Violeta Parra: By The Whim of the Wind is a biography about Chile's legendary musician and artist who championed her nation's rustic customs, songs and dances against a current of modernization. She left a legacy of topical songs and new respect for the dignity of humble roots. As a visual artist, Violeta Parra was the first Latin American to merit a solo exhibit in the Louvre. A woman of great passion, she paid for her choices tragically. Violeta Parra's story captivated Karen Kerschen when she was caught in the Chilean coup d'etat, September 11, 1973, and forced to flee. A New Yorker by birth, Kerschen's lifelong interest in the threads of folkloric culture date back to childhood stories of her family's emigration from Eastern Europe. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in NYC and worked in both humanities and technology. Kerschen now lives with her husband in rural northern New Mexico.

This book explores Violeta Parra’s visual art, focusing on her embroideries (arpilleras), paintings, papier-mâché collages and sculptures. Parra is one of Chile’s great artists and musicians, yet her visual art is relatively unknown. Her fusion of complex imagery from Chilean folk music and culture with archetypes in Western art results in a hybrid body of work. Parra’s hybridism is the story of this book, in which Dillon explores Parra’s ‘painted songs’, the ekphrastic nature of her creations and the way ideas translate from her music and poetry into her visual art. The book identifies three intellectual currents in Parra’s art: its relationship to motifs from Chilean popular and oral culture; its relationship to the work of other modern artists; and its relationship to the themes of her protest music. It argues that Parra’s commentaries on inequality and injustice have as much resonance today as they did fifty years ago. Dillon also explores the convergence between Parra’s art and the work of other modern twentieth-century artists, considering its links to Surrealism, Pop Art and the Mexican Muralism Movement. Parra exhibited in open-air art fairs, museums and cultural centres as well as in prestigious venues such as Museu de Arte Moderna do Brasil (the Museum of Modern Art in Brazil) and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs (Museum of Decorative Arts) in Paris. This book reflects on Parra’s socially-engaged work as it was expressed through her exhibitions in these centres as well as in through own cultural centre La carpa de la reina.

One of the leading figures in Latin American folk music and art during her lifetime, Violeta Parra was a vital force in the artistic, musical, visual, cultural, and social cultural production of the Chilean 1960s. Fifty years after her death, she continues to deeply influence artists of the present day. This book revisits Parra’s work and legacy to illustrate her global impact across artistic and political boundaries. Contributors offer multi-disciplinary perspectives that delineate how Parra contributed to shaping and—at the same time—antagonizing, societal processes in mid-20th century Chile.

The first book in English to consider the full extent of the accomplishments and influence the Chilean cultural icon, Violeta Parra.

Chilean musician and artist Violeta Parra (1917–1967) is an inspiration to generations of artists and activists across the globe. Her music is synonymous with resistance, and it animated both the Chilean folk revival and the protest music movement Nueva Cancion (New Song). Her renowned song "Gracias a la vida" has been covered countless times, including by Joan Baez, Mercedes Sosa, and Kacey Musgraves. A self-taught visual artist, Parra was the first Latin American to have a solo exhibition at the Museum of Decorative Arts in the Louvre. In this remarkable biography, Ericka Verba traces Parra's radical life and multifaceted artistic trajectory across Latin America and Europe and on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Drawing on decades of research, Verba paints a vivid and nuanced picture of Parra's life. From her modest beginnings in southern Chile to her untimely death, Parra was an exceptionally complex and talented woman who exposed social injustice in Latin America to the world through her powerful and poignant songwriting. This examination of her creative, political, and personal life, flaws and all, illuminates the depth and agency of Parra's journey as she invented and reinvented herself in her struggle to be recognized as an artist on her own terms.

Violeta Parra was a musician, a poetess, an all-round artist, and the soul of the popular tradition of Chile. The year 2017 marked the 100th anniversary of her birth. Violeta's life was painful and intense, devoted to art and love: for decades, she crossed America and Europe making people all around the world fall in love with the authentic folklore of her homeland. Virginia Tonfoni (writer) and Alessio Spataro (artist) tell her incredible story for the first time here in graphic novel format.

Saberes con sabor: Culturas hispánicas a través de la cocina es un manual avanzado que responde al creciente interés por el estudio de las prácticas culinarias y alimenticias de Ibero-América, sin desatender ni la lengua ni la cultura de esas regiones del mundo. Cada capítulo comprende aspectos vinculados con recetas, lengua, arte y teoría. Los estudiantes son expuestos a temas de geografía, historia, literatura, política, economía, religión, música e, incluso, cuestiones de género que estarían implicadas en la elaboración y en el consumo de ciertas comidas. Y, esto, mientras mejoran sus habilidades en temas esenciales y específicos del español. A lo largo del libro, están incorporados materiales de internet —como vínculos para videos, registros sonoros, referencias históricas, sitios web de cocina y contenidos suplementarios para la investigación. Muy útil en cursos universitarios, Saberes con sabor es un recurso original y único de aprendizaje para estudiantes fascinados por los placeres del paladar y, de igual manera, con una genuina pasión por las culturas hispánicas.