#chilean folk

[donslayote]

Poster for “Victor Jara Festivaali”

Helsinki, Finland

26 - 29 October 1978

[sea-of-machines]

illapu :)

[folkfashion]

Chilean Huasos, Chile, by Globetrotting

[mywifeleftme]

312: Victor Jara // Manifiesto

Manifiesto Victor Jara 1975, Discos Pueblo

Manifiesto is assembled from recordings intended for an album that was to be called Tiempos que cambian (literally Times That Change, or New Times) smuggled out of Chile by Jara’s widow Joan after the folksinger’s torture and murder by the Pinochet junta in 1973. It was simultaneously released by different labels under a variety of titles around the world. My copy hails from Mexico, released by leftist folk label Discos Pueblo, who make their intentions clear in a statement (machine-translated by me) on the back of the sleeve that reads in part:

“We find it necessary to point out that due to its quality and value, Victor Jara’s work should be disseminated, but always by those who identify with it, and not by the transnational companies that financed his return to Chile by organizing the bloody military coup of 1973. [Ed. Something in their use of word “retorno” is probably being lost in translation here; I think it implies something like Jara’s “return to whence he came,” e.g. his burial in Chilean soil.] Those transnational corporations that today benefit from Victor Jara’s singing, filtering out its combative aspects and presenting it as incomplete, seem to ignore the deep paths that people use to preserve the integrity of the voice of their singers. This album is our answer.”

The LP is clearly a work of love (and economy), the sleeve purposely left unglued so that it can be opened like a gatefold, revealing testimonies by his peers. There’s scarcely an inch that isn’t crammed with text—even the flaps that cradle the inner sleeve itself hide lyrics to two of the album’s key songs:

The sleeve unfolded.

“I don’t sing for the sake of singing, or for having a good voice, I sing because the guitar has sense and reason, it has a heart of earth and wings of a dove, it is like holy water that blesses my sorrows. This is where my song fits, as Violeta said, a hard-working guitar that smells of spring. It is not a rich man’s guitar or anything like that, my song is the scaffolding to reach the stars. The song has meaning when it beats in the veins of the one who will die singing truths, not fleeting flattery or foreign fame, but the song of a lark to the bottom of the earth. There, where everything arrives and where everything begins, a song that has been brave will always be a nueva cancion [New Song].”

Jara’s artistry (which, besides spearheading the nueva cancion movement, also included poetry and theatrical direction) was inseparable from his politics, and the music of Manifiesto is a stirring testament to his talents and the historical moment he occupied, when Chile like Cuba before it seemed on the verge of breaking free from centuries of resource extraction-driven imperialism and making its own way. These songs cannot help but feel elegiac given the circumstances of their release, and indeed they do frequently mourn the historical oppression of the common worker. Jara’s was a lark’s voice, not that of a conventional rabble rouser, and most of these songs seem best suited for night-time gatherings of comrades and lovers or, in the case of the dazzling instrumental “Caicai Vilu” (referencing a Mapuche creation myth), perhaps a rural cotillion. But these songs were recorded during the years of Salvador Allende’s triumph, a movement that Jara had personally helped galvanize, and there is the sense that these are songs about moving in a changed world that still feels almost surreal. Only at the very end, with the rock-inflected call to arms “Canto libre,” does Jara’s Revolutionary sentiment take on a more martial beat, finally unfurling a flag of victory.

That victory would be short-lived of course, as U.S. imperialists would soon back Pinochet’s reign of terror and grind the Chilean people under the heel of fascism for another generation. It’s hard to make an argument that Jara and Allende’s side “won” in any meaningful sense (without an appeal to some abstracted moral arbiter anyway). It may be blinkered to even try, knowing that Pinochet died obscenely wealth in his nineties and that there were never meaningful consequences for his even wealthier American backers, while a despairing Allende perished at his own hand and Jara with his fingers broken and his body riddled with bullets. Yet I do believe that a song can transcend the accounting of atrocities and persist on its own terms. Music like Jara’s will endure as long as there are human beings who seek a recognition of their own worthiest qualities in art. As one of the Mexican edition’s compilers says:

“…his voice will not have coffins or crematoriums, nor dark prisons nor barbed wire, comrades! His voice and his guitar continue the fight, they remain alive seeking victory. And they will also return as flags when the Homeland regains its joy.”

312/365

[kalopyrgos1]

Violeta Parra played an important role in the folk music movement in Chile., also in starting "la canciòn nueva" with political songs which tried to build up a just society.

