Latin American song genre. Nueva canción (or ‘new song’ movement) has been largely defined by Chilean musicians, active before and during the first democratically elected socialist coalition government of President Salvador Allende (1970–73). Little of the music and song of nueva canción is political in any overt sense, rather it expresses the energies, hopes and experiences of the times. The groups Quilapayún, Inti Illimani and singers such as Víctor Jara (1932–73), Patricio Manns, and Angel and Isabel Parra epitomise a generation of musicians across the continent and beyond whose formative years in the 1950s and 60s were rooted in ideals of social justice and equality.
The pioneering example of three key folklore collectors and musicians, Violeta Parra (1917–67) in Chile, Atahualpa Yupanqui (1908–92) in Argentina and Carlos Puebla (1917–96) in Cuba, helped pave the way for the rediscovery of the rural sounds of Latin America. In Chile this included the rediscovery of the oldest instruments and traditions of the Andes which had survived since pre-colonial times, including the small armadillo-backed string charango, the kena bamboo flute and panpipes. A ‘Latin American’ cultural identity emerged in a music whose sensibilities and lyrics were poetic, some of it drawing on popular poetry of early hispanic origin, epitomised by Violeta Parra's ‘Canto a lo poeta y a lo humano’, modelled on complex poetry of rural payadores (improvising poets). The centre of nueva canción was the Santiago Peña de los Parra (a small nightclub run at weekends by Angel and Isabel Parra), a meeting point for musicians, where Jara, the Parras and Manns sang regularly. The songs of Víctor Jara (who was murdered after the 1973 Chilean coup d'état) characterize the period in both musical style and verbal content, two of the most loved being ‘Plegaria a un labrador’ (which won the July 1969 first festival of nueva canción) and ‘Te recuerdo Amanda’.
After 1973, in European exile, Inti Illimani became the heart and soul of the solidarity movement until they were finally allowed to return home in 1998. In the 1970s and 80s, when tough military dictatorships dominated the Americas, nueva canción musicians, persecuted by these regimes met up at peace concerts and festivals held in Nicaragua, Mexico, Peru, Cuba, Argentina and Brazil. Musicians involved included Mercedes Sosa, Leon Gieco and Víctor Heredia (Argentina); Chico Buarque, Wagner Tiso and Milton Nascimento (Brazil); Silvio Rodríguez and Pablo Milanés (Cuba); Carlos and Luís Enrique and Mejía Godoy (Nicaragua); Daniel Viglietti (Uruguay); Amparo Ochoa and Gabino Palomares (Mexico). In Spain, despite no direct links to the genre, a similar sensibility survives in singers of Catalan nova canço (see also Nueva trova. In the post-dictatorship ambience of the 1990s individual careers have blossomed while strong supportive friendships between many of these musicians remain of significance.
V.J. Jara: An Unfinished Song (London, 1983/R)
April in Managua, Varagram TNF 160 (1984)
Corazón americano, perf. Mercedes Sosa, León Gieco, Milton Nascimento, Tropical Music 680013 (1985)
De mi, perf. Mercedes Sosa, Tropical Music 68.955 (1990)
A. Godoy and J.-P. González: Música popular chilena: 20 años 1970–90 (Santiago, 1995)
C. Acevedo and R. Torres, eds.: Víctor Jara, obra musical completa (Chile, 1996)
Arriesgaré la piel, perf. Inti Illimani, Xenophile 4049 (1996)
Víctor Jara Complete, Pläne 88747 (1997)
L. Advis and J.-P. González: Clásicos de la música popular Chilena ii, 1960–73 (Santiago, 1998)
JAN FAIRLEY