Why Allende Had To Die, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (New Statesman, reprint of 1973 article)

[Ken Burch]

10. There was a Victor Jara song that, in a dark-comic way, referenced Schneider's assassination:

Last edited Sat Apr 19, 2014, 10:42 PM - Edit history (1)

It's from the song "Las Casitas Del Barrio Alto&quot the "Barrio Alto" is the wealthiest neighborhood in Santiago, Casitas means "cottages"-Rich people in Chile are pretty much of full German or Italian ancestry, so they design homes that allow them to pretend they live in the Alps-so the title basically means "the Cheesy, Overpriced McCottages Where The Rich Bastards Who Want To Kill Salvador Allende and The Workers and the Indigenous Live". The song is basically Victors Chilean-specific rewrite of "Little Boxes", by Malvina Reynolds, and pretty much uses the same tune. This is the verse I was talking about)

Y las gentes de las casitas
se sonríen y se visitan.
Van juntitos al supermarket
y todos tienen un televisor.

Hay dentistas, comerciantes,
latifundistas y traficantes,
abogados y rentistas
y todos visten polycron.
(y todos triunfan con prolén)

Juegan bridge, toman martini-dry
y los niños son rubiecitos
y con otros rubiecitos
van juntitos al colegio high.

Y el hijito de su papi
luego va a la universidad
comenzando su problemática
y la intríngulis social.

Fuma pitillos en Austin mini,
juega con bombas y con política,
asesina generales,
y es un gángster de la sedición.

(I've just made an English adaptation of that verse, which goes like this)

And the people of the cottages
All smile and get lots of party guests.
And they go to the supermarket
And unlike us, they have TV's.

There are dentists, there are traders,
drug kingpins and landowners,
There are lawyers and corporate bankers
and they all wear prolene shades.

And play bridge and drink martinis dry
and their children all look Aryan
and with all the other little Aryans
they all attend the private schools.

And like their rich daddies did,
They go to the university,
Where they study social problems
And learn how to make them pay.

Then they smoke in their Austin minis,
And play games with bombs and "policy",
And assassinate non-fascist generals,
Like seditious gangsters always do.

(ok...maybe not "dark-comic", maybe just sardonic-prophetic...still, Victor DID have those people pegged.