Barcelona remembers Víctor Jara and marks 50th anniversary of Chile coup 

It was undoubtedly one of the highlights of this year's La Mercè festivities in Barcelona. 

On Sunday, the Catalan capital marked the 50th anniversary of the coup d'état in Chile with a concert honoring singer-songwriter Víctor Jara, murdered 50 years ago by the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.  

'El derecho de vivir en paz', one of Víctor Jara's most popular songs, kicked off the open-air concert outside Barcelona Cathedral, featuring artists from Chile and Catalonia.  

They included Barcelona-based singer and rapper Ana Tijoux, the daughter of Chilean exiles; Javiera Mena, a Chilean singer and producer – and queer pop icon – resident in Madrid; and MC Millaray, a young Chilean who raps in her native Mapuche tongue.  

From Catalonia, singer-songwriters Rusó Sala and Sílvia Tomàs, along with a band led by Borja Penalba and Marina Alcantud. 

Chilean folk band Inti-Illimani Histórico also joined the tribute to Víctor Jara, including a rendition of his iconic protest song, 'El pueblo unido'. 

The concert – 'A Thousand Voices for Víctor Jara. Chile and Catalonia: Memory and Future 50 Years After the Coup' – was organized by the Catalan government, the government of Chile, and Barcelona City Council. 

Jara was a cultural ambassador in Salvador Allende's government, giving voice to the demands of the Chilean people in the 1960s and 70s. 

He was tortured and killed in the old Chile Stadium in 1973. It was later renamed the Víctor Jara Stadium with the return of democracy to Chile. 

Before the concert, president Pere Aragonès met with Chile's culture minister, Carolina Arredondo, at the Palau de la Generalitat.