VetterMariaAlicia

8/14/2019 VetterMariaAlicia

1/23

Education in Social Movements: A Cultural-Cognitive ApproachMara Alicia Vetter

University of St. Thomas, Minnesota, USA

Prepared for delivery at the 2003 meeting of the Latin American Studies Association,Dallas, Texas, March 27-29, 2003.


2/23

2

In the arena of Social Movements, the global and the local converge in ways thatthey do not anywhere else. If we look at the anti-war movement gathering force at thisvery moment, we can attest that global concerns for peace, and for survival, are infusing

local organizations of every stripe with new life. Similarly, local struggles take centerstage at most world forums. Such is the case of the MST, for example. Nevertheless, inspite of the attention social movements, old and new, receive today as sites for struggle,very little attention is given, as Eyerman and Jamison (1991, 1995) have pointed out, tothe cognitive processes they are involved in.

The social movements of the sixties produced a wealth of knowledge and culturalmanifestations that have not merely survived in time, but continue to have relevance fortodays movements. The anti-war movement of today resurrects the songs of theVietnam anti-war movement; Joan Baez can be heard in every progressive radiostation, while the songs of the Civil Rights Movement have never disappeared or losttheir place or appeal in newer movements.

In Latin America, La Nueva Cancin has played a role in every major social andrevolutionary movement the area has undergone in the last thirty odd years. And at itsvery roots, there was a cognitive process that involved the local in its most humbleclothes. Violeta Parra walking patiently from home to home, tape recorder and guitar inhand brought on folklore of unsuspected revolutionary power which would feed therevolutionary fires of several generations of musicians and those in the movements thatthey played for and from. Paradoxically, it was the fierce struggles against imperialismthat motivated local cultural manifestations to fight for a space being disputed by ahomogenizing pop culture, and that would, in turn, become a universal and enduringvoice for struggles all over the world. It is also because of their universality that VioletaParras compositions, though extremely regional and tightly connected to the folkloric

forms of specific regions, can be played today by new generations of Chileans, whoconsider her sacred but not untouchable (Pea, 2001), in the form of rock, asevidenced by a record homage paid to her legacy by thirteen Chilean rock bands andsoloists who edited in 2001 an album called Despus de vivir un siglo.

Violeta Parra, who is considered the indestructible link between the old cantorsand the new, found in the folklore of Chile a dialectical way of approximating reality, andmade use of the contradictionto expose the realities of feudal and capitalist exploitation.This personal cognitive process reflected cognitive processes the society wasundergoing at the same time, and initiated a mode of expressing them that wouldbecome the common denominator for all the composers of the New Chilean Song.

As educators turn towards new social movements for alternative sites forstruggle, a look at the role popular culture played in the past in old social movementsmight hold clues to the varied ways in which movement intellectualsand organicintellectualscreated knowledge and an enduring life for their works and message. It iswith this focus that this paper centers on the work of Violeta Parra. It is also with theunderstanding that political education and its cognitive processes iseducation, morespecifically, adult education, that the New Social Movement Theory in the field of adulteducation is presented here.


3/23

3

Contextualizing the Interest in Social Movements in Adult Education

The world of education, in particular that of adult educators, has become

increasingly interested in the role of social movements in the bringing about of social,political, and economic change. That is, those educators that consider social change tobe the main objective of education.

Concerned about what they consider the mistakes of the past; but, mostimportantly, concerned with a new world that some have called post modern, theseeducators are looking to social movements for the answers that were previouslyprovided by the political parties and the labor organizations.

Partly, or in great part because of the fall of the Soviet Union, leftists all over theworld have considered it necessary to revise their assumptions of the world and re-group, so to speak, to confront the new world. At the same time, many theorists talkabout the crisis of modernity, the end of the meta-narratives. Post-modernists believe

that we live in a fragmented world where all encompassing narratives of a humanitymarching together towards a common goal (which is good for everybody) have beenproven defunct. In spite of the fact that today, more than ever, we can talk about aglobal society, these theorists emphasize diversity, difference, fragmentation, andindividual identity over the encompassing terms of the past, and of the total views of themeta-narratives.

