Ericka Verba is the author of the new book Thanks to Life: A Biography of Violeta Parra. Verba is Director and Professor of Latin American Studies at California State University, Los Angeles.
Q: What inspired you to write a biography of Chilean musician and artist Violeta Parra (1917-1967)?
A: Violeta Parra’s music has accompanied my life’s journey ever since I was
first introduced to it by a Chilean family who moved to my town when I was in
high school. The more I learned about her life the work, the more curious I
became.
I ended up writing my undergraduate senior thesis on her autobiography in décimas, a traditional poetic form found throughout Latin America. As a musician, I have been performing her songs for decades. Their lyrics have become part of my internal language, coming to the surface of my mind when I need them the most.
As a professor of Latin American history, first at California State University Dominguez Hills and now at Cal State LA, I decided to pursue writing Parra’s biography.
It turned into a years-long project that has taken me to
Chile, Argentina, France, and Switzerland, and has put me in contact with
fellow Violeta-maniacs throughout the world. I can truly say it has been my
life’s work.
Q: How was the book's title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: “Thanks to Life” is the English title for Parra’s most famous song, “Gracias
a la vida.” The song has been translated into more than 20 languages and
performed and recorded by an ever-expanding roster of musicians, including
country music star Kasey Musgraves, cellist Yo-Yo Ma (instrumental version),
Latin pop singer Shakira, K-pop duo Davichi, folk singers Joan Baez and
Mercedes Sosa, and Cuban singer Omara Portoando of the Buena Vista Social Club.
Parra wrote the song in the last years of her life. In it, she gives thanks for her senses and what they enable her to see and hear, for sounds and the alphabet and what they allow her to express, for her tired feet and the many places they have taken her, for her heart that allows her to discern good from evil, and for laughter and tears that let her distinguish joy from sorrow, the materials of her song, which is also your song and everyone’s song.
I found the simple phrase “thanks to life” a perfect title for her biography.
Q: The scholar Matthew B. Karush called the book a “deeply
moving biography and provocative meditation on the production and uses of
authenticity.” What do you think of that description?
A: I was very pleased to hear my book described as “deeply moving.” Although a
historian by training, I knew that I wanted to write Violeta Parra’s biography
so that it would be accessible not just to academics, but to a broad audience
curious about her life and work.
Karush’s words made me feel as if I succeeded. His reference
to authenticity is a reflection of how Parra projected herself and was
perceived by others, as “authentic” is the term most frequently and
consistently associated with her, during her lifetime, through her impressive
afterlife.
Q: How did you research Parra’s life, and did you learn anything that
especially surprised you?
A: My book draws on decades of research, virtual and in person, in archives
across two continents.
They include the Violeta Parra Foundation; National Library
of Chile; Archive of Chilean Popular Music; Center for Documentation and
Research of Leftist Culture (Buenos Aires); National Library of France; Archive
of the Museum of Decorative Arts (Paris); French National Audiovisual
Institute; the archive of the French Communist Party (Saint-Denis); the Geneva
Library; World Festival of Youth and Students Collection (International
Institute of Social History, Amsterdam); Kansan Archisto (central archive for the
Finnish Left); BBC Written Archives Centre; and the personal archives of Alan
Lomax, Paul Rivet, Jorge Edwards, and others.
I’m not sure how much it surprised me, but what impressed me the most about
Parra was the way that she did not seem to understand the concept of
“impossible.” On the contrary, she seemed confident that she could accomplish
anything that she wanted if she put her mind to it
To give just one example, when she was a well-known musician
in her early 40s, she decided to try her hand at the visual arts. She ended up
creating vast embroidered tapestries using old burlap sacks and scraps of yarn,
as well as oil paintings and wire sculptures. Within a few short years, she was
showing her art in galleries and museums across Europe.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I am hoping to get my book translated into Spanish and French, so my next
project is to find the right translators and publishing houses to assist me.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: One question I am often asked when I tell people about Violeta Parra’s life
and work is: “Why didn’t I know about her before?” That so many people ask me
this makes me very happy because I wrote Parra’s biography precisely because I
think people will find her as amazing as I do once they learn more about her.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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