Victor Jara

Ramon Sosamontes

Sosamontes honors the short life of musician and political activist Victor Jara in this celebratory linocut, whose detailing reflects Sosamontes’ roots in the traditionalist style of Mexican woodcuts of the early 20th century.

Victor Jara was an internationally celebrated Chilean theater performer, musician, teacher, and political activist. He came from the peasant class of San Ignacio, Chile, and he began working in the fields with his father at age six. His musical talents were encouraged by his mother, herself a folk musician. By his early twenties Jara would become a widely popular theater performer and songwriter, taking on works with sociopolitical themes and recording songs that borrowed from both the traditional and the modern.

As his career and influence grew - even finding a foothold in mainstream American music - so did his political activism. His broad popularity and recognition as a supporter of socialism placed him at the epicenter of global political upheaval. On September 11, 1973, the conservative Chilean government staged a coup, installing Augusto Pinochet as dictator. Jara was taken prisoner along with 40,000 Chileans and supporters who spoke out against injustice. They were detained at the National Stadium of Chile, and many of them, including Jara were tortured. On September 16, along with 70 other prisoners, Victor Jara was executed, and his body was hung outside of the entrance to the stadium as a warning.

Forty-two years later, former Chilean military officers were charged with his murder and the body of Victor Jara, exhumed for examination for the court case, was reburied across from the Victor Jara Cultural Center in Santiago, Chile; thousands of citizens and international fans attended the reburial. The stadium where Jara was killed was renamed for him in September of 2003, on the anniversary of his death. An asteroid belt discovered days after his death was named after him by the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory.

To this day, Victor Jara is seen as a martyr and hero of the Chilean people.