There are those that believe that modernity is hardly in crisis and far from dead.Capitalism and liberal democracy (in the form of neo-liberal democracies) reign over theworld. As long as capitalism lasts, we are caught in its meta-narrative. From thisperspective, the meta-narrative of Marxism might still be the answer to defeatcapitalism.

Those educators concerned with bringing about social change have turned awayfrom the traditional struggles against capitalism through the political parties and manydo not consider the working class to be the agent to bring about social change. Fromthis perspective, then, the labor movement is not considered to be a viable place forstruggle.

In the 1980s and 1990s, adult educators started writing on new socialmovementsas the place to conduct struggle and the means to bring about change.Finger (1989) held a post modernist position, Welton (1993) defended rationality andstayed inside the modernity paradigm, and Spencer (1995) believed that the labormovement (particularly in Canada) was still the place to struggle. While Paulston andAltenbaugh (1988) looked sometimes to old social movements for answers (such as theBlack Panther Party).

What these adult educators called the new social movementswere the WomensMovement, the Peace Movement, the Identities Movements (Gay Rights Movement, forexample) and National Identity Movements (such as First Nations). Fuentes and Frank(1989, 1990) argued that some of these so-called new social movements were thesame movements of the past; the Womens Movement, for example, dating back to the19th Century (at least in Europe and in the United States); the Peace Movement with a


4/23


5/23


6/23


7/23

7

Chile becomes a satellite of England, in this way paving the road forunderdevelopment (Frank, 1969). Class struggles begin, in this way, in the minesagainst foreign capital. The first general strike of saltpeter workers takes place in July

of 1890 (Angell, 1974, p. 23). Repression nonetheless is left to Chilean institutions.While workers are massacred in the north, latifundia in the central and southern regionsprosper under feudal oppression, which is, nevertheless, at the service of capital. Theworking class organizes itself at the beginning of the twentieth century and soon formsits own parties, besides the traditional workers organizations. From early on, the partiesof the working class push for electoral politics and form coalitions, the FRAP and laterUnidad Popular. It is evident that inside the Chilean working class there is created aconviction that it is through class conciliation that its power grows.

The Popular Front has Allende as a candidate in 1952, 1958, and 1964, to finallytriumph in 1970 with Unidad Popular. Allende loses the elections of 1964 by a smallmargin. In fact the defeat is due largely to imperialist intervention. Socialism had

become a tangible option since 1952. There is a slow but progressive sharpening ofclass struggle that is manifested, as in other areas, in the cultural arena. With theadvent of radio, the oligarchy appropriates it to create a homogenous national imagethat serves an up and coming nationalist bourgeoisie. With that objective, it uses afolklore extracted from the agrarian regions that idealizes the feudal relations found inthe latifundia (Manns, 1987). As part of this effort, universities create research groupsto investigate folklore, and the radio produces programs to which Violeta Parra will beconnected as an independent compiler. She carries on these activities between 1953and 1957. What she compiles is in direct contradiction with the idealization of officialgroups and she is from the very beginning rejected by the bourgeois media. Butpeasants themselves react warmly to her efforts and lend her enthusiastic cooperation.

In 1957 she starts producing her own creations, songs of struggle, though there areearlier precedents. There is no doubt that her songs reflect, and probably stimulate theclass struggle between 1958 and 1964. The fear in the US of a socialist governmentbeing elected in Chile is greater in 1964 than in 1970 (Select Committee 1975).Millions are invested in impeding the election of Allende in 1964. The loss of theelections radicalizes sectors of the left and class struggle deepens. Freis governmentmobilizes university students but in spite of significant advances such as the agrarianreform, he betrays their expectations. Between 1964 and 1970, political groups suchas el Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR) emerge from the universities, aswell as leftist cultural workers. Among these, stand the folklorists that will find in LaPea an organic place for creation and diffusion. La Pea was the creation of ngelParra, Violetas son, and there she will return, after a stay in Europe, to work with herchildren and with the creators of the Nueva Cancin Chilena: Vctor Jara, PatricioManns, Roberto Alarcn; and after her death, the best known groups, Quilapayn andInti-Illimani, will be formed under the influence of the former.

