Victor Jara
From Conservapedia
Victor Jara[1] was a Chilean folk singer and songwriter involved with the 1950s and 60s Nueava Cancon movement in South America that, like the North American folk music movement, often combined traditional music with left-wing activism. His most well-known songs before his death were Plegaria a un Labrador ("A Farmer's Prayer") and Te Recuerdo Amanda ("I Remember You Amanda"). He was an ardent and active supporter of Salvador Allende’s Popular Unity movement.
On September 12, 1973, Jara was taken prisoner by Pinochet’s forces on September 12 and, with a few thousand others [2], was taken to the Chile Stadium where over a period of four days he was beaten and tortured, the bones of his hands broken. According to the testimony of fellow prisoners, when his captors stood over him and mockingly invited him to his guitar, he responded by singing part of a Popular Unity song. Jara was taken out and shot to death a few days later. His wife was allowed to collect his body and hold a funeral for him before she fled the country. [3]
Today the stadium where he and so many others were murdered is named the Estadio Victor Jara. He was taken away for execution before he could finish his last poem, which was smuggled out of the stadium. The poem has, among its closing lines, “en que el silencio y el grito son las metas de este canto” “silence and screams are the end of my song.” [4]
