Gender Performance in the Music of Víctor Jara

3-year research project (2022-2025) funded by ANID Fondecyt Regular (1220146)

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Project abstract

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This project is a musicological study of Víctor Jara's work both as songwriter and as performer of folklore. It seeks to counteract the tendency to interpret his life from the perspective of his death by focusing on the multi-dimensional nature of his artistic pursuits and achievements. It explores the gender performance in Jara's musical output, from the construction of his songs' characters to his vocal performance to his interest in humorous folk repertoires and in foreign styles like rock. The projects' general objective is to contribute to our understanding of the ways in which Jara's music both expressed and challenged the gender norms of his time. Research will be conducted through the following four distinct approaches:

1. The Sexuality Problem: Rumors about Víctor Jara’s homosexuality circulated during his lifetime and periodically have resurfaced since. This approach seeks to demonstrate that Jara’s sexuality was a source of concern for his contemporaries, and that these apprehensions had a substantial impact on Jara's artistic and professional life. We hope to show that, as a coping mechanism, throughout his adult life Jara participated in queer-friendly networks that provided rich spaces for artistic, professional, and personal growth. This approach constitutes a revisionist take on the historiography of Nueva Canción Chilena, a body of work that has for the most part concealed the existence of sexual minorities.

2. Revolutionary masculinities and femininities: In most of Jara’s songs, the gender of a character is clearly delineated through his choice of articles, names, activities, and professions. For this approach we will analyze the gendered characters in his songs, their features and the roles they play within the performed narratives of each track. This approach will provide a diachronic interpretation of the ways in which Jara’s thinking about gender roles developed throughout his professional career. Such an approach will complement and expand our current thinking about Jara’s professional transformation from folklorist to singer-songwriter to militant singer. Second, this comprehensive analysis will contribute to a more thorough understanding of the gender politics at play in Chilean New Song and in Chilean society of the sixties and early seventies.

3. Rock music, gender and freedom: This approach will explore the profound impact that rock music and culture had on Jara's music beyond what has been acknowledged, such as his collaboration with rock group Los Blops. Close listening to his songs reveals Jara’s knowledge and appreciation of contemporary anglophone rock bands, such as The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. These influences appear in subtle but significant ways, such as the use of particular melodic modes, chord constructions and progressions, guitar strumming patterns, rhythmic emphases, and an interest in improvisation. Beyond a purely aesthetic appreciation, we will study the ways in which Jara used rock culture to explore counter-cultural notions of gender and sexuality.

4. Humor, gender and sexuality in folklore performance: Attention to Jara's performances of folk songs reveals that he was keen on humorous repertoires, particularly of "picaresca chilena." In this approach, we rely on the work of folklorist Alan Dundes to analyze Jara’s recordings of humorous folk songs, with emphasis on the ones that express anxieties about gender and sexuality. We explore the ways in which the humor in these performances relates to contemporary debates about gender and sexuality during Allende’s Popular Unity government. We ask, how does the traditional knowledge (“saber popular”) expressed in these songs relate to attempts by Jara and others of establishing a new masculinity, expressed in the concept of the “hombre nuevo”?

Researchers

Daniel Party, Responsible Researcher

Research assistants

Gabriel Rammsy

Montserrat Venegas

Ana María Díaz

Thesis students

Felipe González. Magíster en Artes mención música, Facultad de Artes, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

Esteban González. Música y diplomacia cultural durante la Unidad Popular: Víctor Jara en gira por Costa Rica en 1971. Magíster en Artes mención música, Facultad de Artes, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

Carolina Valdivia Gallardo. Licenciatura en Música, mención Musicología at Instituto de Música, Facultad de Artes, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

Publications

Party, D. (2025). Nuevas aproximaciones a Víctor Jara a cincuenta años de su muerte. Revista Musical Chilena, 79(244), 167-175.

Party, D., & Wolf, J. E. (2023). Canto por travesura: folklore y picaresca en un disco de Víctor Jara. Revista Musical Chilena, 77(240), 62-79.

Party, D. (2023). The Right to Live in Peace: Musical Responses to Violence in the 2019 Chilean Uprising. Latin American Perspectives, 50(3), 37-52.

Party, D. (2023). Rethinking Post-Authoritarian Chile Through its Popular Music. Twentieth-Century Music, 20(1), 90-106.

Benavente, J., & Party, D. (2022). Los Diablos Rojos de Víctor Jara: Un análisis coreográfico y musical. Resonancias, 26(51), 97-117.

Invited Guest Lectures and Workshops

“Siempre será canción nueva. Encuentros con Victor Jara a 33 años del nacimiento de la Fundación”, Conversatorio, Fundación Víctor Jara, Enero 2026

“‘Algunos nos inclinamos por el lila’: Fragmentos cuir en la vida de Víctor Jara”, Instituto de Música, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Oct 2025

“Los Diablos Rojos de Víctor Jara: un análisis coreográfico y musical” (with Javiera Benavente), Simposio Internacional Bandas de bronces y movimientos sociales, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Dec 2024

“Queering Víctor Jara,” Music Department, University of Pennsylvania, Sept 2024

“Queering Víctor Jara.” Music, Power, & 9/11: la Canción Protesta de Victor Jara & the Chilean Coup of 1973. Haverford College, Sept 2024

“Música, estudios y perspectiva de género,”Lanzamiento Revista Musical Chilena N° 240 (roundtable), Aug 2024

“Las vidas de Víctor Jara: obra y legado”, Conversatorio, Casa Memoria de Valparaíso, Nov 2023

“A 50 Años del Apagón Cultural: ¿ Qué se escuchaba antes, durante, y después de 1973?”, Conversatorio, Casa Cultural Yanulaque (Arica), Aug 2023

Music Department, University of Illinois Chicago, Apr 2023

Association of Graduate Ethno/Musicology Students Colloquium, Butler School of Music, University of Texas at Austin, Mar 2023

Ethnomusicology Roundtable, Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, Mar 2023

Seminario Permanente de Música y Género, Facultad de Música, Universidad Autónoma de México, Mar 2023

Department of Spanish & Portuguese, Tulane University, Feb 2023

“Víctor Jara: Beyond the Martyr,”LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections, University of Texas at Austin, Jan 2023

“Cantos por Travesura: Humor y picardía en Víctor Jara,” Semana de la musicología, Instituto de Música UC, Oct 2021

Conference presentations

“Música y conmemoración a 50 años del golpe de Estado chileno”, VI Congreso ARLAC/IMS (Panel organizer and chair, Ciudad de México, México), Aug 2024

“Víctor Jara, el Partido Comunista y lo mapuche: entre solidaridad y pastoralismo folklórico” (with Luis Achondo), Congreso de SIBE/IASPM-España/ICTM España (Granada, España), Nov 2023

“Humor y folclore en Víctor Jara”, Congreso de SIBE/IASPM-España/ICTM España (Granada, España), Nov 2023

“Víctor Jara’s Bawdy Humor”, 67th Annual Meeting of the SEM (Panel organizer and chair, New Orleans, LA), Nov 2022

In the Media

“Beyond the Music: Daniel Party on Víctor Jara and the Many Facets of Musicology”. Interview in Portal: Magazine of LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections, University of Texas at Austin, Octobre 17, 2023.