La Pea played a fundamental role in the struggle against the media for apublic that in contact with North American music was acculturated by it. There weresectors in Chile that embraced foreign culture as a sign of class, and those that rejected


8/23


9/23

9

speaking that is fundamentally directed to avoid conflict; and that in a society, intenselystratified in classes as Chilean society is, the major conflict is the class conflict. It canbe said that it has been essential for Chilean democracy to maintain at all cost a

national life based on non-antagonist class relations. In this context, when languagebecomes antagonistic, particularly when referring to class conditions, or when it brakeswith class collaboration, it becomes exceedingly dangerous, or it is perceived as suchby those concerned with keeping the status quo.

If we keep in mind these two characteristics, it is possible to see how VioletaParra, and then the composers of the New Chilean Song, carried out revolutionaryactivity that surpassed the linguistic and the art arenas. When the revolutionarymoment is crushed by force, the reaction against the folklorists appears irrational in itsbrutality. Nevertheless, for a class that had held power for 160 years, the words ofVctor Jara signaled that power was under serious threat.

ust, or, no es nani chicha ni limonase la pasa manoseandocaramba su dignida

Y si sigue hociconeando le vamos a expropiarlas pistolas y la lengua y todito lo dems (1971)

Reality is dichotomist; the classes have arrived or are arriving to impasse.Popular humor inspires Vctor to express the moment in such a manner. Language andtone are crude for the delicate sensitivity of the middle classes. It is popular dialectthrown to the face of the eternally lukewarm Chilean middle classes. It had been Violeta

Parra the first to use language in this manner:Me han preguntdico varias persnicas si peligrsicas para las msicas son las

cancinicas agitadricas (1966)

Evidently, agitation songs where dangerous for the classes in power, thereforethey were also such for the masses.

From Christianity to Aristotelian Contradiction

Towards the end of the Middle Ages there is in Europe a resurgence of the studyof Aristotles contradiction (Price, 1992, p. 145). The concepts of continuity, contrariety,and contradiction are re-examined to explain how change is produced (Kretzmann,1982, pp. 270-296). It is not surprising, then, that together with medieval religiosity, wefind in the Chilean folklore that springs from the production both of cultured and popularSpain a preoccupation with contrariety and contradiction. It is when in Spain,conditions were present for an incipient capitalism that called for the elimination offeudalism and, therefore, for a class struggle to marshal the advent of the bourgeoisie.


10/23

10

Songs of Struggle

Written between 1957 and 1967, the Songs of struggle have been identified as

Violeta Parras original creations, clearly distinguishable from her previous compositionsin subject matter, style, and intent. Though it has been argued that they are not originalmusically speaking (Manns as cited in Pancani & Canales, 1999), they are so incontent. Their content is highly political and, though it borrows from tradition, it alsoexhibits characteristics not previously found in the folklore of Chile. I would argue thatthese songs appear to be the work of somebody quite familiar with dialecticalmaterialism, and since there has been a concerted effort to portray Violeta Parra as anave composer, one would have to accept, then, that her genius springs from herclose contact with folklore, el saber popular.

What Violeta Parra combines in her songs is dichotomist conceptualization andthe absence of attenuation in songs en tono mayor a lo humano y a lo divino:

decimas, quartets, quintets, sextons in verses of eight syllables in which there is anabundance of antithetic figures. In her compositions there is a scientific approach to theanalysis of society in a language and manner of philosophizing that are familiar to heraudiences. Furthermore, the songs of struggle are, as a whole, a veritable treatise onChilean society, where the composer travels geographically, as it were, through Chileidentifying the particular injustices present in each region, pointing fingers at the culprits,and calling for a reverting of the oppressive situation.

In these works, the composer systematically unveils the contradictions inherentin Chilean society, to then make a call for the resolution. At the heart of her analysisthere is a break with the institutions of civil society, a denunciation of bourgeoisdemocracy as a sham.

