Violeta Parra, Chilean artist

Is very difficult for me to choose a person would like to meet. I would like to meet characters like Fidel Castro or the “Che” Guevara, or even Karl Marx or John Lennon. But I prefer to decide by a closer person, a kind of person that doesn`t produce fear to meet, somebody like me. Is a historical figure that isn`t recognized as such, I think. She is Violeta Parra.

When I say that she is a closer person, I mean that she isn`t an unachievable figure. This is ridiculous because she is dead, but I try to see it as she would be alive.
I would like very much to meet her. I think that I would visit her in the “Carpa de la Reina” and we would drink a “mate” and we would talk about many things. She would teach me many songs, and she would encourage to compose my songs, and to leave my fears behind.

She is really cool! She was born in San Carlos, and she had to sing with her brothers Lalo and Roberto in the Mercado de Chillan, for to eat. She was really poor and she did many things, like a deep work in the area of the popular music, specifically, the peasant sings. I really like the albums where she recorded this sings. In special I like the “cantos por el angelito” and a very nice song called “Las vísperas de San Juan”. This song is special for me, because it makes me remember my home. We celebrated the San Juan’s day, and this song brings me memories about food, climates, colours, sounds.....sniff!
Other thing that she did was the “arpilleras”, her visuals works. With this works she did an exhibition in the Louvre, the first Chilean artist that had a complete room for shows her works! And, and additional component: she took part in the Communist Party!

I think that I would not ask her about the reasons about her suicide. Because I understand her, I can feel when I listen to the “Últimas Composiciones de Violeta Parra” her feelings. In the songs of this album she used very much the charango, an instrument that in itself show the soul crying.
I think that isn`t necessary explain why I would like to meet her. It has all been said. I admire her.
In the last days I’ve listen to the album called “Composiciones para Guitarra”, and is one of the most striking think that I’ve listen to. She wasn`t a musicians, she was an Artist, in the whole sense of the word.