[gynii]

I've genuinely so thoroughly fucked up my taste in music I got anxious when someone asked what kind of music I like because I couldn't figure how to answer it without being the actual worst

[cavedwellermusic]

Kiltro - Underbelly (2023)

Naz recommends listening to this album as a whole, preferably on a chilly summer evening. The musical complexity and different genres blending together, along with the gentle songwriting means that Underbelly is an album you shouldn’t be missing no matter what your go to genre is.

[thefreaklovesmusic]

ERMITA - La Muerte tu Sombra

[donslayote]

Victor Jara - El Derecho de Vivir en Paz (1971)

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Kiltro - All The Time In The World 2023

Chilean-American singer-songwriter Chris Bowers Castillo moved to the port city of Valparaíso and became a walking tour guide. Back in Denver, Chris had looked for a moniker that reflected the evocative and subtly rebellious musical concepts percolating in his head, and settled on kiltro - a word used in Chile for stray dogs or mutts. He then teamed up with bassist Will Parkhill and drummer Michael Devincenzi, later inviting Fez García to join the band as an additional percussionist on Kiltro’s live gigs.

Titled Underbelly, Kiltro’s sophomore album crystallizes those dreams and experiences into a post-rock manifesto of dazzling beauty. Its songs combine touches of shoegaze, ambient and neo-psychedelia with the soulful transcendence of South American folk – the purity of stringed instruments, supple syncopated percussion and elusive melodies that define the works of Latin American legends such as Violeta Parra, Víctor Jara and Atahualpa Yupanqui. From the propulsive, chant-like groove of “Guanaco” to the art-pop panache of “All the Time in the World,” Underbelly is the kind of record that invites you to quiet down and listen, savoring every single detail.

"All The Time In The World" received a total of 65,2% yes votes!

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Word List: Dance

for your next poem/story

Allemande - a 17th and 18th century court dance developed in France from a German folk dance; a dance step with arms interlaced

Beguine - a vigorous popular dance of the islands of Saint Lucia and Martinique that somewhat resembles the rumba

Bourrée - a 17th century French dance usually in quick duple time

Cabriole - a ballet leap in which one leg is extended in midair and the other struck against it

Chaconne - an old Spanish dance tune of Latin American origin

Czardas - a Hungarian dance to music in duple time in which the dancers start slowly and finish with a rapid whirl

Estampie - a usually textless, monophonic musical work of the late Middle Ages consisting of several repeated units that probably accompanied a dance

Farandole - a lively Provençal dance in which men and women hold hands, form a chain, and follow a leader through a serpentine course

Gavotte - a dance of French peasant origin marked by the raising rather than sliding of the feet

Hora - a circle dance

Juba - a dance that was accompanied by complex rhythmic hand clapping and slapping of the knees and thighs and that was performed on plantations in the southern U.S. by enslaved Black people

Kolo - a central European folk dance in which dancers form a circle and progress slowly to right or left while one or more dancers perform elaborate steps in the center

Lavolta - an early French couple dance characterized by pivoting and making high springs or bounds

Matachin - a dance performed by a matachin (i.e., a sword dancer in a fantastic costume)

Maxixe - a ballroom dance of Brazilian origin that resembles the two-step

Mazurka - a Polish folk dance in moderate triple measure

Passacaglia - an old dance performed to a passacaglia (i.e., an old Italian or Spanish dance tune consisting of variations usually on a ground bass in moderately slow triple time)

Pavane - a stately court dance by couples that was introduced from southern Europe into England in the 16th century

Quadrille - a square dance for four couples made up of five or six figures chiefly in ⁶/₈ and ²/₄ time

Rigadoon - a lively dance of the 17th and 18th centuries

Saltarello - an Italian dance with a lively hop step beginning each measure

Strathspey - a Scottish dance that is similar to but slower than the reel

Tarantella - a lively folk dance of southern Italy in ⁶/₈ time

Varsovienne - a graceful dance similar to a mazurka and popular in many European countries, Mexico, and the U.S.

Zamacueca - a South American especially Chilean courtship dance

More: Word Lists

[folkfashion]

Chilean woman, Chile, by Luis Gustavo Zamudio A.

[ed-recoverry]

Shoutout to all Latin American and Hispanic LGBTQ+ folks.

Shoutout to all Mestizo LGBTQ+ folks.

Shoutout to all Mexican LGBTQ+ folks.

