, recreating the event. “El Hom- ber es un Creador” (Man is a Creator) is a boasting children’s song. One can almost see a little child, strutting about, chest out, tooting a kazoo, singing of his pride in the work he can learn to do. Compare this to the defeated children one sees in the streets of many countries!

Victor said of his life under Popular Unity: ‘‘I am a man happy to exist at this moment, happy because when one puts one’s heart, reason and will to work at the service of the people, once feels the happi- ness of that which begins to be reborn.”

Because Victor acknowledged his debt to his people and shunned the life of a “star” (in the Hollywood sense), he gave them (and us) something more lasting than

_ Victor Jara and family.

a hit song to dance to or a catchy tune to whistle. His songs helped unify his people,

collectivize their dreams and project them,

as a reality to be fought for. Victor said this himself:

“If a musician is a _ revolutionary worker he will project in his work what- ever moves our people in times of great social change. This will be done without paternalism or elitism, but will stem from and be fused with the working class and campesinos. I see this as the only way we can build a new culture and do away with old schemes.”’

L. Poblacion reflects Victor Jara’s committment to his people and their com- mittment together to build a new society without exploitation. Despite fascist re- pression today, and the murder of Jara himself, the spirit and the years ot Popular Unity cannot be erased from the hearts and minds of the Chilean people. Their strug-

_gle is far from dead. Nor is Victor Jara

dead. Through his life and in his songs he fights today with his people for a free Chile.

The record, manufactured in the Feder- al Republic of Germany, comes with the words to all the songs in Spanish and Ger- man, and also includes a 12-page booklet with photos, quotes, and information on the life of Victor Jara. The Daily World, which is selling the record ($7.30), is making an English translation of the booklet and songs, and promises to mail it to purchas- ers who buy the record before the transla- tion is ready. The supply, I understand, is limited, so get your order in now. Write to Daily World Record Department, 205 West 19 St., New York, N.Y. 10011.

Santiago Stadium after September 11, 1974.

Photo: Pahl-Rugenstein-Verisg, Kohn

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JULY 25, 1975—Page 3