Pongo En Tus Manos Abiertas (album)

Infobox Album |
Name = Pongo en Tus Manos Abiertas
Type = Album
Artist = Víctor Jara


Released = June, 1969
Recorded = Santiago, Chile 1969
Genre = Folk music Protest music Nueva canción
Length = 41:23
Label = DICAP WARNER
Producer = Víctor Jara

Last album = "Victor Jara" (1967)
This album = 'Pongo en Tus Manos Abiertas' (1969)
Next album = "Canto Libre" (1970)

Pongo en tus manos abiertas (Into your open hands) is an album recorded by Víctor Jara with the musicians from Quilapayún in June, 1969. It was the third album released by the DICAP record label. [Discoteca del Cantar Popular (Record Label of Popular Song) was a record label established by the Communist youth that would issue music albums that commercial record company’s were not prepared to release in Chile at the time. ] .

Content

Luis Emilio Recabarren

The name given to the album is the opening line to Jara’s homage to the founder of the Chilean labour movement and Communist Party of Chile, Luis Emilio Recabarren:

Che and Camilo Torres

The album includes recordings of songs written by Jara and songs that Jara interprets of other Latin American "Nueva Canción" (New Song) singer-songwriters, such as the Uruguayan Daniel Viglietti and the argentine Atahualpa Yupanqui that were highly influential to artists of the "Nueva Canción Chilena" (New Chilean Song) movement.

There is a song in tribute to Che Guevara and a song about the revolutionary Colombian priest and one of the first martyrs of the Liberation theology movement, Camilo Torres.

Preguntas por Puerto Montt

This albums also contains a song written by Jara commenting on a massacre that occurred in the city of Puerto Montt in Chile in 1969. In it, Jara condemns the then Christian Democrat Minister of the Interior Edmundo Pérez Zukovic for the death of 11 men, women, and children during the massacre of Puerto Montt.

In the early morning of March the 9th, 1969 the wealthy businessman and Interior Minister, Pérez Zukovic, authorized 250 armed police to attack and open fire on 91 homeless peasant families who were occupying private wastelands in the remote part of Puerto Montt. Tear gas grenades, dogs and machine gun fire were used to terrorize and evict the impoverished peasant squatters. Many of the peasants suffered shot wounds, many were killed, including a 9-month-old child. [ Jara, Joan (1983), pp.124-125 ]

Te Recuerdo Amanda

The album contained one of Víctor Jara most famous and beautiful songs, "Te recuerdo Amanda" (I remember you Amanda) which has been adapted to various languages and interpreted by various artists from all over the world – such as Joan Baez, Robert Wyatt, Raimon and Cornelis Vreeswijk.

Liner notes

I PUT IN YOUR OPEN HANDS… Laughter and blows, Hope and protest. A shout emerges crossing the large expanse of our territory. It is the peasant nailing a plough on the land, the worker filling the air with protest on May Day, the student and his word in street battles, the youth, that for being young, cannot but look forward into the future. And all this is present in the youth that struggles and in the song of protest. The new song of Victor Jara unites, from his position as activist of the people’s cause, the spirit of the young generation of our land, the lengthy tradition of the workers struggles the awaken conscious of the artist which is identified more than compromised with the people. During these days in which the Communist Youth gather for their VI Congress to reassert their decision to receive the message which places in their “OPEN HANDS” the visionary father of the New Homeland, Luis Emilio Recabarren. We also place in the open hands of all the Chilean youth These songs that speak to us about our convictions, our hopes of ourselves.

"—Santiago, June 1969" [Liner notes that appeared on the original DICAP "Pongo en tus manos abiertas" release in June, 1969. [http://www.nuevacancion.net/victor/warner87604.html] ]

Track listing

#"A Luis Emilio Recabarren" (To Luis Emilio Recabarren) (Víctor Jara) 2:49
#"A desalambrar" (Tear down the fences) (Daniel Viglietti) 1:36
#"Duerme, duerme, negrito" (Sleep little black child) (Traditional, Adapt: Atahualpa Yupanqui) 2:49
#"Juan sin Tierra" (Landless Juan) (Jorge Saldaña) 3:09
#"Preguntas por Puerto Montt" (Questions about Puerto Montt) (Víctor Jara) 2:39
#"Móvil Oil Special" [ Riot squads used by the state to clamp-down on student rallies and unrest. They were introduced by Edmundo Pérez Zukovic; the song title plays on the close ties multi-nationals have with the repressive apparatus of the state.] (Víctor Jara) 2:46
#"Cruz de Luz, Camilo Torres" (Cross of Light, Camilo Torres) (Daniel Viglietti) 3:04
#"El martillo" (If I had a hammer) (Lee Hays/Pete Seeger – Adapt: Víctor Jara)
#"Te recuerdo Amanda" (I remember you Amanda) (Víctor Jara) 2:33
#"Zamba del Che" (Zamba song for "Che") (Rubén Ortiz Fernández) 3:39
#"Ya parte el galgo terrible" (The ferocious greyhounds attack) (Pablo Neruda – Sergio Ortega) 1:50
# "A Cochabamba me voy" (I am going to Cochabamba) (Víctor Jara) 2:26

Extended 2001 Reissue

The reissue of "Pongo en tus manos abiertas" historic recording by Warner in March 2001 was extended with 6 bonus tracks:
*13. “Plegaria a un Labrador” (Prayer to a laborer) [Single version with Quilapayún] (Víctor Jara) 3:02
*14. “Cueca de Joaquín Murieta” (from "Fulgor y Muerte de Joaquín Murieta" [A rare theatrical work written by Pablo Neruda in 1967; put to music by the Chilean pianist and composer Sergio Ortega.] LP) (Pablo Neruda – Sergio Ortega} – 1:36
*15. “Tonada para guitarra” (live at the Peña de los Parras [ Established by Ángel Parra after his return from Paris in the mid-1960s, initially the idea was to recreate the ‘boîtes de nuit’ ambiance of Paris where he had performed with his family. Some have called these "Peñas" cultural centers the ‘crucible’ where neo-folklore transformed itself into the New Chilean Song movement.] , 1970) (Víctor Jara) 1:14
*16. “Te recuerdo Amanda” (live at the Peña de los Parras, 1970) (Víctor Jara) 3:06
*17. “Plegaria a un Labrador” (live at the Peña de los Parras, 1970) (Víctor Jara - Patricio Castillo) 3:32
*18. “El arado” (The plough) (live, 1970) (Víctor Jara) 3:48

References and other sources

Jara, Joan. (1983). "Victor: An Unfinished Song". Jonathan Cape Ltd. ISBN 0-224-01880-9

External links

* [http://www.trovadores.net/nd.php?NM=170&CN=3 Pongo en tus manos abiertas (DICAP) - Album Text]
* [http://www.fundacionvictorjara.cl/ Víctor Jara Foundation site (Spanish language)]
* [http://www.margencero.com/musica/jara/preguntasporpuertomontt.htm Brief article about the Puerto Montt massacre by José Miguel Jiménez (Spanish language)]