Jara, Victor

(1938–1973)

   Chilean composer and folk singer, most closely associated with the Nueva Canción Chilena (New Chilean Song). He is best remembered for his song “Plegaria a un labrador” (“Prayer to a Laborer”). A former seminarian, he later attended drama school, where he trained as an actor and stage director. He joined Chile’s Juventud Comunista (Communist Youth) in 1964. In 1966 he joined the Peña de los Parra, a group largely composed of members of the Parra family of songwriters, singers, and poets. A prominent cultural figure under the Unidad Popular (UP, Popular Unity) government of Salvador Allende Gossens, he was arrested in the days following the 1973 coup against Allende Gossens and brought to the National Stadium in Santiago, where he was tortured by members of the national police and murdered.