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Victor Jara killer arrested-36 yrs late

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Related threads:
songs of Victor Jara (1932-1973) (58)
Viva Victor Jara ! (14)
Lyr Add: Abre la Ventana (Victor Jara) (4)
film: The Resurrection of Victor Jara (5)
Lyr Req: Allende (Don Lange) (13)
Obit: Chilean Dictator Augusto Pinochet(1915-2006) (66)
Chord Req: Victor Jara (A Mitchell, A Guthrie) (6)
BS: Hey Mr. Pinochet ... (16)
Lyr Add: Allende (Don Lange) (6)
BS: Other anniversaries this week (Chile ?) (20) (closed)
Pinochet What? (43)


Art Thieme 30 May 09 - 06:16 PM
skipy 30 May 09 - 06:18 PM
Art Thieme 30 May 09 - 06:23 PM
skipy 30 May 09 - 06:25 PM
McGrath of Harlow 30 May 09 - 06:30 PM
Art Thieme 30 May 09 - 06:56 PM
Spleen Cringe 30 May 09 - 07:04 PM
Valmai Goodyear 30 May 09 - 07:49 PM
CarolC 30 May 09 - 09:52 PM
GUEST,.gargoyle 30 May 09 - 10:33 PM
Janie 30 May 09 - 10:45 PM
CarolC 30 May 09 - 10:52 PM
Effsee 30 May 09 - 10:56 PM
Maryrrf 30 May 09 - 11:31 PM
Art Thieme 31 May 09 - 12:09 AM
katlaughing 31 May 09 - 01:23 AM
CarolC 31 May 09 - 01:43 AM
CarolC 31 May 09 - 01:49 AM
Jim Carroll 31 May 09 - 03:14 AM
alanabit 31 May 09 - 03:39 AM
Monique 31 May 09 - 04:33 AM
Art Thieme 31 May 09 - 02:23 PM
GUEST,iancarterb 31 May 09 - 02:44 PM
Mick Tems 31 May 09 - 04:33 PM
alanabit 31 May 09 - 06:24 PM
McGrath of Harlow 31 May 09 - 06:31 PM
Peter T. 31 May 09 - 06:31 PM
Rowan 31 May 09 - 06:39 PM
Lizzie Cornish 1 31 May 09 - 06:45 PM
Lizzie Cornish 1 31 May 09 - 07:19 PM
McGrath of Harlow 31 May 09 - 07:54 PM
Eve Goldberg 31 May 09 - 08:21 PM
Art Thieme 31 May 09 - 08:35 PM
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Black belt caterpillar wrestler 01 Jun 09 - 07:37 AM
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Subject: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: Art Thieme
Date: 30 May 09 - 06:16 PM

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/28/chile-regime-murder-charge-victor-jara

36 years later!!!! Hard to believe...

If you ever doubted that a song could bring change, look back to how the powers that be responded to the songs of Victor Jarra and Joe Hill -- and many others. (Dare I include the messages of Jesus?)

Art Thieme


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: skipy
Date: 30 May 09 - 06:18 PM

His hand where gentle!


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: Art Thieme
Date: 30 May 09 - 06:23 PM

Your post seems unrelated to the topic. Please, define your statement.


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: skipy
Date: 30 May 09 - 06:25 PM

Victor Jara of Chile
Lived like a shooting star
He fought for the people of Chile
With his songs and his guitar
His hands were gentle, his hands were strong

Victor Jara was a peasant
He worked from a few years old
He sat upon his father's plow
And watched the earth unfold
His hands were gentle, his hands were strong

Now when the neighbors had a wedding
Or one of their children died
His mother sang all night for them
With Victor by her side
His hands were gentle, his hands were strong

He grew up to be a fighter
Against the people's wrongs
He listened to their grief and joy
And turned them into songs
His hands were gentle, his hands were strong

He sang about the copper miners
And those who worked the land
He sang about the factory workers
And they knew he was their man
His hands were gentle, his hands were strong

He campaigned for Allende
Working night and day
He sang "Take hold of your brothers hand
You know the future begins today"
His hands were gentle, his hands were strong

Then the generals seized Chile
They arrested Victor then
They caged him in a stadium
With five-thousand frightened men
His hands were gentle, his hands were strong

Victor stood in the stadium
His voice was brave and strong
And he sang for his fellow prisoners
Till the guards cut short his song
His hands were gentle, his hands were strong

They broke the bones in both his hands
They beat him on the head
They tore him with electric shocks
And then they shot him dead
His hands were gentle, his hands were strong

Repeat first verse

©1977, 1990 by by Adrian Mitchell & Arlo Guthrie
All Rights Reserved.


