Raquel Barros Aldunate (2 December 1919 – 11 August 2014) was a

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

an folklorist, noted for her studies and dissemination of .

Biography

In 1952 Raquel Barros founded the Folkloric Association of Chile, of which she was the director for many years. This group, currently called the Raquel Barros Folkloric Group of Chile, is the oldest such group in the country. Between 1958 and 1980 she was a researcher 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.

at the Institute of Musical Research and then at the Music Department. Barros was vice-dean and assistant dean of the Faculty of Musical Sciences and Arts and Performance of that house of studies between 1974 and 1975. In 1973 she was director of the . Barros always combined research with the practice of folklore. Even at an advanced age she was working on the dissemination of Chilean culture. At 82 she headed the cultural center of the Municipality of Recoleta. In 1996, she was appointed Corresponding Member of the Permanent International Folklore Commission, based in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

, Argentina. In 2004 she was a member of the "FONDART" Project Qualification Commission of the

National Council of Culture and the Arts The National Council of Culture and the Arts (CNCA) was the Chilean government agency responsible for arts and cultural policy. The council was founded in 2003 and amalgamated arts and cultural policy under a single agency. It was a cabinet-level ...

. Raquel Barros died at the in Santiago on 11 August 2014 after suffering a fall at her home.

Publications

Some of Barros' publications include: * "El folklore de Chiloé", published by the National Secretariat of Women for the

OAS OAS or Oas may refer to: Chemistry * O-Acetylserine, amino-acid involved in cysteine synthesis Computers * Open-Architecture-System, the main user interface of Wersi musical keyboards * OpenAPI Specification (originally Swagger Specification) ...

meeting, Santiago, 1976 (with Manuel Dannemann) * "La poesía folklórica de Melipilla", ''Revista Musical Chilena'', No. 60, Santiago, 1958 * "La danza folklórica chilena – Investigación y enseñanza", ''Revista Musical Chilena'', No. 71, Santiago, 1960 * "El guitarrón en el Depto. de Puente Alto", ''Revista Musical Chilena'', No. 74, Santiago, 1960 * "Introducción al estudio de la tonada", ''Revista Musical Chilena'', No. 109, Santiago, 1964 * ''Guía metodológica para el estudio del folklore chileno'', Editorial Universitaria, Santiago, 1964 * ''La ruta de la Virgen de Palo Colorado'', Santiago, 1966 * ''El romancero chileno'', Santiago, 1970 In addition Barros made numerous compilations of folk music that are on tapes in the Traditional Music Archive of the .

Honors

Raquel Barros received countless awards and recognitions for her work disseminating Chilean folklore, both in Chile and in other countries. In 1992 she won a medal from the Municipality of Santiago for her contribution to traditional Chilean culture; this municipality had already given her a medal in 1971 when the 20 years of the Chilean Folkloric Association were approaching. Several municipalities and other Chilean organizations have recognized her work, including the Municipality of

Talagante Talagante () is a commune and the capital city of the province of the same name in the Santiago Metropolitan Region of central Chile. The word ''Talagante'' in Quechua comes from ''talacanta'', meaning "Lazo de Hechicero", which was the proper n ...

(1992), the (1993), the Council of Music (1996), the

Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

(2000), the National Folklore Prize of the San Bernardo Festival (2000), and the Chilean Cueca Samuel Claro Valdés Award (2009). In 2013 she received the

Altazor Award The Altazor Award of the National Arts or simply Altazor, is a Chilean award which is awarded annually. The winners are chosen by the own creators and performers of the arts. They were established in 1958, but were not awarded until 1999. The a ...

in the Traditional Folklore – Researcher category. In 2014 she received the

Pablo Neruda Order of Artistic and Cultural Merit The Pablo Neruda Order of Artistic and Cultural Merit ( es, Orden al Mérito Artístico y Cultural Pablo Neruda) was created in 2004 by the National Council of Culture and the Arts of the government of Chile, as part of the commemoration of the 10 ...

along with 11 other personalities from her country's artistic field.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barros, Raquel 1919 births 2014 deaths Chilean folklorists Chilean people of Basque descent People from Santiago University of Chile faculty