Political and social upheavals are frequent in most developing nation. Much of the world has been plagued by political dispute at one point or another. The South American nation of Chile is no exception from this norm. Within the last fifty years Chile has witnessed the fall of democracy, the institution of socialism and its subsequent downfall as well as a harsh and oppressive military takeover. These tumultuous events spurred waves of resistance within Chile, perhaps the most well-known of which was coined Nueva Canción. Nueva Canción (New Song) is a social movement in which musicians attempted to validate their social and political rights through a revival of past traditions and ideals (Titon 2002:391). Developing in the southernmost countries of South America, specifically Chile, Argentina and Uruguay, Nueva Canción was used in response to many forms of social oppression and change across South America. To understand the Chilean New Song movement and the music it produced, a background in Chile’s political history is necessary.
I. A Divided Democracy
Between 1830 and 1973 Chile’s government was mostly democratic and saw a steady succession of elected presidents. There was a parliamentary system, “with a well-developed system of political parties,” though wealthy landowners and commercial and industrial businesspeople held most of the power (Mattern 1998:37). However this “well-developed system of political parties” was notably polarized. The Marxist left was distinctly unionized and labor oriented, while the right held its own opposing ideals and mostly upper class supporters. These two well determined parties created an indistinct political center of small political factions which became a blend of extreme right and left criterion.
The increased political differences between the left and the right created an inability to generate effective majorities, thus election results typical represented as little as 30% of the nation. As was the case in 1964 when, the Christian Democratic Party, led by Eduardo Frei, won the presidential election (Mattern 1998:47). The party claimed to “represent a new and cohesive political center…the party attempted to break the political stalemate caused by the lack of a political center” (47). The Christian Democrat’s reformist attitude included the lower-class sectors and was successful in passing some land and labor reforms for workers. These relatively neutral reforms alienated the conservatives of the right and center while angering the left, thus increasing party rivalry. The Christian Democrats succeeded in separating themselves from much of the political spectrum, and thus in the 1969 election the center parties joined the Marxist left to form the Popular Unity coalition. The coalition’s candidate Salvador Allende won the election with 36.2 percent of the vote despite the right’s collaborative efforts with the United States to prevent his election (Oxhorn 1995:61). Regardless of winning by much less than a majority, the government began preparing a peaceful transition to socialism.
II. Socialist Progress Leading to the Coup
After his election, the Allende administration began a national move towards socialism. Allende nationalized major sectors of the economy, especially mining, industry, and banking. The land expropriations instigated under Frei were continued and wages for the lower classes were raised (Mattern 1998:48). Many of Allende’s changes were opposed by Parliament and he resorted to more executive actions, thus eroding the idea of gradual transformation and leading to increased opposition from the political right (Oxhorn 1995:61). Overall Allende’s original reforms raised the standard of living for many, but he lacked the ability to continue this growth and in return created a sever inflationary spiral (Oxhorn 1995:63). The inflation was so bad that by the end of 1972 it reached 164 percent (Mattern 1998:48). In addition, the United States began to cut back on credit and necessary supplies, thus worsening the economy. Allende’s less than majority election and his unstable economy began to take their toll.
Even before the economic troubles a destabilization campaign was working against Allende. The US not only made economic cutbacks but participated in extensive propaganda effort both inside Chile and abroad. Large demonstrations and labor strikes, as well as economic sabotage from commercial and industrial interests threatened by socialist policies began to afflict the nation (Oxhorn 1995:63). The campaign was partially funded by the U.S. government, whose goal was to stop the spread of socialism and communism. Here Allende’s supporters, who included Nueva Canción musicians, used their influence over media to promote the government’s policies. Groups such as the Inti-Illimani, Allende’s cultural ambassadors to the government of Chile (Quilapayún 2004), and Quilapayún received financial support from the government to promote Allende, despite the mainstream press’ propaganda and distortion of him (Mattern 1998:49). Musical groups and musicians such as Victor Jara attempted to unify the left and build support for the Popular Unity party through public concerts and musical and theatrical groups (Carrasco 1988:171). Despite the efforts of the Nueva Canción artists, they were unable to create unity within the country and even within their own political party. The disunity present within the party only added to the discord the Allende government was failing to correct.
