Joan Jara (born Joan Alison Turner, England, 1927) is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

- Chilean dancer, activist, and widow of Chilean icon, communist and folksinger

Víctor Jara Víctor Lidio Jara Martínez (; 28 September 1932 – 16 September 1973) was a Chilean teacher, theater director, poet, singer-songwriter and Communist political activist. He developed Chilean theater by directing a broad array of works, ran ...

. Since his death, she dedicated herself to perpetuating the memory of him, his work, and his values. She wrote ''An Unfinished Song: The Life of Victor Jara'' in 1984, and founded the Víctor Jara Foundation.

Early life and career

Jara was born in England in 1927. She met Víctor at the

University of Chile The University of Chile ( es, Universidad de Chile) is a public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843.

in 1961: he studied theatre and she gave dance classes in the theatre school. At this time, Jara also danced in the national ballet. When she was recovering from an illness once, Víctor brought her flowers that Jara surmises he stole from the park due to his budget. Jara had a daughter less than a year old at this time from a previous husband, from whom she was separated. The daughter and Víctor were close.

1973 Coup

Her husband was assassinated in the 1973 coup. He left the morning of the coup to defend the university and was corralled with others into the stadium, which became "a makeshift concentration camp". Jara sought assistance from the British embassy, which was closed. Jara identified his body in the Santiago

morgue A morgue or mortuary (in a hospital or elsewhere) is a place used for the storage of human corpses awaiting identification (ID), removal for autopsy, respectful burial, cremation or other methods of disposal. In modern times, corpses have cu ...

within a pile of corpses, where his wrists and neck were broken, his abdomen gory, and his body shot with 44 bullets. Before he died, he arranged for a message to be smuggled out of the stadium to his wife, telling her where he had last parked their car and saying that he loved her. He became one of the best-known victims of the coup. She left Chile in 1973, changed her surname to Jara, and dedicated herself to perpetuating the memory of her husband, his works, and his values. She returned to Chile in 1984 to revive his memory. In an interview, Jara said the Chilean military would not tell her the names of the officers at the stadium where Víctor died. As court cases proceeded, the military underlings outed their officers. Her lawyer added that the Chilean military has a "pact of silence" against providing information to the families of the disappeared, and that the low-level soldiers' testimony was pivotal to their officer identification efforts.

Civil lawsuit

In 2013, Jara filed a civil lawsuit against a former military officer she charges as responsible for her husband's death, Pedro Barrientos, who has lived in

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for about 20 years and became an American citizen through marriage. The lawsuit was filed under the

Torture Victim Protection Act The Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991 (TVPA; ) is a statute that allows for the filing of civil suits in the United States against individuals who, acting in an official capacity for any foreign nation, committed torture and/or extrajudicial ...

and the

Alien Tort Statute The Alien Tort Statute ( codified in 1948 as ; ATS), also called the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA), is a section in the United States Code that gives federal courts jurisdiction over lawsuits filed by foreign nationals for torts committed in vi ...

, a federal law that lets American courts try foreign human rights disputes. Barrientos and six others were charged in Jara's murder in December 2012 based on a conscript's corroborated testimony.

References

External links

Documentaries

British Film Institute documentary film ''Compañero Víctor Jara of Chile'' directed by Martin Smith and Stanley Forman in 1974
available in four parts on

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. {{DEFAULTSORT:Jara, Joan 1927 births Living people Chilean activists Chilean female dancers Chilean dancers British emigrants to Chile Dancers from London Naturalized citizens of Chile