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Subject: RE: Victor Jara killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 30 May 09 - 06:30 PM

Christy Moore singing Adrian Mitchell's song


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: Art Thieme
Date: 30 May 09 - 06:56 PM

Skipy--Thanks for that!


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 30 May 09 - 07:04 PM

Well, it's good to see that even 36 years on there's a chance for justice.


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: Valmai Goodyear
Date: 30 May 09 - 07:49 PM

Thank you for the song.

It's easy to believe the people who sneeringly say that singing songs of protest never changed anything. If that was so, the brutes wouldn't bother to suppress it. Keep singing.

Perhaps in this case, the young man who pulled the trigger had no understanding and no choice; more shame on the brutes who put him in that position.

Valmai


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: CarolC
Date: 30 May 09 - 09:52 PM

Including the CIA who put Pinochet in power. Does anyone ever write protest songs about the CIA and their multitudinous crimes and human rights violations?


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 30 May 09 - 10:33 PM

The wheels grind slow....

From my point of view - the USA - and cohorts (UK,IS,CN,FR,SA,DE) thanks to the 16 years of combined, positive Bush focused attention...have helped create a far safer world....I shudder to think of the abdominations we would be enduring .... if the Good Lord had not placed them at their time and place in history. Father and Son will, in one hundred years ... be viewed as the greatest presidents in the USA's history.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: Janie
Date: 30 May 09 - 10:45 PM

Victor Jarra   singing on YouTube. I did not know anything about him, and am assuming that many others did not.

Thanks for starting this thread, Art, and calling attention to him.


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: CarolC
Date: 30 May 09 - 10:52 PM

More likely, in 100 years, they will be remembered by history in the same way as war criminals from other countries are viewed.


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: Effsee
Date: 30 May 09 - 10:56 PM

Garg, your grasp on reality has definitely lost all control!


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: Maryrrf
Date: 30 May 09 - 11:31 PM

Today I was going through some music and found one of my Victor Jara song books. He was an inspiration to so many. His music was beautiful and powerful. I had many friends who suffered under the dictatorship of Pinochet. Reading through the links reminded me of what they went through. Those were dark days indeed.


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: Art Thieme
Date: 31 May 09 - 12:09 AM

DON LANGE wrote a simply grand song after the death of Allende at the hands of the CIA in the coup that put Pinochet into power in Chile.

It's hard for me to realize that people know so little about the killing of Salvatore Allende!!?? It was well known to everyone-- at least in the folk -- scene back in the 1970s. Sing Out! printed this song I'm pretty certain.

.................Well, for two hours nearly I've been trying to find Don Lange's song of the killing of the democratically elected communist President of Chile--Salvatore Allende.

All I can recall are snippets. But I'm sure of the chorus!:

The night owl hoots and the hawk it swoops
And I'm traveling on down the road,
And like it or not it's country or rock on the all night radio show,
The announcer comes on says, "If you've got ideas
I've got something for you,
What good's an idea that's not in the bank
Making a buck or two.

Chorus)

It's a long long way from the heartland
From Santiago Bay,
And the good doctor lies with the blood in his eyes
And the bullets read the U.S. of A.
And the bulletts read U.S. of A.


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 May 09 - 01:23 AM

Thanks, Art, for telling us more. I hope they get the rest of the murderers.

Janie, thanks for the link.


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: CarolC
Date: 31 May 09 - 01:43 AM

That looks like a good song (from what's been posted so far).


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: CarolC
Date: 31 May 09 - 01:49 AM

Here's the rest of it...

The nighthawk flies and the owl cries
As we're driving down the road
Listening to the music
On an all night radio show
The announcer comes on
Says, "If you've got ideas I'll file the patent for you"
What's an idea that's not in the store
Making a buck or two

We drive to the town but the shutters are down
And the all night restaurant's closed
It's the land of the free, they've got booze and TV
There's tramps in the telephone booths
But the stars and the trees and the early spring breeze
Say, "Forget what assassins have done
Take our good soil in the palm of your hand
And wait for tomorrow's sun"

It's a long way from the Heartland to Santiago Bay
Where the good doctor lies with blood in his eyes
And the bullets read US of A

The truck driver's wife she has rough life
Driving down the road
Carrying the goods all the copper and wood
That's what makes America great
But the dollars like swallows, they fly to the south
Where they know they've something to gain
Allende is killed
And the trucks are soon rolling again

It's a long way from the Heartland to Santiago Bay
Where the good doctor lies with blood in his eyes
And the bullets read US of A