Shoutout to all Puerto Rican LGBTQ+ folks.

Shoutout to all Cuban LGBTQ+ folks.

Shoutout to all Salvadoran LGBTQ+ folks.

Shoutout to all Dominican LGBTQ+ folks.

Shoutout to all Colombian LGBTQ+ folks.

Shoutout to all Guatemalan LGBTQ+ folks.

Shoutout to all Honduran LGBTQ+ folks.

Shoutout to all Ecuadorian LGBTQ+ folks.

Shoutout to all Peruvian LGBTQ+ folks.

Shoutout to all Venezuelan LGBTQ+ folks.

Shoutout to all Nicaraguan LGBTQ+ folks.

Shoutout to all Bolivian LGBTQ+ folks.

Shoutout to all Equatorial Guinean LGBTQ+ folks.

Shoutout to all Panamanian LGBTQ+ folks.

Shoutout to all Peruvian LGBTQ+ folks.

Shoutout to all Paraguayan LGBTQ+ folks.

Shoutout to Spanish LGBTQ+ folks.

Shoutout to all Costa Rican LGBTQ+ folks.

Shoutout to all Chilean LGBTQ+ folks.

Shoutout to all Uruguayan LGBTQ+ folks.

Shoutout to all Argentine LGBTQ+ folks.

Shoutout to all Brazilian LGBTQ+ folks.

Take pride in it all. Your culture, your identity, it’s all so beautiful. Celebrate where you are from and who you are. It makes you you, and that is something to be proud of.

post for Asians, post for Middle Easterners, post for Oceanic folks, post for Pacific Islanders, post for Africans, post for Native Americans, post for Caribbeans

[grogusmum]

I know folks have been trying to donate to the fund Pedro posted about the Chilean wildfires, but there is some confusion in filling out the donation page due to the field marked "rut"

For those of us not in Chile, use the code circled.

And remember to use an online currency converter, as the donation field is in Chilean pesos without thinking I put in $25 and ended up donating like 3 cents. lol (I went back to donate a second time armed with the correct exchange rate)

Fundraiser

https://desafiolevantemoschile.org/

Currency converter I used

https://www.unitconverters.net/currency/clp-to-usd.htm

[adobealmanac]

Hello, I wonder if you have seen difference between brujeria in certain regions and countries, like would Mexican brujeria be different then Salvadoran brujeria.

Que Dios de bendiga

The different paths of Brujeria

There are many distinct branches of Brujeria. In my opinion, I simply see the term as the Spanish word for "witchcraft". Therefore, there are many types of it. I've coined the term 'Brujeria de frontera' for my practice -- I am a border witch. I live in a place where the cultures of the southwestern USA and Mexico blend into a unique branch of Brujeria on its own. It is not entirely the same as Mexican Brujeria, but it is also not entirely "American". There are distinctions between what I practice than that of my Bruja friends from Mexico.

Sure, I do believe there is a general theme to all Brujeria, that being regaining our own power; regaining control over our spirituality. However, I do think each unique region of Central and South America provides a different backdrop for their spirituality. For example, there may be plants that grow better in Chile than in Mexico, so that plant is more likely to be used in Chilean Brujeria than in Mexican Brujeria. A good analogy would be that of the different branches of Voodoo. There are clear differences from Haitian Vodou compared to Louisiana Voodoo. These differences can come from a variety of sources, such as the different colonial powers, the different tools and ingredients available to practitioners, or the different origins of the enslaved peoples who's religion combined to form Voodoo. Thus, they are distinct branches of a religion.

Another example could be that of the different Christian denominations, such as the differences between Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, however I will not delve into too much detail here as there are many sources out there for information on this.

So, for example, the Maya people practiced a religion that was hidden and intertwined into Folk Catholicism and Brujeria due to the Spanish colonization of Mexico, creating a unique religion that is different than say, that of the Andean peoples. Another thing to note is that branches of Brujeria often share more common threads, such as Spanish colonizers, the Spanish language, and Catholicism. These lead to them to develop similarities, such as the use of saints as a concealment for praying to the original pantheon. So, while different cultures blend differently with Catholicism, many of them used Catholicism as a way to keep their spirituality in a way that the colonizers approved of.

While my Abuelita may do a limpia different than my Puerto Rican friend's, they still share many common threads that unite us as practitioners of the folk religions, and of Brujeria. This is my stance on the idea of different branches of Brujeria and how distinct or connected they all really are.