Dialectical Songs

Al centro de la injusticia opens the cycle. The composer walks us through thelong and suffering geography of Chile unmasking the contradictions of its economic,socio-political realities:

Chile limita al norte con el Pery con el Cabo de Hornos limita al sur.Se eleva en el oriente la cordilleray en el oeste luce la costanera.

Al centro estn los valles con susverdores,donde se multiplican los pobladores.Cada familia tiene muchos chiquillos,con su miseria viven en conventillos.

Claro que algunos viven acomodados,pero eso con la sangre del degollado.Delante del escudo ms arrogantela agricultura tiene su interrogante.

La papa nos la venden naciones variascuando del sur de Chile es originaria;Delante del emblema de tres coloresla minera tiene muchos bemoles.


11/23


12/23

12

cosmology, good must triumph against evil, beauty over ugliness, the oppressed overthe oppressors.

Maldigo la cordillerade Los Andes y de la Costamaldigo toda la angosta

y larga faja de tierra,tambin la paz y la guerra,

lo franco y lo veleidoso,maldigo lo perfumoso,

porque mi anhelo est muerto,maldigo todo lo ciertoy lo falso y lo dudoso:cunto ser mi dolor!

Religious Songs

La carta (1962) is a reaction against the violence of Alessandris government.Here there is not only a call for rebellion, but this rebellion must be communist.Referring to her brothers she says: todos comunistas con el favor de mi Dios.Religion is re-formulated as a doctrine of equality and, therefore, it is God whoadvocates for communism.

dijo el Seor a Marason para todos las flores

los montes, los arreboles (La carta)Religion will be an inexhaustible source of inspiration: ideology at the service ofrebellion. This is not new in anti-feudal struggles. But, at the same time, there is aprogressive unmasking of the institutions both civil and religious that exponentiallybreaks with the attenuation of civil society. In Qu dir el Santo Padre (1962), theantithesis is used to contrast the values of liberty, a civil concept; paradise, a religiousone; justice, a legal construct, with the realities of loss of freedom, authoritarianism,genocide, and injustice. The pope is called to witness the atrocities as the highesthuman authority and representative of the divine:

Qu dir el Santo Padreque vive en Roma,

que le estn degollandoa sus palomas.


13/23

13

A similar process is present in Miren (1962), where it is democracy that is unmasked:presidents, candidates, elections, Church and coercive state:

Miren como sonrenlos presidentescuando le hacen promesasal inocente.

Miren como le ofrecenal sindicatoeste mundo y el otrolos candidatos.

Miren como redoblanlos juramentos,pero despus del votodoble tormento

Miren el herviderode vigilantespara rociar de floresal estudiante

Miren como relumbran carabinerospara hacerles el premioa los obreros.

Miren como se vistecabo y sargentopara teir de rojolos pavimentos.

Miren como profanan

las sacristascon pieles y sombrerosde hipocresa.

Miren como blanqueanmes de Maray al pobre le negreanla luz del da.

Aydame Valentina (1963) is a frontal attack to the Church and its institutions.

In spite of the fact that Violeta had often pointed to the hypocrisy of the Catholic Churchin Chile, she had always rescued the doctrine for the purpose of conscientization. Inthis composition, though, she breaks with the legacy of Christian ideology. It is asignificant step in the anti-feudal struggle.

Aydame, Valentina,t que volaste tan lejos,

dles de una vez por todasque arriba no hay tal mansin,

maana la ha de fundarel hombre con su razn.


14/23

14

This repudiation of religion had also been present in Porque los pobres no tienen(1962), where she had clearly denunciated both the role of the Church and of religion inclass oppression.

Porque los pobres no tienenadonde volver la vista,la vuelven hacia los cieloscon la esperanza infinitade encontrar lo que su hermanoen este mundo le quita, palomitay:qu cosas tiene la vida, zambitay!

Porque los pobres no tienenadonde volver la voz,

la vuelven hacia los cielosbuscando una confesin,ya que su hermano no escuchala voz de su corazn, palomitay:Porque los pobres no tienenen este mundo esperanzas,se amparan en la otra vidacomo una justa balanza,por eso las procesiones,las velas, las alabanzas, palomitay:

De tiempos inmemorialesque se ha inventado el infiernopara asustar a los pobrescon sus castigos eternos,y el pobre, que es inocente,con su inocencia creyendo, palomitay:

El cielo tiene las riendas,la tierra y el capital,y a los soldados del Papa

les llena bien el morral,y al que trabaja le metenla gloria como un bozal, palomita.

