Wonderful to see this here. For those of us who lived anywhere in Latin America thouhguort the 1970s, the 9/11 date engraved on our consciousness is 9/11/73, Pinochet's brutal devastation of the Allende years. Along with so much death (the imprisoned, the tortured, the missing, and those forced into lifetimes of exile), a subsidiary loss was art. The Allende years were known, among much else, for beautiful murals and a general flourishing of creativity in all genres. But what sustained so many during the long years of dictatorship was also art: the songs, poems, theater, and visual arts. This is where a people place their hope, waiting for the day when it may blossom again. Victor Jara's Estadio Chile became a song sung thouhguort the world. Art's role in times of greatest despair as well as greatest joy is a constant reminder of how necessary it is.
