Listen to the Soundtrack of Salvador Allende's Chile

[Judi Lynn]

Jacobin 15:11

THE RECORD IS CULTURE is a phrase printed on the records that were published by the IRT label. Always on the back cover, this slogan gives a special imprint to the delivery of the phonogram, assigning it the character of cultural support

Founded by the nationalization program of the Salvador Allende government that acquired the majority of the shares of the transnational RCA, the IRT manufactured electronic equipment and also pressed vinyl records. The company had an artistic department that defined an aesthetic and editorial line so particular that it became a Latin American reference.

The IRT functioned as described, from April 1971 to September 11, 1973, when with the Military Coup it was dismantled, its board of directors sent into exile and the workers, separated from their positions.

Most of the masters and recordings were destroyed. Every type of record or file was made to disappear. Almost

https://eldiscoescultura.online/

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(The recording continues for some time, becoming more interesting with a sampling of styles of music from that historic, painful era.

Haven't gotten to the end, yet, and have heard several songs by political activist, composer, singer Victor Jara, who was kidnapped by Pinochet's government from the campus of the university where he taught, kept and tortured in the soccer stadium in Santiago, then finally got his hands crushed by the gun butts of guards, wrote messages and songs and sent them out of the stadium to his wife Joan, before they shot him to death.

Some of this music is very strong, as you will see.)