Para seguir la mentiralo llama su confesor;le dice que Dios no quiereninguna revolucin,ni pliegos ni sindicatosque ofendan su corazn, palomitay:qu cosas tiene la vida, zambitay!

Historical Songs

In Un ro de sangre (1962) there are allusions to the Spanish civil war, not anunusual association in Violeta Parras compositions. In this composition, injustice isuniversalized, and Violeta puts Federico Garca Lorca, Lumumba, Zapata, ManuelRodrguez and Recabarren in the same brotherhood, the one of those who are bothheroes of the people and the victims of injustice.

Banderas de popelinapa' recoger tanta sangre,

que ningn viento desgarreporque han de seguir flameando.

Pues Chile sigue llorandoa Rodrguez y Recabarren.

Manuel Rodrguez had appeared earlier in what some consider the first song ofstruggle: Hace falta un guerrillero, a song of epic characteristics.


15/23

15

De nio le enseara lo que se tiene que hacercuando nos venden la patria

como si fuera alfiler;

quiero un hijo guerrilleroque la sepa defender.

Songs with a National Question Theme

Violeta Parras particular emphasis on the indigenous question is remarkable.Her treatment of the subject is unheard of for the times. She does not presentindigenous people as exotic figures, nor as folkloric ones. There is, as in Arauco tieneuna pena (1962), for example, recognition of the Mapuche question as a nationalquestionthat calls for a Mapuche uprising.

Arauco tiene una penaque no la puede callarson injusticias de siglosque todos ven aplicarnadie le ha puesto remediopudindolo remediar.Levntate Huenchulln.

Un da llega de lejoshuecufe conquistadorbuscando montaas de oro

que el indio nunca buscal indio le basta el oroque le relumbra del sol.Levntate Curimn.

Entonces corre la sangreno sabe el indio qu hacerle van a quitar su tierrala tiene que defenderel indio se cae muertoy el afuerino de pie.Levntate Manquilef.A dnde se fue Lautaroperdido en el cielo azuly el alma de Galvarinose la llev el viento sur

por eso pasan llorandolos cueros de su Kultrn.Levntate, pues Callfull.

Del ao mil cuatrocientosque el indio afligido esta la sombra de la rucalo pueden ver lloriqueartotora de cinco siglosnunca se habr de secar.Levntate Quilapn.

Arauco tiene una penams negra que su chamalya no son los espaoleslos que les hacen llorarhoy son los propios chilenoslos que les quitan su panLevntate Pailahun.

Ya rugen las votacionesse escuchan por no dejarpero el quejido del indio.Por qu no se escucharAunque resuene en la tumbala voz de CaupolicnLevntate Huenchulln.


16/23

16

In El Nguillatn (1966) there is an effort to incorporate Mapundungo in the songwith rights to space equal to Spanish, a strategy that connects her to another LatinAmerican intellectualArguedas.

Millelche est triste con el temporallos trigos se acuestan en ese barrial

los indios resuelven despus de llorarhablar con Isidro, con Dios y San Juan

con Dios y San Juan.

Camina la machi para el nguillatnChamal y rebozo, trailonco y cultrny hasta los enfermos de su machitnaumentan las filas de aquel nguillatn

Se siente el perfume de carne y mudaycanelo, naranjo, corteza e' quillay;

termina la fiesta con el aclarar,guardaron el canto, el baile y el pan.

In Segn el favor del viento (1962) the hard life of the people of Chilo iscontrasted with a world of silk and velvet. The singer calls for the country to wakeup; with apocalyptic threats that, as in other songs, attack the civil institutions.

Despierte el hombre, despierte,

despierte por un momento,despierte toda la patriaantes de que se abran los cielos

y venga el trueno furiosocon el clarn de San Pedro, llorando estoy,

y barra los ministerios, me voy, me voy.

