Violeta Parra: musical and political legacy of a cantora

ABSTRACT This article discusses Violeta Parra’s work as a woman musician analysing how she contributed to challenging long-standing colonial paradigms in Chilean (and Latin American) music. Through a review of the multifaceted concept of cantora, or female singer of the people, as well as the analysis of four cueca songs, this study offers insights on how Parra negotiated the terms of the Chilean urban folkloric scene of her time. Her trajectory as a folklorist allowed her to vindicate an otherwise disparaged popular culture, and as cantautora, or singer-songwriter, she redefined the gender roles of her time becoming a musical and political referent for her peers, thus offering renovated perspectives on both female musicianship and national identity.