Editing Víctor Jara (section)

==Political activism==
Early in his recording career, Jara showed a knack for antagonizing conservative Chileans, releasing a traditional comic song called "La beata" that depicted a religious woman with a crush on the priest to whom she goes for confession. The song was banned on radio stations and removed from record shops, but the controversy only added to Jara's reputation among young and progressive Chileans.<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk">[http://www.news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/165363.stm "'They Couldn't Kill His Songs,'"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150922091750/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/165363.stm |date=22 September 2015 }} BBC News, World: Americas]</ref> More serious in the eyes of the Chilean right wing was Jara's growing identification with the socialist movement led by [[Salvador Allende]]. After visits to [[Cuba]] and the [[Soviet Union]] in the early 1960s, Jara joined the [[Communist Party of Chile|Communist Party]]. The personal met the political in his songs about the poverty he had experienced firsthand.<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk" />

[[File:Victor-Jara-in-Helsinki-1969.jpg|thumb|right|In 1969, Jara appeared in [[Helsinki]] protests against the [[Vietnam War]].]]
Jara's songs spread outside Chile and were performed by American folk artists.<ref name="allmusic.com">"Victor Jara," ''All Music Guide'', http://www.allmusic.com (16 January 2007){{better source needed |reason=No direct link to anything about subject provided |date=December 2022}}</ref> His popularity was due not only to his songwriting skills but also to his exceptional power as a performer. He took a turn toward political confrontation with his 1969 song "Preguntas por Puerto Montt" ("Questions About Puerto Montt"), whose subject was [[Edmundo Pérez Zujovic]], a government official who had ordered police to attack squatters in the town of [[Puerto Montt]]. The Chilean political situation deteriorated after the official was assassinated, and right-wing thugs beat up Jara on one occasion.<ref name="allmusic.com" />

In 1970, Jara supported Allende, the [[Popular Unity (Chile)|Popular Unity]] coalition candidate for president, volunteering for political work and playing free concerts.<ref>Jara, Joan. ''Víctor: An Unfinished Song,''</ref> He composed "[[Venceremos (song)|Venceremos]]" ("We Will Triumph"), the theme song of Allende's Popular Unity movement, and welcomed Allende's election to the Chilean presidency in 1970. After the election, Jara continued to speak in support of Allende and played an important role in the new administration's efforts to reorient Chilean culture.<ref>Mularski, Jedrek. ''Music, Politics, and Nationalism in Latin America: Chile During the Cold War Era''. Amherst: Cambria Press. {{ISBN|978-1-60497-888-9}}.</ref>

He and his wife, [[Joan Jara]], were key participants in organizing cultural events that supported the Chile's new socialist government. He set poems by Pablo Neruda to music and performed at a ceremony honoring him after Neruda received the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] in 1972. During this time, Jara continued to teach at Chile's [[University of Santiago, Chile#Universidad Técnica del Estado|Technical University]]. His popular success during this time, as both a musician and a Communist, earned him a concert in [[Moscow]]. He was so successful that the Soviet Union claimed in their media that his vocal prowess was the result of surgery he had undergone while in Moscow.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Our Man in Chile, or Victor Jara's Posthumous Life in Soviet Media and Popular Culture|last = Minkova|first = Yuliya|publisher = Virginia Tech|year = 2013|pages = 608}}</ref>

On 11 September 1973, the Chilean military, with the support of the United States, [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|overthrew the Allende government]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Hitchens |first=Christopher |title=The Trial of Henry Kissinger |year=2001 |publisher=Twelve |location=New York |isbn=978-1455522972 |page=304}}</ref> resulting in Allende's suicide and the installation of [[Augusto Pinochet]] as dictator. On the day of the coup, Jara was on his way to work at the Technical University. He slept that night at the university along with other teachers and students and sang to raise their morale.{{Citation needed |date=December 2022}}