Songs of Miners

In Y arriba quemando el sol (1962) her poetic voice loses its edge andcombative tone. It is a song of defeat that clearly portraits her acute concern for the fateof miners in the North:

Cuando fui para la pampallevaba mi corazncontento como un chiriguepero alla se me muri

Primero perd las plumasy luego perd la voz.Y arriba quemando el sol.


17/23

17

Songs About the Role of the Composer

Mazrquica Modrnica (1966) is written as an answer to being challenged for

writing agitation songs. It is a highly sophisticated analysis of society, of the causes thatmobilize the masses, the class location of soldiers and police, the role of the judicialsystem; it is a denunciation of politicians and parties, and manifests awareness of therole played by the composer herself, as a denunciator.

Furthermore, in Mazrquica Modrnica (1966) there is transgression at severallevels. In an effort to put in evidence the hypocrisy in social relations, an inventedlanguage is used, which highlights the ideological content rather than hides it. It is adenunciation of bourgeois democracy and of its institutions. It also serves to ridicule theuseless verbal interchanges that take place in civil society.

Me han preguntdico varias persnicassi peligrsicas para las msicasson las cancinicas agitadricasay que pregntica ms infantlicaslo un piflico la formulricapa mis adntricos yo comentrica.

Le he contestdico yo al preguntnicocuando la gutica pide comdicapone al cristinico firme y guerrricopor sus porticas y sus cebllicas

no hay regimiento que los detnguicasi tienen hmbrica los populricos.

Preguntadnicas partidirsticasdisimuldicos y muy mallicosson peligrsicos ms que los vrsicosms que las huelguicas y los desflicos:bajito curdica firman paplicoslavan sus mnicos como pilticos.

Caballerticos almidonticos

almibardicos mini ni ni ni...le echan carbnico al inocnticoy arrellendicos en los sillnicoscuentan los murticos de losencuntricoscomo frivlicos y bataclnicos.

Varias matncicas tiene la historicaen sus pagnicas bien imprentdicaspara montrlicas no hicieron flticalas refalsicas revolucinicas

el juramntico jams cumpldicoes el causntico del descontnticoni los obrricos, ni los paquticostienen la clpica seor fisclico.

Lo que yo cntico es una respusticaa una pregntica de unos gracisicosy ms no cntico porque no quiricotengo flojrica en los zapticosen los cabllicos, en el vestdicoen los rinicos, y en el corpico.

Cantores que Reflexionan (1966) addresses an area of civil society of particularinterest to Violeta Parra-the cultural arena. Here she confronts those artists that sellout with those who find their vocation:

Y su conciencia dijo al fin:cntale al hombre en su dolor


18/23

18

en su historia y su sudory en su motivo de existirHoy es su canto un azadn

que le abre surcos al vivira la justicia en su razy a los raudales de su vozen su divina comprensinluces brotan del cantor.

All through the songs of struggle, the composer manifests an acute sense ofher own value as an artist, and of the urgency of her message. She is perfectly awareof her mission, and of her creative force and does not hesitate to use a prophetic tone,as she knows good, right, and truth to be on her side.

In other words, Violeta did not ignore that she was an organic intellectual. In fact

she articulated quite clearly what she thought her role, and others like her should be.She firmly argued for the need of organic spaces, such as La Pea and her owncarpa. She believed that these places were counter-hegemonic, and her last yearswere spent in this effort.

What we must do is to create, create a lot and profoundly, and deliver thesecreations to those they have been made for. The creator must never beg to beheard. And when doors are closed in our faces, when there is so muchbureaucracy and so much imbecility trotting the streets and painting its nails inoffices, we must find a way to invent a space where we can be heard andunderstood. In that sense La Pea is an example. With all its limitations, it is atoolHere will the new ones come, the ones that are beginning.In that sense

La Pea is not enough. That is why I have planted my tent. And we need a lotmore peas, a lot more tents the length of Chile if we want this to mature, tomultiply, to give fruit. (Parra as cited in Manns, 1987, pp. 69-70)