Opinions vary on whether or not the military coup was inevitable and what its causes were. Mattern argues that “had supporters been able to achieve unity, the party could have acted more forcefully and cohesively in averting military interference” (51). Oxhorn suggests that “the root causes of the breakdown were related to…the relative under development of the economic structure in comparison to the political structure and the obstacles to the development of a civil society posed by the dominance of political parties” (38). Whether the cause was innate economic deficiencies or simply a lack of support in a deeply politically divided country, on September 11, 1973 the military overthrew Allende, despite his late attempts to compromise, seizing his palace and killing both the president and some of his supporters. Though the musicians tried to close the political and social gaps in Chile, they were not overwhelmingly affective. It was after the coup that the musicians played a more affective role in uniting the country in protest against the persecution and oppression of the military government.
III. Resisting Military Oppression
The 1973 coup began a military regime which would rule Chile until 1988 (Khagram, Riker and Sikkink 2002:52). The regime came to be ruled by General Pinochet and its objectives included:
First “to discipline the labour force in order to lower labour costs; the second was to destroy the left as political and ideological alternative; the third was to grant the government the exclusive power of deciding which social actors and petitions should be considered legitimate; and the fourth was to restrict political and cultural thinking which could challenge the government” (Frühling 1984:355) as cited in (Oxhorn 1995:66).
During the military’s rule, over two thousand people were detained or killed, including many of Nueva Canción Allende supports such as Victor Jara. The military also disbanded the parliament “arguing that they were afflicted with decay from Marxist infiltration” (Khagram et al. 2002:52). Perhaps the strategy that most affected the music movement was the censorship and repression of the media and any social organization, including student groups and labor unions (52). The Nueva Canción movement was thus forced underground in Chile because of the government’s eradication of any former Allende support. After the coup, many of the remaining Nueva Canción musicians left Chile and lobbied for support for Chile in the United States and Europe. The remaining song movement in Chile underwent a revival and transformation to become known as the Canto Nuevo movement. The Canto Nuevo movement “like nueva canción…blended the old and the new – old in its roots to tradition and history but new in its ties to current social reality” (Mattern 1998:58). Throughout the 1970’s canto nuevo musicians used their songs to protest the current military regime, though the present danger and censorship caused much of their protest to be done implicitly and in metaphors. “By preserving memories of a democratic Chile, musicians helped preserve its history; and by preserving its history, they helped preserve remnants of a democratic identity” (59). The military ruled Chile until the 1980s when political parties began assembling to discuss the Communistic state of their country which culminated in 1988 when the country could vote on a single candidate proposed by the military (Oxhorn 1995:78).
After leaving office, Pinochet and many other former military officials left Chile in exile. “Chile amnesty law blocked human rights activists from seeking justice for past human rights violations in domestic courts.” (Porta and Tarrow 2005:162). Chilean activists used European and Spanish courts to bring Pinochet and others to trial where the Spanish National Audience Court declared that Chile could try former military officers for current crimes and the Chilean Supreme Court ruled that the unsolved disappearances were ongoing investigations thus not covered by the amnesty law that protected former officers from being persecuted for past crimes. The court’s ruling allowed hundreds of cases to be reopened and brought justice to the human rights violations and oppression that musicians and activists fought against during the military regime (162).
The Nueva Canción Chilean movement is tied directly into the country’s political history. The goals and actions of the artists involved reflected their political associations. What originally was a movement meant to revive Chilean history and promote Allende’s Popular Unity party, and subsequently Chilean unity, became a movement to protect the rights of citizens from an oppressive military and remind them of the democracy and freedom Chile once maintained. Musicians such as Victor Jara and Violetta Parra left lasting influences on Chilean culture. To the oppressed people of Chile, Nueva Canción and Canto Nuevo were expressions of hope and a reminder of a better life. The effect of Victor Jara’s life can be seen in the renaming of the National Soccer Stadium of Chile to the Victor Jara stadium. Chilean musicians were political as well as social activists and thus a comprehensive understanding of Chilean history is necessary to understand the objectives and ideals of the New Song movement as well as to understand the effect the music had on the country of Chile.