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
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
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 1974available in four parts on
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
.
{{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