Violeta Zúñiga (April 12, 1933 - February 2, 2019) was a Chilean human rights activist who was part of the ''Agrupación de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos'' (Group of Family Members of Detainees and Disappeared) during the

Military Dictatorship of Chile A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distin ...

(1973-1990) until her death. She was also a member of the folk dance group, "Cueca sola", in which she participated more than a hundred times as a dancer, commemorating those who disappeared in Chile.Bannister, Ramón (2004). «La cueca sola: An Ethnomusicologist's Perspective on the AFDD Conjunto». Resound: A Quarterly of the Archives of Traditional Music 23 (1-2): 1-11. ISSN 0749-2472.

Biography

Violeta Zúñiga Peralta was born in the town of Zúñiga,

O'Higgins Region The Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins Region ( es, Región del Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins, ), often shortened to O'Higgins Region ( es, Región de O'Higgins), is one of Chile's 16 first order administrative divisions. It is subdi ...

, April 12, 1933. She lived there with her parents until the age of 13, when she emigrated to

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, who ...

. There she met her life partner, Pedro Silva Bustos, who was detained and disappeared since August 9, 1976.Ponce Villarroel, Johann Manuel (2014). «Capitulo Tercero: Hacia una resignificación de la Cueca Sola». Reconstrucción histórica de la cueca sola. Desde el imaginario social y político en Chile (1978-1990). Universidad Arcis. pp. 133-199. Since the disappearance of Silva, Zúñiga began a tireless search for his whereabouts, going to various

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

organizations that opposed the dictatorship and who helped the victims. There, she met other women in the same situation and she decided to form the ''Agrupación de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos'', along with other members the Folkloric Ensemble of the Agrupación, who are notable for the original creation of the work ''La cueca sola''. In 1987,

Sting Sting may refer to: * Stinger or sting, a structure of an animal to inject venom, or the injury produced by a stinger * Irritating hairs or prickles of a stinging plant, or the plant itself Fictional characters and entities * Sting (Middle-ear ...

paid homage to the "Cueca sola" dance group with the song ''

They Dance Alone "They Dance Alone (Cueca Solo)" is a protest song composed by English musician Sting and published first on his 1987 album '' ...Nothing Like the Sun''; the song was the fifth and final single released from the album. The song is a metaphor referr ...

'', in which Zúñiga participated among the dancers. Also, the song was presented at the Amninstía concert in 1990. 16 Together with Agrupación and the group "Women for Life", which included Diamela Eltit and Lotty Rosenfeld, among others, Zuniga planned and executed a series of protests and peaceful marches. She left the country twice after receiving threats of physical violence and detention. Zuniga died February 2, 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zuniga, Violeta 1933 births 2019 deaths People from O'Higgins Region Chilean human rights activists Chilean female dancers Chilean dancers