The nighthawk flies and the owl cries
As we're driving down the road
The full moon reveals all the houses and fields
Where good people do what they're told
Victor Jara he lies with coins in his eyes
There's no one around him to mourn
Who needs a poet who won't take commands
Who'd rather make love than war

It's a long way from the Heartland to Santiago Bay
Where the good doctor lies with blood in his eyes
And the bullets read US of A


http://www.kovideo.net/lyrics/l/Luke-Kelly/Allende.html


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 31 May 09 - 03:14 AM

"Including the CIA who put Pinochet in power."
Not forgetting Margaret Thatcher, who was his friend and helped prevent him being put on trial for his crimes of torture and mass murder.
Jim Carroll


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: alanabit
Date: 31 May 09 - 03:39 AM

History has a way of relegating murderers like Nathuram Godse and Gavrilo Prinicip to the footnotes. I hope the same happens to the murderer here. Blaming a hapless eighteen year old conscripted trigger squeezer for Victo Jara's death (which is what he was at the time) is a pretty pointles exercise. It is the officers and the tyranny, which they represented, who should be on trial. Above all, the cloak of false dignity should have been stripped from the ugly criminal Pinochet years ago. Why is it that when a gangster reaches a certain level, we begin to recognise him as a "statesman"?


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: Monique
Date: 31 May 09 - 04:33 AM

Here is the address of the Fundación Victor Jara site (all in Spanish) . His widows says "-No tengo la sensación de que un joven de 18 años pueda tener toda la culpa." (I don't feel that a 18 years old young man can be the only one guilty). For some time, he's been the director of the Quilapayún group who wrote a song for him called Canción para Víctor Jara, they still sing songs of his ("Te recuerdo Amanda"...). They also wrote a song for Allende


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: Art Thieme
Date: 31 May 09 - 02:23 PM

CarolC
Thanks for that set of words for Don Lange's song. I don't think they are all correct, but at least it's an o.k. paraphrase.

Art


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: GUEST,iancarterb
Date: 31 May 09 - 02:44 PM

Below is a link to a Warren Zevon performance of Zevon's song Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner. Central to the story is the concise description of a CIA life or death decision; "The CIA decided they wanted Roalnd dead, So that son-of-a bitch Van Owen blew off Roland's head." Not sure I didn't get the link from Mudcat. Victor Jara was a far more important figure in Chile and the western hemisphere generally than Zevon, although Warren did write some terribly disturbing and powerful songs. Victor Jara personified the threat to US economic terrorism that pervaded South America for two centuries, and sang about it bravely and widely enough to get himself killed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhRRWwH3Fro


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: Mick Tems
Date: 31 May 09 - 04:33 PM

Thatcher - that ugly, vicious, Tory bitch. I will never forgive this evil crone for the cruel right-wing policies she committed as premier, including being Pinochet's ally - her involvement in Victor Jara's murder being a direct consequence.   

When she pops her clogs soon, I implore you (along with countless thousands of other decent right-minded people) NOT to let Thatcher have a state funeral. Justice must be seen to be done.


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: alanabit
Date: 31 May 09 - 06:24 PM

Laying aside my (to put it mildly) non-Conservatism for a moment, I think we have to get the charge sheet right here. We can safely leave the charge of befriending the horrible gangster on the indictment, but we shall have to dismiss the charge of any involvement in the murder of Victor Jara. It happened in autumn of 1973, when the Right Honourable Margeret Thatcher was still a minister in Edward Heath's cabinet. She certainly wanted Pinochet to get away with it though. I think we can make that one stick.


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 31 May 09 - 06:31 PM

The people to go for would be the ones in Washington who authorised the coup. Posthumously if need be.


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: Peter T.
Date: 31 May 09 - 06:31 PM

The amusing thing is that in 100 years time George Bush will be damned for not having done anything about climate change, wasting eight years. That will be the great indictment, and it keeps piling up..... Our children's children will curse us for making so much of the world uninhabitable and destroying, recklessly, so much of the fabric of life on the planet for no good reason. Georgie boy will be one of the damned.   

yours,

Peter T.


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: Rowan
Date: 31 May 09 - 06:39 PM

I think a recitation of the following poem by Keith McKenry might be appropriate at this point.

September the Eleventh

In these awful times, as we struggle to understand what is happening to our world,
we must keep in mind the events of the recent past.


At dawn on September the eleventh he received his orders.
While others would attack the citadels of commerce and defence
To his team would go the greatest honour,
That of targeting the President himself.

They would attack by air the central symbol of the Infidel's power
– The Presidential Palace –
And they would take out this obscene man
And all who stood by him.

