Thanks to Life - by Ericka Kim Verba

About the Book

"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 Canciâon (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"--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

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 Canción (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.

Review Quotes

"Ericka Verba's biography of Violeta Parra masterfully entangles the Chilean artist's life with some of the key tensions that mark the history of Chile in the twentieth century. Extensive research . . . becomes evident in the amount and different kinds of documents with which Verba worked and integrated into a biography of one of Chile's most celebrated artists. . . . Verba actively searches for balance in her bibliographic references in terms of including Spanish-speaking authors. By doing this, she includes work often left aside due to language restrictions. As a Latin American scholar, I greatly appreciate and celebrate this effort."--A Contracorriente

"Ericka Verba's remarkably detailed and immersive portrait of Chilean creative activist Violeta Parra arrives at just the right moment. Verba uncovers the polymath's skills, devotions, challenges, and complications with a nuanced thoughtfulness unmatched in anything else I have read thus far on nueva canción or its protagonists. . . . I have already used this biography in my college class room, and I imagine that it would suit music fans and academics alike. . . . Verba's volume is truly a stunning account of a remarkable activist, artist, musician, folklorist, and person."--Notes: The Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association

"Verba . . . frames Parra's biography in terms of contemporary scholarship on the slippery concept of authenticity and places her career in the context of the global folk revival of the 1950s and the protest song movement of the 1960s and '70s. Verba reveals how, by studying and drawing upon Chilean folklore, Parra excavated the past and, in the process, inspired the future."--Booklist

"This book is an essential volume on a major Latin American artist. It belongs in all libraries that are serious about Latin American culture and history. May it lead many more people to discover Parra's great artistry."--Latin Americanist

"A stunning achievement. This comprehensive analysis of Parra's life provides an unparalleled opportunity to appreciate one of Latin America's greatest artists. Thanks to Life is an outstanding piece of biographical work on a world-class artist whose legacy continues to shape Latin American music and culture."--Heidi Tinsman, author of Buying into the Regime: Grapes and Consumption in Cold War Chile and the United States

"Drawing on an extensive archival research and personal immersion in the musical traditions Parra herself helped ignite, Verba constructs a layered narrative that acknowledges the inevitable contradictions of any life lived so defiantly."--Caló News

"Highly engaging . . . a gripping read that puts chronology back into the narrative of a cultural icon on the verge of becoming just a one-dimensional symbol. The humanity of Violeta Parra as a Chilean woman and a world class artist shines through."--Not Even Past

"Verba paints a well-rounded portrait of Parra, first and foremost as an artist--a musician to begin with--and later as a painter. . . . What comes across so emphatically in this finely researched biography is Violeta Parra's obsessive determination to live her life as a creative artist. The mark she made will not be erased."--California Review of Books

"Verba's more than forty-year journey, her bond with music as a musician in her own right, and her gathering of materials surrounding the life of an artist, a woman, a country, all come together in a profound and colossal work--a detailed, almost archaeological immersion in Parra's life."--Latin American Literature Today

"Vivid and intense. . . . Thanks to Life is an in-depth, detailed involvement that highlights not only Parra's life, but also the biographer's tenacity to acquaint the reader with the humanity behind the legendary name."--NACLA