The History Onion

The Murder of Víctor Jara (Modern Chile Ep. 8)

Víctor Jara, sometimes referred to as the “Bob Dylan of South America,” was a Chilean folk singer who rose to prominence in the 1960s as part of the nueva canción movement. His songs were often deeply political in nature, providing a voice for the Chilean working class and peasantry. In 1970, his recording of “Venceremos” (We Will Win) became the anthem of the left-wing Popular Unity coalition led by Salvador Allende. After winning the presidency, Allende made his victory speech in front of a banner that read, ‘You can’t have a revolution without songs.’ The story of Víctor Jara is a tragic one; his life was brutally cut short in the aftermath of the 1973 coup that left President Allende dead and installed General Augusto Pinochet as the head of a military junta. One among thousands of people who were arrested and detained in the succeeding days, Jara was tortured and murdered in Estadio Chile on September 16th, 1973. His legacy, however, lives on. On today’s episode, we discuss the political and musical maturation of Víctor Jara, his influences and contemporaries in the nueva canción movement, and his murder at the hands of the nascent Pinochet dictatorship. Show Notes Fundación Víctor Jara [https://fundacionvictorjara.org/] Bad Bunny tribute to Víctor Jara [https://www.youtube.com/shorts/5hkFDI6dli8] Victor Jara: The folk singer murdered for his music [https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20200812-vctor-jara-the-folk-singer-murdered-for-his-music] Britannica article on [https://www.britannica.com/art/nueva-cancion]nueva canción [https://www.britannica.com/art/nueva-cancion] Britannica bio of Jara [https://www.britannica.com/biography/Victor-Jara] The Life and Death of Victor Jara [https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/sep/18/victor-jara-pinochet-chile-rocks-backpages] Credits Theme music by our youngest brother Tate. Cover art by Arthur Santoro. Get full access to The History Onion at historyonion.substack.com/subscribe [https://historyonion.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Pinochet and Me, with Marc Cooper (Modern Chile Interview 3)

For our 50th episode (!!), we are excited to present our January interview with Marc Cooper. Marc Cooper is the former associate professor and director of Annenberg Digital News at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. His writing has appeared in a variety of publications, including The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s, Rolling Stone, and the Washington Post. Currently, he is a contributing editor to The Nation. He has also produced or reported for CBS News, PBS Frontline, NBC, Pacifica Radio, and the CBC and BBC radio services. Among his books are the best-selling Pinochet and Me, a memoir that tells the story of his time in Chile serving as a translator for Salvador Allende’s government and the subsequent coup led by General Augusto Pinochet. Today, we’ll be discussing that memoir, Pinochet and Me, as well as broader topics relating to the politics and history of Chile. Show Notes Purchase a copy of Pinochet and Me [https://www.versobooks.com/products/1722-pinochet-and-me?srsltid=AfmBOoqd_OoRzG7JU5Au2efunBsG2MfU6thbFWE73Ez_42QYxLgg87l-] by Marc Cooper Read Marc Cooper’s contributions to Truthdig here [https://www.truthdig.com/author/marc_cooper/] Credits Theme music by our youngest brother Tate. Cover art by Arthur Santoro. Get full access to The History Onion at historyonion.substack.com/subscribe [https://historyonion.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Understanding New York City History w/ Juliana DeVaan

We are excited to share our interview with Juliana DeVaan, a PhD candidate in US history at Columbia University, where she studies 20th-century cultural and intellectual history. Her work has been supported by the New York State Archives, New York Public Library, Getty Research Institute, and the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy, among other institutions. You can read Juliana’s writing in Public Books, Jacobin, and The Drift. We discuss two of her excellent pieces in Jacobin about New York City history and urban planning, linked below in the show notes. Juliana brings great insight into how to re-read the legacy of Robert Moses, one of New York’s many infamous characters, and reviews an important recent book: Daniel Wortel-London’s The Menace of Prosperity: New York City and the Struggle for Economic Development, 1865–1981. And we can’t discuss progressive politics in New York City without mentioning Zohran Mamdani, so be sure to listen for our perspectives on his tenure thus far. Show Notes “The City the Rich Built — and Broke,” [https://jacobin.com/2025/12/the-city-the-rich-built-and-broke] Juliana DeVaan “An Urban Legend,” [https://jacobin.com/2024/12/an-urban-legend] Juliana DeVaan Credits Theme music by our youngest brother Tate. Cover art by Arthur Santoro. Get full access to The History Onion at historyonion.substack.com/subscribe [https://historyonion.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

The Suicide Museum, with Ariel Dorfman (Modern Chile Interview 2)

We are excited today to share our interview with Ariel Dorfman, an Argentine-Chilean-American novelist, playwright, essayist, academic, and human rights activist. Professor Dorfman served as a cultural adviser to Chilean President Salvador Allende’s Chief of Staff during the last months of Allende’s presidency, and wrote a seminal critique of US cultural imperialism, How to Read Donald Duck, during this time. He was forced into exile, ending up in the United States in 1980 following the military coup led by General Pinochet in 1973. Often dealing with historical and political themes, his books have been published in over fifty languages and his plays performed in more than one hundred countries. Death and the Maiden, his 1990 play written as Chile transitioned shakily from dictatorship to democracy, is a powerful political and psychological thriller dealing with the traumas of a country dealing with the aftermath of repressive authoritarian rule. His writing has appeared in such publications as The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Guardian and more. Professor Dorfman is considered one of Latin America’s greatest novelists, with historical novels such as Allegro and Konfidenz, and he is currently the Walter Hines Emeritus Professor of Literature at Duke University. We are honored to have him on the show to discuss his novel The Suicide Museum. Show Notes Purchase a copy of The Suicide Museum here [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/734625/the-suicide-museum-by-ariel-dorfman/] Credits Theme music by our youngest brother Tate. Cover art by Arthur Santoro. Get full access to The History Onion at historyonion.substack.com/subscribe [https://historyonion.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Chile in Their Hearts, with John Dinges (Modern Chile Interview 1)

We are excited to be joined on today’s show by investigative reporter and writer John Dinges. John Dinges has decades of experience covering Latin America, including as a foreign correspondent in Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua in the 1970s and 1980s. He has worked for such publications as The Washington Post and NPR. While living in Chile between 1972 and 1978, he helped create three Chilean media organizations, including one of the leading investigative news magazines exposing military abuses under General Augusto Pinochet. He is currently the Godfrey Lowell Cabot Professor Emeritus of Journalism at Columbia University. On today’s episode, we discuss his most recent book, Chile in Their Hearts, which tells the story of two young Americans murdered in the aftermath of the 1973 Chilean coup. During our conversation, we unfold the murder mystery, challenge the narrative of the murders presented by the popular 1982 Costa-Gavras film Missing, and discuss possibilities for truth and reconciliation within the United States. Show Notes Purchase a copy of Chile in Their Hearts here [https://www.ucpress.edu/books/chile-in-their-hearts/paper] John Dinges’s website [https://johndinges.com/] Credits Theme music by our youngest brother Tate. Cover art by Arthur Santoro. Get full access to The History Onion at historyonion.substack.com/subscribe [https://historyonion.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]