Around 1965, according to Leonidas Morales, the energetic nucleus of VioletaParras work is closed. This would coincide with a disillusion in sectors of the lefttowards the political strategies they had employed till then, thus inaugurating a newmovement forward in the struggle of the Chilean people that Violeta Parra would notwitness. Nevertheless, there are three songs that she composes towards the last daysof her life, that form a kind of testament: Gracias a la vida (1966); Volver a losdiecisiete (1966) and Run Run se fue pal Norte (1966). These are, according toVioleta herself, her best compositions. Though not openly political, Gracias a la vidais, in spite of its apparent simplicity, her composition with the deepest philosophicalcontent. In it, Violeta strives to reflect not only her gratefulness for the life she had, butalso her adherence to those philosophical positions that took her to embrace a politicalcommitment of unusual consistency and clarity.


19/23

19

Violeta Parras Legacy

It is in Violeta Parras work where we find the clues for the role played by the

folklorists of New Chilean Song during the government of Unidad Popular. Shecreated the space for the agitation song and for herself as a cantorwhose duty is toformulate ideology through the channels provided by the people themselves. Inside theenormous advancement of the Chilean people in their struggles, there appeared thissort of minstrel that emerged from its lines to witness and to create new knowledge thatwould push the processes forward. Besides her innumerable talents, Violeta happensat the precise moment. The New Chilean song would continue her legacy byreflecting the conditions of struggle the Chilean people found themselves in, andagitating till the wave would turn.

The option for folklore, and, therefore, for a popular dialect and a popularphilosophical heritage, constituted a true revolution at the cultural level and provided the

people with a weapon for agitation that would serve, perhaps more than any otherfactor, to sharpen class contradictions. This was, undoubtedly, what the historicalmoment called for. The conditions of capitalism in Chile and in the world, and theparticular class formation in Chilean society, could only bring that country to a violentclass confrontation. Thus, dichotomist positions were the ones that interpreted thatmoment best. The irony resided in that it was in the womb itself that gave birth tocapitalism that these modern minstrels got the power of the word to expose it and thecall for action to overturn it.

Eyerman and Jamison (1998) argue that:by combining culture and politics, social movements serve to reconstitute both,providing a broader political and historical context for cultural expression, and

offering, in turn, the resources of culturetraditions, music, artistic expressionto the action repertoires of political struggle. Cultural traditions are mobilized andreformulated in social movements, and this mobilization and reconstruction oftradition is centralto what social movements are, and to what they signify forsocial and cultural change. (p. 7)When social movements die out, or class struggles are smashed, as it was in the

case of Chile, the new knowledge created in the cultural arena tends to endure. It is thecase of La Nueva Cancin Chilena. The songs of Unidad Popular traveled the worldover and continue to live in the collective conscience of peoples, and in new socialmovements as what Marcuse called traditions of criticism and resistance.

Conclusion

The different and contrasting ways in which the period of Unidad Popular isdiscussed today by cultural workers such as the surviving members of the Chilean NewSong (Pancani & Canales, 1999) would seem to indicate that, generally, they considerthemselves today part of the world movements of the sixties (together with University


20/23


21/23

21

Eyerman, R. & Jamison, A. (1991). Social movements: A cognitive approach. UniversityPark, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.

Eyerman, R. & Jamison, A. (1995). Social movements and cultural transformation:Popular music in the 1960s. Media, Culture & Society, 17, 449-468.

Eyerman, R. & Jamison, A. (1998). Music and social movements: Mobilizing traditions inthe twentiethcentury. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Finger, M. (1989). New social movements and their implications for adult education.Adult Education Quarterly, 40(1), 15-22.

Frank, A. G. (1969). Capitalism and underdevelopment in Latin America. New York:Monthly Review.

Fuentes, M. & Gunder Frank, A. (1989). Ten theses on social movements. WorldDevelopment, 17(2), 179-191.

Fuentes, M. & Gunder Frank, A. (1990). Civil democracy: Social movements in recentworld history. In S. Amin, G. Arrighi, A. Gunder Frank, & I. Wallerstein,Transforming the revolution: Social movements and the world-system. New York:Monthly Review Press.