'Democracy' the infidels called it.
Let them call it thus
And carp at the virtue of 'elections'.
Elections were fallible.
And now things had to be put right.

He had chosen his team well.
While others might quake at the magnitude
Of their mission, they would not flinch.

They boarded the aircraft carrying with them the hopes of all true believers.
They had the support, too, of powerful friends abroad,
Of a courageous foreign government that supported their cause,
Equipped them, trained them, and put up cash.
And when victory was won and the revolution complete
It would recognise them, and give them honour.
To it, too, must go the glory.

The plan was meticulous.
His destiny – and that of his colleagues – was in his own hands.
Flying low, he turned the aircraft towards the capital
And prayed his aim would be true.

                *        *        *

The attack succeeded.
The President, given warning by developments elsewhere,
Chose to stay in his residence and dared them do their worst.
He was dead by evening. His regime – like his palace – rubble around him.

He made a final broadcast to the nation. Here is part of what he said:
"This is surely the last opportunity I will have to address you...
With my life I will pay for defending the principles
Dear to our nation…these are my last words".

And so they were. On September 11 1973
Salvador Allende, President of Chile died,
Refusing to flee an air attack on the Presidential Palace.
His murderers, a military putsch supported by the government of the United States,
Overthrew the democratically-elected government
And established a rein of terror that saw thousands murdered.

Thus did the date September 11
First associate terror with the United States.

                                                        Keith McKenry
Cheers, Rowan


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 31 May 09 - 06:45 PM

Thank you for this thread, Art....It's really interesting. Poor Victor.

I totally agree with you about the power of political song. Totally. But what a terribly tragedy that Victor had to suffer like that purely for singing the truth.   

I found this, the sound isn't too good, but if you watch it whilst looking at the lyrics you and Carol have posted, you can just about make out the words...I hope you enjoy it.

Song for Allende - Don Lange (cover version) youtube


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 31 May 09 - 07:19 PM

Pete Seeger talking about Victor Jarra


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 31 May 09 - 07:54 PM

And here is Victor Jara singing his Luchin

Lovely song. And here were the words, Spanish and an English translation of sorts:

Frágil como un volantín
en los techos de Barrancas
jugaba el niño Luchín
con sus manitos moradas
con la pelota de trapo
con el gato y con el perro
el caballo lo miraba.

En el agua de sus ojos
se bañaba el verde claro
gateaba a su corta edad
con el potito embarrado
con la pelota de trapo
con el gato y con el perro
el caballo lo miraba.

El caballo era otro juego
en aquel pequeño espacio
y al animal parecía
le gustaba ese trabajo
con la pelota de trapo
con el gato y con el perro
y con Luchito mojado.

Si hay niños como Luchín
que comen tierra y gusanos
abramos todas las jaulas
pa' que vuelen como pájaros
con la pelota de trapo
con el gato y con el perro
y también con el caballo.


Fragile as a kite
on the roofs of Barrancas
played little Luchín
with his wet little hands
with the ball of cloth
with cats and dogs
and the horse looked at him.

In his eyes water
is bathed light green
crawling at his young age
with his mudded little ass
with the ball of cloth
with cats and dogs
the horse looked at him.

The horse was another game
in that small space
and the animal seemed
he liked that job
with the ball of cloth
with cats and dogs
and with Luchito wet.

If there are children as Luchín
that they eat worms and land
open all the cages
so they fly like birds
with the ball of cloth
with cats and dogs
and also with the horse.


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: Eve Goldberg
Date: 31 May 09 - 08:21 PM

Thanks Art, for alerting us to that story. Let us hope that they go after some of the people who ordered the torture and killings, rather than just the young conscripts who did the dirty work.


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: Art Thieme
Date: 31 May 09 - 08:35 PM

Eve, right on!

It is quite nice to meet you here in cyberspace. I wish it had happened in real life one of the times I played Winnipeg Fest.

All the best,
Art


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: Monique
Date: 31 May 09 - 09:03 PM

A two year old blog post about him and his song "Te recuerdo Amanda" with a link to YouTube


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: Eve Goldberg
Date: 31 May 09 - 09:28 PM

Art,

Nice to meet you too. I've never been to the Winnipeg Folk Fest, alas! But I have been to the Chicago area a couple of times. In fact, I was there last weekend, doing concerts in Naperville and Evanston...


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Subject: RE: Victor Jarra killer arrested-36 yrs late
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 01 Jun 09 - 07:37 AM

Rod Shearman's "Here's to friends" was dedicated to many friends, including Victor Jarra, and included his song "Brother Victor" about him.

I also recollect Dr Price performing "The right to live in peace" to a pin-drop atmosphere.


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