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Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval (4 October 1917-5 February 1967) was a Chilean composer, singer-songwriter, folklorist, ethnomusicologist and visual artist.
She pioneered the Nueva Canción Chilena, a renewal and a reinvention of Chilean folk music that would extend its sphere of influence outside Chile.
Her birthdate (4 October) was chosen Chilean Musicians' Day. In 2011, Andrés Wood directed a biopic about her, titled Violeta se fue a los cielos.
There is some uncertainty as to exactly where Violeta Parra was born. The stamp on her birth certificate says she was born in San Carlos, Ñuble Province, a small town in southern Chile on 4 October 1917, as Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval. However, both the Fundación Violeta Parra and the Museo Violeta Parra claim on their websites that she was born in San Fabián de Alico, near San Carlos.
She was one of nine children in the poor, but prolific Parra family. Her father, Nicanor Parra Alarcón, was a music teacher. Her mother, Clarisa Sandoval Navarrete had grown up in the countryside and was a seamstress. She sang and played the guitar, and taught Violeta and her siblings traditional folk songs. Among her brothers were the notable modern poet, better known as the anti-poet, Nicanor Parra (1914–2018), and fellow folklorist Roberto Parra (1921–1995). Her son, Ángel Parra, and her daughter, Isabel Parra, are also important figures in the development of the Nueva Canción Chilena. Their children have also mostly maintained the family's artistic traditions.
The Parras performed in nightclubs, such as El Tordo Azul and El Popular, in the Mapocho district, interpreting boleros, rancheras, Mexican corridos and other styles.
More information: Salient Women
Parra began singing songs of Spanish origin, from the repertoire of the famous Argentinian singers Lolita Torres and Imperio Argentina. She sang in restaurants and, also, in theatres, calling herself Violeta de Mayo.
In 1948, Parra and her sister Hilda began singing together as The Parra Sisters, and they recorded some of their work on RCA VICTOR.
Violeta was invited to the World Festival of Youth and Students, in Warsaw, Poland, in July 1955. She then moved to Paris, France, where she performed at the nightclub L'Escale in the Quartier Latin. Meanwhile, back in Santiago her daughter Rosita Clara died (aged 3).
Violeta made contacts with European artists and intellectuals. Through the intervention of the anthropologist Paul Rivet, she recorded at the National Sound Archive of the Musée de l'Homme La Sorbonne in Paris, where she left a guitarrón and tapes of her collections of Chilean folklore. She travelled to London to make recordings for EMI-Odeon and radio broadcasts from the BBC.
Parra composed Gracias a la Vida in La Paz in 1966. In 1971 the song was popularized throughout Latin America by Mercedes Sosa, and later in Brazil by Elis Regina and in the US by Joan Baez.
In 1967, Parra died by suicide via gunshot. Several memorials were held after her death, both in Chile and abroad. She was an inspiration for several Latin-American artists, such as Victor Jara and the musical movement of the Nueva Cancion Chilena, which renewed interest in Chilean folklore.
More information: Al Día News
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