Gramsci, A. (1971). Selections from the prison notebooks(Q. Hoare & G. N. Smith Eds.& Trans.). New York: International.

Habermas, J. (1984). The tasks of a critical theory of society. In J. E. Bronner & D. M.Kellner (Eds.), Critical theory and society: A reader(pp. 292-312). New York:Routledge.

Isserman, M. (1993). If I had a hammer: The death of the old left and the birth of thenew left. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.

Kretzmann, N. (1982). Continuity, Contrariety, Contradiction, and Change. In N.Kretzmann (Ed.), Infinity and continuity in ancient and medieval thought, (pp.270-296). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Manns, P. (1987). Violeta Parra: La guitarra indocile(2a ed). Concepcin, Chile: LAR.

Martin, B. (1988). Education and the environmental movement. In T. Lovett (Ed.),Radical approaches to adult education: A reader(pp. 202-223). London:Routledge.


22/23

22

Mezirow, J. (1991). Transformative dimensions of adult learning. San Francisco:Jossey-Bass.

Morales T., L. (1993). Figuras literarias, rupturas culturales. Santiago de Chile: Pehun.Oroz, R. (1966). La lengua castellana en Chile. Santiago de Chile: Universidad de

Chile.

Oviedo, C. (1990). Mentira todo lo cierto: Tras la huella de Violeta Parra. Santiago deChile: Editorial Universitaria.

Pancani, D. & Canales, R. (Eds.) (1999). Los necios: Conversaciones con cantautoreshispanoamericanos. Santiago de Chile: LOM.

Parra, V. (n. d.) Violeta Parra: Cancionces para tocar con guitarra. Chile: PioneroMusical.

Parra Sandoval, E. (1998). Mi hermana Violeta Parra: Su vida y obra in dcimas.Santiago de Chile: LOM.

Paulston, R. G. & Altenbaugh, R. J. (1988). Adult education in radical U.S. social andethnic movements: From case studies to typology to explanation. In T. Lovett(Ed.), Radical approaches to adult education: A reader(pp. 114-137). London:Routledge.

Pea, C. (2001, October 21). Bajo el infujo de Violeta. La Tercera. Retrieved October21, 2001, from http://www.latercera.cl/diario/2001/10/21/t-21.50.3.a.ESP.DISCO.html

Puga Larran, J. (1997). La atenuacin en el castellano de Chile: Un enfoquepragmalingstico. Valncia: Universitat de Valncia.

Price, B. (1992). Medieval thought: An introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.

Reyes Matta, F. (1988). The New Song and its confrontation in Latin America. In C.Nelson & L. Grossberg (Eds.), Marxism and the interpretation of culture(pp. 447-460). Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.

Rodrguez Musso, O. (1988). La nueva cancin chilena: continuidad y reflejo. Habana:Casa de las Amricas.


23/23

23

Select Committee To Study Governmental Operations With Respect to IntelligenceActivities, US Senate. (1975). Covert action in Chile 1963-1973. Washington,DC: Government Printing Office.

Smirnov, G. (1979). The revolution disarmed: Chile 1970-1973. New York: MonthlyReview Press.

Spencer, B. (1995). Old and new social movements as learning sites: Greening laborunions and unionizing the greens. Adult Education Quarterly, 46(1), 31-42.

Subercaseaux, B. & Londoo, J. (1976). Gracias a la vida: Violeta Parra, testimonio.Buenos Aires: Editorial Galerna.

Subercaseaux, B., Stambuk, P. & Londoo, J. (1982). Gracias a la vida: Violeta Parra,

testimonio. Santiago de Chile: Editora Granizo/CENECA.Vitale, L. (2000). Msica popular e identidad latinoamericana: Del Tango a la Salsa.

Punta Arenas, Chile: Atel.

Welton, M. (1993). Social revolutionary learning: The new social movements as learningsites. Adult Education Quarterly, 43(3), 152-164.

Date post:	31-May-2018
Category:	Documents
Upload:	aptureinc
View:	219 times
Download:	0 times

VetterMariaAlicia

Documents