It was during a review of her old notebooks where she recorded her work with the group Cuncumén, that Ana María Báez came across an old tune. It was called Todo el Mundo Canta Alegre. And immediately, her memory was triggered. She had learned the tune from Víctor Jara himself and it was still there, waiting for its moment.
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Báez joined Cuncumén through her sister, who had in turn trained in the choir of the University of Chile. Until then, she was a twenty-something follower of the group. “I was crazy about Cuncumén, at that time I bought the vinyls, listened to them, learned guitar on my own”, she recalls on the phone with Culto. “My sister, who was studying Physical Education at the University of Chile, took me there and I passed an exam no less than with Rolando Alarcón in the musical and guitar part, and in the dance part with Víctor Jara. Earth, swallow me! We were students for a while, and then we became part of Cuncumén, which was a wonderful pride for me.”
After Alarcón’s departure, it was Jara who took over the musical direction of the group until almost the mid-60s. At that time, he stood out as a collector of rural tunes, as well as beginning to compose his initial material. “Víctor started composing tunes and rural songs when he was in Cuncumén; those were his first beginnings”, Báez recalls. “He made many songs, and even dedicated songs to the cuncumenas of the time. They were recorded on those vinyls, like Acurrucadita te estoy mirando and others that must be around somewhere. Well, and I am a “hoarder” and I have my notebooks from that time.”
Therefore, the man from El Cigarrito used to teach repertoire to the members of the group. Thus, Báez, diligent, recorded the lyrics of the songs in her notebooks. Years passed and after the 1973 civic-military coup, the group ended and several of its members, like Mariela Ferreira, went into exile. But with the return of democracy, the group was reactivated.
“Mariela Ferreira returned from exile in the early 90s and we decided to rebuild Cuncumén,” Báez details. “We called some former cuncumenes; some could, others didn’t want to, but among them we were lucky to recruit Jaime Rojas, who was one of the founders. Plus Mariela and another member who had also been from that time, and I started calling young people.”
Therefore, she remained active with the famous group. But from time to time it was necessary to review new material. “I took out my old notebooks, Mariela also had her old notebooks, and we started looking for songs”. After the pandemic, Ferreira retired, Báez moved to the administrative part of the group and Eduardo Gutiérrez de la Fuente took over musical direction.
It was then that Báez reviewed her notebooks looking for a song and came across the tune. “I told Eduardo that I had many things in my old notebooks, many collections that had been made at that time and that had not been recorded. And among them, I found this other very beautiful tune. I told Eduardo: ‘Why don’t we learn this tune?’“.
Gutiérrez was immediately interested in the piece. “Ana María has some very old notebooks and there was the text. At the top of the manuscript it says ‘Víctor Jara’, then in parentheses, ‘la jaula’, but it is called Todo el mundo canta alegre. And it is a composition by Víctor Jara that takes phrases from traditional rural poetry.”
Báez remembers that the tune was one of many that Jara taught to the members of Cuncumén at the time. “He sang it, but he didn’t sing it much either, he must have sung it about three times. Then you go looking for other songs, other things. And I, fortunately, have a good musical memory, I remembered the music. So I gave it to Eduardo.”
According to Gutiérrez, they tried the song until they found its definitive version. “It is a very difficult song in terms of vocal range. So it’s hard, hard to perform because it has very low notes and very high notes and I think it could never work before with some Cuncumenes. So we definitely decided to work on it and the girls did quite well.”
The artist, now 90 years old, remembers that sometimes Jara told them about the origin of the pieces he collected. “Everyone knows that Víctor came from a rural family. His mother was a singer and many times he accompanied her to collect or sing in some places. Víctor told us that he had gone to sing at angelito wakes. He was immersed in that countryside thing, which he always liked.”
Besides working on repertoire, Jara directed the group with the background he had as a theater director. “Víctor was very rigorous, he had a strict discipline”, Báez points out. “And I think that was very good. Working with him was very nice because he did things I never knew, like doing body expression, with different attitudes (of joy, sadness), expressing it in different ways. But as a person, he was very pleasant. He always walked around with a big smile. We always sang to him, because he had a big mouth, a big smile, showed us all his teeth, and we sang a tune that Violeta sang: “Tiene su boquita tan chiquitita como un botón”. But he was very nice, very pleasant as a person. But, as I say, to work with him you had to be willing to be very serious. And that did a lot of good to Cuncumén.”
The tune has been performed live by Cuncumén in its current formation and has already been recorded for an upcoming album by the group, titled El amor y las flores to be released within a month. “It’s very interesting because you can find Víctor’s creativity combined with some phrases from the music of traditional songs”, says Eduardo Gutiérrez.
Thus, Víctor Jara’s music continues to flourish, despite his tragic death. “I am happy that Víctor is present again in Cuncumén,” concludes Ana María Báez.
