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

"A deeply moving biography and provocative meditation on the production and uses of authenticity."--Matthew B. Karush, author of Musicians in Transit: Argentina and the Globalization of Popular Music

"A profound and insightful look at the life of one of Latin America's most influential and complex modern artists."--Patricia Vilches, author of Salvador Allende and the Villa San Luis: Icons of the Just City

"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

"Finally, a definitive biography of one of the most consequential global artists of the twentieth century."--Karin Rosemblatt, author of The Science and Politics of Race in Mexico and the United States, 1910-1950

"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

"This intimate portrait of Chile's iconic musical artist takes the reader through a rollicking narrative that crisscrosses continents, lovers, and ideological borders of the Cultural Cold War."--Eric Zolov, author of The Last Good Neighbor: Mexico in the Global Sixties

"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