Springsteen, Victor Jara, and 9-11

On September 11, 1973, Augusto Pinochet seized control of the Chilean government  and banned every political party that had supported democratically elected Salvador Allende. For the next 17 years, Pinochet’s military dictatorship was responsible for more than 3,000 deaths and 38,000 cases of arrests and tortures that included a large number of “desaparecidos,” people who were disappeared. The date and the number of deaths attributed to Pinochet has an eerie, synchronistic parallel to September 11, 2001 and the WTC attack.

Forty years ago this week, Chilean folk singer Victor Jara became one of the early victims of Pinochet’s brutality. He was arrested, tortured, and shot to death with 44 bullets. Bruce Springsteen  paid tribute to Jara during his first concert ever in Chile.

 “If you are a politically inclined musician, Victor Jara continues to be a great expression of that,” Springsteen said in Spanish Thursday night at a packed concert in Santiago. “It is an honor to be here.”

He noted that in 1988, he had a concert in neighboring Mendoza, Argentina, when Pinochet was still in power. He met a lot of people with missing relatives in Chile and was shown photos of them. “It is a moment that has stayed with me ever since,” Springsteen said.

As a tribute to Jara, Springsteen played one of his best known songs, Manifiesto, which is emblematic of a social and cultural movement that arose in Chile in the 1960s and early 70s. And yes, he sang it in Spanish.Pretty cool.