Isabel Cocker/The Santiago Times Staff
SANTIAGO – The “Santiago es Carnaval” event took place on Sunday afternoon, with over 50 groups participating in a parade which ran from Plaza Italia to La Moneda.
This is the second time the event has been run, after last year’s success which saw the people of Santiago flood the streets in support.
This year, the theme was Violeta Parra, marking 100 years since her birth, and many of the trucks and accompanying music depicted scenes from her songs and her life.
Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval (Oct 4, 1917 –Feb 5, 1967) was a Chilean composer, songwriter, folklorist, ethnomusicologist and visual artist. She pioneered the “Chilean New Song”, the Nueva canción chilena, a renewal and a reinvention of Chilean folk music which would extend its sphere of influence outside Chile, becoming acknowledged as “The Mother of Latin American folk”.
