Stefan Litwin: Huakajchi

September 11, 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the day when Chile’s democratically elected president, Salvador Allende, was overthrown in a military coup. As a result, the military tortured and murdered thousands of people, among them the singer Víctor Jara. As a representative of the Nueva Canción, Jara had sung about the political conditions in his homeland with his socially critical songs and had already achieved immense popularity before Allende’s presidency. One of his songs, »Plegaria a un labrador/Prayer to a farm worker,« is modeled on the »Our Father«–in a revolutionary reinterpretation in the sense of Latin American liberation theology.

The melody, related to songs of the Andean peoples, is based on simple scale steps and illustrates with its upward movement the first word of the song text »Levantate«. The entire opening line »Levantate y mira la montaña/Stand up and look at the mountain« awakened in me the association with the Bolivian mountain Huakajchi/»The mountain that cried«. The indigenous people christened this mountain because it stands as a silent witness to the infamous Cerro Rico, the huge silver mine where hundreds of thousands of enslaved people were maltreated to death by the conquistadores and later colonial rulers. Centuries of exploitation of the shafts eventually caused large parts of Cerro Rico to collapse, leaving behind a cratered landscape.

 

The piano piece, in free variation form, takes up the idea of prayer and processes Víctor Jara’s melody in the manner of a chorale prelude–a homage to the Chilean bard, whose fate remains linked to the violent history of his homeland.

 

We would like to thank the Fundación Víctor Jara in Santiago de Chile and especially the singer’s daughter, Amanda Jara, for permission to quote and adapt the song.
(Stefan Litwin)