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oregon daily emerald
friday, november 1, 1985
arts and entertainment
Chile s new folk minstrels smg ot struggle, hope
Chilean folksinger Isabel Aldunate, who recently appeared in concert at Beall
Hall, stands before a Peace \1ural designed by Chilean artist t rancisco etelier
assisted by Nicaraguan Alejandro Canales. The mural is located at the Wesley
Center on Kincaid Street, home of the Council for Human Rights in Latin
America who co-sponsored Aldunate's appearance along with the Latin
Amareica Support Committee.
Art is a weapon as old as time, and today there are
guitar-wielding warriors in Chile.
A new generation of Chilean singers and
songwriters has placed itself at the forefront of op
position to the military dictatorship now ruling their
nation. These people sing their songs in churches,
schools, factories and union halls, offering workers
and studonts a cultural alternative to the government
controlled mass media of Chile. By giving voice to
the social and political concerns of the poor, they run
the risk of harrassment, imprisonment — and even
death.
Isabel Aldunate is considered one of the most
prominent representatives of the New Chilean Song
Movement, as it is called. Although she is a lawyer
and a 36-year old mother of three, Aldunate is
devoting more and more of her time to singing. Cur
rently touring the United States and Canada, she
recently gave a concert at Beall Hail, co-sponsored by
the Council for Human Rights in Latin America and
the Latin America Support Committee.
At a pre-concert press conference. Aldunate ex
plained her preference for singing over legal work.
“One of the greatest aspirations I have as a
woman is to communicate with other human beings.”
she said. “Folksinging is a medium which enables
me to do this in the most complete way possible. Sit
ting behind a desk. I can do certain work which does
put me in contact with people, but never to the extent
that is possible when 1 am in front of an audience as
a folksinger.”
in concert, Aldunate sings with a big. beautiful voice
that expresses a wide range of emotional intensities:
love to outrage to sorrow. Her emotional communica
Story by Kevin Harrington
Photos by Steven Wall
tion is strong enough to transfix listeners who don t
speak a word of Spanish. It's easy to see why she
considers singing a more powerful means of com
munication than doing legal work.
Expressing dissent in Chile has been rather
dangerous ever since a bloody US-financed military
coup by Gen. Augusto Pinochet overthrew Salvador
Allende’s popularly-elected Socialist government in
September 1973. The Pinochet government has ar
rested thousands of Chileans for exercising their right
to protest. Aldunate admitted that this tempers the
activities of Chilean dissidents somewhat.
“Nowadays in Chile, one always has to be
careful," she said. "The different means of persecu
tion are varied ana onen sudub. i_/ne cun nsi a
number of things including economic strangulation.
People who are involved in any kind of art are prac
tically starving to death. There is no such thing as
state subsidies for the arts in Chile.
“On the other hand, there is censorship.” she ad
ded. “Many artists have been blacklisted from ap
pearing on radio and television, including myself."
Aldunate said there are also more direct forms of
repression in use — including assassination. The
New Song Movement has produced it's share of mar
tyrs, incuding Victor Jara, the legendary folksinger
and theatre director who was one of thousands of
Chileans tortured and murdered by the military dur
ing the weeks and months following the coup.
Aldunate is actually part of the second generation
of the New Chilean Song Movement. Before the coup,
folksingers and other artists expressing populist sen
timents operated with considerably greater freedom
than their recent counterparts. The first phase of the
New Song Movement began in the 1960s and encom
passed all of Latin America.
uan Epple, a University assistant professor of
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