Chile's Violeta Parra Museum in Santiago has recently received two unpublished works by the Chilean artist and folklorist, which are being restored and will be exhibited to the public in the coming months.

The works —a textile piece and a handwritten notebook with the complete autobiographical décimas by the author of "Gracias a la vida"— were donated in May by musician Ángel Parra Orrego, the artist's grandson, and became part of the museum on loan.

"It is very important for the museum and for Chile to have this donation, especially in a context of recovering public space. This space was burned during the social uprising (of 2019), and recovering it has not been easy," the institution's executive director, Denise Elphick, told EFE.

The works of Violeta Parra

The first work is the arpillera "El Jilguerillo," a piece of wool sewn over rustic fabric, typical of Chile, measuring 1.48 x 1.08 meters. It depicts a tree of life with an anthropomorphic figure in violet tones and a cat on each side of the trunk.

Elphick explained that they were able to identify the arpillera's name thanks to an old photograph appearing in a book, and they also discovered that the title relates to the second donated work.

The handwritten notebook containing Violeta Parra's autobiographical décimas —approximately 91 pages written on both sides in the creator's own hand— contains a stanza called "El Jilguero."

Other donations

"It was very interesting to discover that the name of this work, as far back as the 1970s, was 'El Jilguerillo,' and that led us to review one of the décimas and begin to unite all these elements to better understand the story," the museum's conservator, Pablo Marfán, told EFE.

Other high-value heritage documents were also donated, such as letters written by Violeta Parra herself, typed transcriptions of interviews with traditional folk artists, transcriptions of her songs, and a copy of the poetry collection "Manifiesto de Nicanor Parra" written by her brother and designed by Catalan artist Roser Bru.

In the coming months, the museum's team will study the works and subject them to various conservation processes in order to exhibit them publicly for the first time on October 4, coinciding with the birth anniversary of the famous folklorist (San Carlos, 1917-1967).

"These things belong to the people of Chile, as she said so many times," the artist's grandson stated last May 30 when he donated the works.