last weekend, i attended a concert by inti illimani and sol y lluvia, two groups who became figureheads of the anti-pinochet movement during the dictatorship. the concert took place in the victor jara stadium, named for the famous musician who was tortured and killed there. he was something of a hero to the left-wing coalition that supported allende, having dedicated many concerts to the unidad popular (as the coalition was called). soon after the coup, jara's captors brought him and other prisoners to the stadium, broke both his hands, then taunted him by giving him his guitar and asking him to play his music. he responded by singing a party song of the unidad popular, after which he was beaten, machine gunned, and thrown in a mass grave.

needless to say, the concert took on a fiercely political tone, with jabs at "pinocho" abound. inti-illimani played several of victor jara's songs, the most stirring one being "el pueblo unido jamás sera vencido", which became the anthem of the unidad popular. once inti-illimani broke out into the tune, everyone in the audience went absolutely apeshit.


el pueblo unido - video

translated, it's "the people, united, will never be defeated." sound familiar? yeah, it's been adopted by pretty much every social movement since then. (the english version usually replaces "defeated" with "divided" to keep the rhyme...i've heard variations of this chant at every protest i've been to.)

although chants of "juicio a pinochet" also came up often, i was more amused by the lighthearted "él que no salta es pinochet". to get the joke, you must first understand that chileans like to jump. a lot. in unison. i guess it's how they show enthusiasm for a song. the chant translates to "he who doesn't jump is pinochet", which gets everyone in the stadium jumping furiously, because if you don't, you feel awfully bad about it, given the implications.

juicio a pinochet (bring pinochet to justice) - video
él que no salta es pinochet - audio

all of this music forms part of a larger, very exciting tradition. the musicians i've mentioned so far all hail from the nueva cancion (new song) movement, founded in the mid-1960's by revered chilean musician violeta parra. nueva cancion combines traditional latin american folk music (parra collected indigenous aymara and quechua songs from rural payadores throughout chile) with progressive or politicized lyrics. most songs are accompanied by the guitar, and often the quena (andean flute), zampoña (pan pipes), charango (a type of south american lute), or cajón, (box drum).

nueva cancion usually deals with issues of poverty, empowerment, imperialism, and democracy. in the chilean case, it became tied to the unidad popular, and later, by necessity, to anti-pinochet sentiment. it's a fascinating musical movement that has since spread to the rest of latin america, most notably argentina, where mercedes sosa was instrumental in promoting it. in my opinion, nueva cancion (and its cuban equivalent nueva trova) has produced some of the most moving, innovative, and skillful contemporary latin american songs to date. other notable artists of the movement include silvio rodriguez, pablo milanés, and quilapayún.