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September 28, 1932, was the day that the famous Chilean teacher, Víctor Lidio Jara Martínez, was born. He was born in Chillán Viejo, Chile. He was born with the zodiac sign of Libra.
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As a child, Victor had to collect firewood by cutting down small trees. He did this with his older siblings Maria, Georgina, Lalo, and Roberto. To earn extra money the family rented a room to a local schoolteacher.
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When Victor was just 15 his mother, Amanda Martínez, passed away. She raised Victor, Maria, Georgina, Lalo, and Roberto by herself considering that her husband was an alcoholic. He was also increasingly abusive.
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Victor began studying to be an accountant but then moved on to study to become a priest. Neither of these interested him as much as theater and folk music. He began writing folk music.
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He wrote many folk songs. Some including Manifiesto, El Arado, and Luchin. These songs are written in Spanish. The English names of these songs are Manifesto, The Plow, and Luchin.
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Victor was also a poet. He wrote many poems alongside writing music. Some poems include “Estadio Chile" and "Somos Cinco Mil". Translated to English they are “Estadio Chile " and " We Are Five Thousand ".
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In 1960, Victor married Joan Allison Turner. They had four children together, but Joan had another daughter with her previous husband, her name was Manuela Bunster. Victor and Joan had Amanda, Roberto, Manuela, as well as Eduardo.
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Jara supported Allende, who was running for president in 1970. Victor composed "Venceremos" as the theme song of Allende's Popular Unity movement. Allende was elected as president of Chile.
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Jara was arrested on September 12, 1973, one day after the military coup (a sudden, violent, and illegal seizure of power from a government) led by General Augusto Pinochet. He was held in captivity with around 5,000 other people in the capital's biggest stadium. He was interrogated, tortured and then killed.
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Victor Jara died on September 16, 1973. He was kept in the stadium for 4 days before he was killed. Some of Victor’s last words were “My guitar is not for the rich no, nothing like that. My song is of the ladder we are building to reach the stars”. He was shot 44 times and his hands broken by rifle butts just days after the coup.
