Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval (Spanish pronunciation: [bjoˈleta ˈpara]; 4 October 1917 – 5 February 1967) was a Chilean composer, singer-songwriter, folklorist, ethnomusicologist and visual artist.

The stamp on her birth certificate says she was born in San Carlos, Ñuble Province, a small town in southern Chile on 4 October 1917, as Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval.

[citation needed] It was in Chillán that Violeta started singing and playing the guitar, together with her siblings Hilda, Eduardo and Roberto; and soon began composing traditional Chilean music.

[citation needed] In the beginning of her career, there was a greater interest in Eurocentric music by the vast majority of the population in Chile.

[8] Parra began singing songs of Spanish origin, from the repertoire of the famous Argentinian singers Lolita Torres and Imperio Argentina.

In 1952, encouraged by her brother Nicanor, Violeta began to collect and collate authentic Chilean folk music from all over the country.

She gave recitals at universities, presented by the well-known literary figure Enrique Bello Cruz, founder of several cultural magazines.

Don Isaiah Angulo, a tenant farmer, taught her to play the guitarrón, a traditional Chilean guitar-like instrument with 25 strings.

Through the intervention of the anthropologist Paul Rivet, she recorded at the National Sound Archive of the "Musée de l'Homme" La Sorbonne in Paris, where she left a guitarrón and tapes of her collections of Chilean folklore.

Violeta Parra exerted a significant influence on Héctor Pavez and Gabriela Pizarro, who would become great performers and researchers in their own right.

She composed the music for the documentaries Wicker and Trilla, and contributed to the film Casamiento de negros, performed by Sergio Bravo.

She wrote the book Cantos Folklóricos Chilenos, which gathered all the research conducted so far, with photographs by Sergio Larraín and musical scores performed by Gastón Soublette (Santiago, Nascimento, 1979).

In 1961, she traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she exhibited her paintings, appeared on TV, gave recitals at the Teatro IFT, and recorded an album of original songs for EMI Odeon – which was banned.

With her children Isabel and Angel, and her granddaughter Tita, she embarked, with the Chilean delegation, for Finland to participate in the 8th "World Festival of Youth and Students" held in Helsinki.

She then started living with Gilbert Favre in Geneva, dividing her time between France and Switzerland, where she also gave concerts, appeared in TV and exhibited her art.

An Argentine musician friend recorded at her home a version of "El Gavilán" ("The Hawk"), interpreted by Violeta Parra accompanied by her granddaughter on percussion.

[citation needed] Violeta recorded two 45s, one with her daughter Isabel and another to instrumental music for cuatro and quena with Gilbert Favre, whom she christened "El Tocador Afuerino" (The outsider musician).

Soon after, however, Favre and Parra separated, provoked by his desire to live in Bolivia where he was part of a successful Bolivian music act, Los Jairas.

Accompanied by her children and Uruguayan Alberto Zapicán, she recorded for RCA Victor the LP The Last Compositions of Violeta Parra.

Other covers of the folk anthem include the Italian guitar-vocal solo of Adriana Mezzadri and La Oreja de Van Gogh at the 2005 Viña del Mar International Song Festival.

[15] The song was re-recorded by several Latin artists, Canadian Michael Bublé to gather funds for the Chilean people affected by the earthquake in Chile, February 2010,[16] and American singer-songwriter Kacey Musgraves from her fifth studio album Star-Crossed.

It may be read as ironic, pointing out that a life full of good health, opportunity and worldly experience may not offer any consolation to grief and the contradictory nature of the human condition.

Parra's music is deeply rooted in folk song traditions, as she was considered part of the Nueva Canción movement.

[8] They both became involved in the progressive movement and the Communist Party of Chile,[25] taking part in the presidential campaign of Gabriel González Videla in 1944.

[citation needed] They also supported the first-left wing president in Chilean history, Pedro Aguirre Cerda's political campaign.

[citation needed] Parra then met and married Luis Arce in 1949, and their daughter, Carmen Luisa, was born the same year.

She was an inspiration for several Latin-American artists, such as Victor Jara and the musical movement of the "Nueva Cancion Chilena", which renewed interest in Chilean folklore.

In 1992, the Violeta Parra Foundation was founded at the initiative of her children, with the aim to group, organize and disseminate her still-unpublished work.