Violeta Parra

Parra was born in San Carlos, province of Ñuble, a small town in southern Chile on October the 4, 1917. She was involved in the progressive movement and the Communist Party of Chile. She revivedthe Peña (now known as La Peña de Los Parra), a community center for the arts and for political activism. Some think she established the first 'peña' but according to the records of the Royal Academy ofSpanish Language, places such as these had been called that since 1936 (RAE).
Violeta Parra was a member of the prolific Parra family. Among her brothers were the notable modern poet, better known asthe "anti-poet", Nicanor Parraand fellow folklorist Roberto Parra. Her son, Ángel Parra, and her daughter, Isabel Parra, are also important figures in the development of the Nueva Canción Chilena. Theirchildren have also mostly maintained the family's artistic traditions.
In 1967 Violeta Parra committed suicide.[1] She had previously been romantically involved with Swiss flautist Gilbert Favre.-------------------------------------------------
[edit]Music
Her most renowned song, Gracias a la Vida (Thanks to Life), was popularized throughout Latin America by Mercedes Sosa and later in the USby Joan Baez. It remains one of the most covered Latin American songs in history. Other notable covers of this tragic, but widely beloved, folk anthem include the Italian guitar-vocal solo of AdrianaMezzadr and La Oreja de Van Gogh at the 2005 Festival Internacional de la Canción in Viña del Mar, Chile.[2]
It has been treated by classically trained musicians such as in the fully orchestratedrendition by conservatory-trained Alberto Cortez.[3]
The song has been re-recorded by several Latin artists and Canadian Michael Bublé to gather funds for the Chilean people affected by the earthquake inChile, February 2010.[4]
The song is in waltz time (3/4) and thus suitable for romantic dance forms; it opens with a simple but relatively unusual shift between A minor and E Major chords, setting up...