New Approaches to Víctor Jara Fifty Years After His Death

Abstract

In this document, I reflect on how various political and social processes of renewal and reconsideration led to new ways of writing and thinking about Víctor Jara around the 50th anniversary of the coup d'état. I analyze how these are manifested in two biographies of Jara published in Chile in 2023. While these new approaches do not constitute a complete departure from previous ones, they go beyond the prevailing trend of venerating Jara's figure and hiding contradictions, internal tensions, or critical perspectives on earlier sources or research. The document concludes that these biographies present perspectives that quite transparently reflect the interests and concerns of their authors, as well as the spaces gained in this century by the Communist Party of Chile and the new ways of memorializing the coup d’état promoted by Gabriel Boric’s government.