Victor Jara, ¡Presente!

People’s singer-songwriter of Chile (28 September 1932 – 16 September 1973)

Album cover for El Derecho de Vivir en Paz (1971)

Within the first week after the overthrow of the Popular Unity government in Chile on 11 September 1973, Victor Jara, the voice from Chile that reverberated through people’s movements globally was silenced by the murderous military régime backed by the Monroe Doctrine.

His music, like many who shared his fate, would never be doomed to die (cancelled). To remember him 50 years after the profound loss to progressive arts, celebrate him with a song written for solidarity with and peace for Vietnam that became an anthem for Chilean freedom: “El Derecho de Vivir en Paz” (“The Right to Live in Peace”).

El derecho de vivir
poeta Ho Chi Minh,
que golpea de Vietnam
a toda la humanidad.
Ningún cañón borrará
el surco de tu arrozal.
El derecho de vivir en paz.

Indochina es el lugar
mas allá del ancho mar,
donde revientan la flor
con genocidio y napalm.
La luna es una explosión
que funde todo el clamor.
El derecho de vivir en paz.

Tío Ho, nuestra canción
es fuego de puro amor,
es palomo palomar
olivo de olivar.
Es el canto universal
cadena que hará triunfar,
el derecho de vivir en paz.

For a partial English translation and more enlightenment, see “On Victor Jara’s ‘The Right to Live in Peace” by Achy Obejas at https://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet-books/2022/09/on-victor-jaras-the-right-to-live-in-peace