Victor was a teacher who was very loved by his community, and his singer-songwriter styled guitar songs were known to many. Instead of rock, he mostly played folk and sang about his small town, his family and the struggles he faced in life. When the dictatorship took power by force in Chile back in 1973, Victor was seen as a threat, since his songs unified so many people against the dictator. Despite everyone’s best efforts to save Victor, he sadly died at the hands of the dictatorship. To this day, numerous streets in the country are named after him, and his music is still proudly played to this day. My favorite song from Victor is “Plegaria a un Labrador” ("A Prayer to the Farmer").
Lastly, and my personal favorite Chilean band, is Mawiza. Mawiza is a Chilean metal band that is entirely composed of Mapuche, one of the groups of native people in Chile. All songs are sung exclusively in their native language of Mapudungun. They also write their music with their culture on their sleeves. Notes are often done in sets of four, which is a very important number to the Mapuche. Recently, they have been finding international fame due to a legendary metal composer, Joe Dueplantier of Gojira, who thinks that the message that they are singing and their efforts to express their culture are very important and should be heard by the world. Joe and Mawiza have been working together a lot recently and have made some of my favorite music as of recently! My favorite song to listen to has been, "Ti Inan Paw-Pawkan" ("The Last Harp’s Call")! It is amazing to see a combination of traditional Mapuche instruments and metal be brought together so seamlessly.
These are, of course, some of my personal favorites and ones that I know a little bit about.
