Singing the Praise of a Slain Songwriter

On Saturday night, a group of Los Angeles activists and artists will gather at the First Unitarian Church to pay tribute to slain Chilean singer-songwriter Victor Jara, whose 1973 death symbolizes the fate of tens of thousands of Latin Americans persecuted for their political ideas.

Among the participants: actress Beth Broderick, and singers Erica Verba, Mari Riddle and Mercedes Marquez of the group Desbordes. Actors David Clennon and Victoria Alonso will read from “An Unfinished Song,” a memoir by Jara’s widow, Joan, and from Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano’s novel “Century of the Wind.”

“The depth of Jara’s thinking and the beauty of his music were some of the things that made me join the protesta song movement,” said the event’s director, songwriter and activist Paul Baker, who will perform English and Spanish versions of Jara’s songs. “Jara’s cry for justice in Latin America is as needed now as it was 20 years ago.”

Proceeds will benefit Chile’s Victor Jara Foundation--an organization founded by his widow and members of the acclaimed Chilean folk group Inti-Illimani--and Sunset Hall, a Los Angeles retirement home for American political activists.

Born in 1938 in Chillan Viejo in southern Chile, Jara was encouraged to become an interpreter by legendary folklorist Violeta Parra, who taught him some of her songs.

After graduating from the University of Chile in Santiago, Jara launched a singing and stage directing career that earned him awards in and out of Chile. In his simple but moving acoustic music, Jara combined social messages with traditional Chilean and Latin American rhythms, creating classics.

“Ever since I was born,” he once said, “I have seen injustice, poverty and social misery in my country, and that’s why I feel the need to sing for the people. I firmly believe that man must become free during the course of his life and that he must work for justice.”

This attitude made him a marked man by the military.

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In September, 1973, Jara, then 35, was scheduled to sing in Santiago’s Technical University, but he was arrested and taken to a nearby stadium where suspected Communists were being tortured and executed by government forces. His capture came only days after the bloody coup d’etat that ended President Salvador Allende’s democratically elected Socialist government and brought Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship to power. That month, his body was found in the area of the Metropolitan Cemetery. It showed signs of severe torture and 44 bullet wounds.

In death, Jara’s already considerable stature took on the dimension of martyrdom, inspiring similar cantores throughout the continent with a similar message of social justice.

“I consider Victor Jara on the same level as Bob Dylan, Bob Marley and Pete Seeger,” says veteran folk-music promoter and political activist Ed Pearl, the organizer of Saturday’s tribute. “He spoke so deeply for his people that he could touch his countrymen with the same effect as Dylan or Marley. He’s had some of the most intense connection with people of any artist I’ve ever known.”

* Concert information : (213) 387-5277 and (818) 568-0294.