An Interview With

Ericka Verba

SEASON 5 | EPISODE 99 | 10 March 2025

Resilience Through Music:

Exploring Violeta Parra’s Story with Ericka Verba

⏰ Timecodes YouTube ⏰ 

(0:00) Introduction and Welcome 

(2:13) Erica’s Academic and Musical Background 

(5:38) Discovery of Violeta Parra’s Music 

(10:01) The Impact of Violeta Parra’s Music 

(10:15) The Collective Project of Writing the Biography 

(17:14) The Resonance of Violeta Parra’s Work 

(21:26) Violeta Parra’s Personal Struggles 

(30:53) The Role of Art in Social Justice 

(39:51) Conclusion and Final Thoughts 

Have you heard of Violeta Parra? If not, then in this episode, you will discover that she was more than a musician—she was a poet, activist, and artistic force whose songs have shaped movements, comforted souls around the world, and stood the test of time.

In this interview, I sit down with Ericka Verba, musician, historian, and author of Gracias a la Vida: The Biography of Violeta Parra, to explore Parra’s incredible life. We cover it all—from her origins in Chile to her global influence, her artistic versatility to how her music gave voice to the marginalized, and the deep emotional truths in her lyrics.

Ericka shares how she first heard of Parra’s music, her journey writing this biography, and why she believes Parra’s work is so important and continues to resonate today.

It doesn’t matter if you already know Violeta’s work or are new to her music and life—this conversation will leave a lasting impression about the transformative power of music.

About Ericka Verba

Ericka Verba is Director and Professor of Latin American Studies at California State University, Los Angeles. Her research interests include the cultural Cold War, the role of music in social movements, and the intersection of gender and class politics in twentieth-century Latin America. She is the author of the book Thanks to Life: A Biography of Violeta Parra.

Her interest in Violeta Parra dates back to her early teens in the 1970s when she became friends with a Chilean family of musicians and artists who taught Verba her first Violeta Parra songs and guided her political awakening to the brutality of the Pinochet dictatorship and the role of the US government in installing and supporting it.

As a musician and founding member of the US-based New Song groups Sabiá and Desborde, she has been performing Parra’s music since 1976. In 1980, she wrote her undergraduate senior thesis on Parra’s autobiography in verse. In 1996, she was the musical director and arranger for a tribute concert to Violeta Parra, supported by an Artists in the Community grant from the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department and recorded and released as Desborde, Tribute Concert to Violeta Parra.

As a professor of Latin American History since 2004, she has welded her research on the history of women in Chile with her interest in Parra to acquire a deeper understanding of the social context and gender dynamics that shaped Parra’s life. Suffice to say, Verba’s book represents the culmination of a decades-long curiosity about Violeta Parra and engagement with her work.

You can purchase her book on Violetta Para via this link.

                                                                                                                Connect with Ericka on social media

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