Violeta Parra: Life and Work

Violeta Parra was an extraordinary figure. She is best known for her contribution to the Latin American New Song movement and for her visual art, which was exhibited in the Musee des Arts Decoratifs of the Louvre gallery in 1964.

Parra spent her early career singing Mexican songs in bars and researching traditional Chilean culture. All the different phases of Parra’s life and work are discussed in this book, with analyses of her music, paintings, sculptures, embroideries (arpilleras), and poetry. Her exhibition in the Louvre gallery and the music venue that she set up before she died, La Carpa de la Reina, are also covered.

Among the individual essays collected here are seminal works by Patricio Manns and Leonidas Morales, which have been translated into English for the first time. These works introduce the historical and biographical context for Parra’s work. Other essays feature thelatest research and findings by Catherine Boyle, Ericka Verba, Paula Miranda, Serda Yalkin, Romina A. Green, and Lorna Dillon. The book also includes an interview with Violeta Parra’s brother, the influential poet Nicanor Parra and a Foreword by Marjorie Agosin.

Lorna Dillon earned her PhD at King’s College London. She is currently a network facilitator and associate lecturer at the University of Kent.