VOICES OF WOMEN
EDITORIAL: THOSE INEFFABLE VOICES, MOTHERS OF US ALL
When, on 5 February 1967, at only 50 years of age, Violeta Parra killed herself with a shotgun blast, the root of a tree died that, fortunately, and despite human wickedness, continued to blossom and bear fruit. The 20th century, even before being the century of the proletariat’s consciousness-raising, is the century in which, for the first time, the voice of women – the victims of thousands of years of blind and vulgar patriarchy – is heard, loud, clear and (unfortunately) desperate.
It is very difficult not to utter platitudes on the subject. We do not want to talk about pink quotas, superiority, equal pay, because this is acquiescent rhetoric, which considers the current situation incontrovertible. There are women who have managed to bring their voices into our dreams, into our memories, into our life experience, and Violeta was the mother of them all. The ninth child of a peasant musician and a seamstress, born in a remote village on the plateau between Santiago and Concepción, she came from nowhere, from a place outside the crossroads of the dominant economy and culture, as it was for Jesus of Nazareth.
She, like the other women whose lives and works we recount, changed the way we see things forever. We are not talking about folk or pop musicians who, because of their singular prowess, have had professional careers in the global spotlight (such as Joni Mitchell, Dalida and Françoise Hardy), but about artisans of pain, who in their lyrics, and through their singing, have given testimony to what a mother is: a real woman, who has taken life into her own hands, who pays any price for her freedom and the defence of her children.
These women have millions of children, scattered throughout the history of this last century of death, destruction, but also of incomparable beauty. They are the consciences of all, men and women, who have grown up aware of their teaching, and who have fallen asleep lulled by their gentleness, their tenacity, their ineffable strength and vitality.
That is why, to describe them, we have chosen Violeta’s painting, entitled ‘The Tree of Life’, which describes better than a thousand words the motherhood who, through her work, has been able to influence generations of human beings, and give a glimmer of hope to this self-destructive humanity of ours.
ARTICLES
MIRIAM MAKEBA, THE VOICE OF AFRICA
In the darkest years after World War II, the persecution of the black population in South Africa reached unprecedented levels of violence. It is those who rebel against the infamous…
MARTA KUBIŠOVÁ, THE VOICE AGAINST THE TANKS
A cold November in 1968, snow and despair, and a song. Singing it, to vindicate democracy, is a charming and proud twenty-something, wearing boots and hair as they are worn…
CESÁRIA ÉVORA: THE MELANCHOLY OF THE BAREFOOT DIVA
The chubby cheeks, the round, high forehead, the thick eyebrows painted black. Her neck, wrists and hands encircled by gleaming gold chains. The sound of her name evokes the scorching…
AMÁLIA RODRIGUES AND ENDLESS MELANCHOLY
She performs in a black dress, the shawl over her shoulders, mourning in her heart. The head bent backwards, the tragic face of a Greek mask. The motions of the…
ROSA BALISTRERI, SICILY’S CRIES OF PAIN
True songs that speak of suffering, of family dramas, can only be written by those who live a tormented existence. Little girls, forced into early adulthood, when they become butterflies…
MERCEDES SOSA, THE VOICE OF THE VOICELESS
If you are unfamiliar with the tragic events of post-war Argentina and the last fifty years of civil and cultural history of the Latin American country that is the home…
VIOLETA PARRA, FREEDOM IS AN ABSOLUTE PAIN
If you want to fight to change the world, you have to use unconventional weapons, such as music and poetry. So did Violeta Parra, pencil and guitar, at war with…
SONA JOBARTEH: THE KORA THAT HEALS THE AFRICAN BLUES
Some seemingly unpleasant moments of childhood, once adults, can be revisited and reworked – this is probably what happened to little Sona: on boring family evenings, her wise grandmother asks…
RIM BANNA, VOICE OF THE WOUNDED HEART OF PALESTINE
‘I am a terrorist without bombs and I have only one weapon, my music’[1]. This is sung by Rim Banna, who for decades represented the spirit of revenge of the…