Hugo Arévalo: Music, Image, and Resistance in Chilean Culture

September 26, 2025 admin

Hugo Arévalo (born 1940 in Villa Alegre, Chile) was a musician, audiovisual innovator, and cultural worker whose career reflects the intersections of art, politics, and identity in modern Chile. He was one of the first to experiment with filmed songs (canciones filmadas), integrating music and image in ways that anticipated the later popularity of music videos. At the same time, he remained deeply committed to Chile’s folk traditions and the Nueva Canción Chilena movement, which gave voice to social struggles through art.

Early Life and Beginnings

Arévalo grew up in Villa Alegre, a town in Chile’s Maule region, where rural traditions and folk music shaped his early sensibilities. Initially trained as a teacher, he quickly gravitated toward the cultural world. In 1958 he moved to Concepción, a city known for its vibrant student and artistic life, where he worked as a journalist and theater scriptwriter. These years marked the beginning of his immersion in the arts and introduced him to the networks of Chilean intellectual and folk culture that would define his career.

By 1960 Arévalo had relocated to Santiago. There he began working as a cameraman for Canal 13, one of Chile’s major television channels. His technical skills behind the camera and his growing passion for music allowed him to navigate both the audiovisual and musical spheres, a combination that would later prove central to his artistic identity.

Folk Music and the Nueva Canción

The 1960s and early 1970s in Chile were defined by the Nueva Canción Chilena, or New Chilean Song movement, which blended folk traditions with political activism. Figures such as Violeta Parra, Víctor Jara, and the groups Quilapayún and Inti-Illimani transformed popular music into a vehicle for social commentary.

Hugo Arévalo participated in this scene through his role at the Peña de los Parra, a cultural gathering space run by Isabel and Ángel Parra, children of Violeta Parra. The peña was more than a concert hall; it was a hub of political and cultural life, a meeting point for musicians, poets, and activists. Arévalo became part of this milieu, supporting its artists through both musical and audiovisual projects.

He was among the first to record and promote the guitarrón chileno, a 25-string instrument used in the tradition of canto a lo poeta — improvised sung poetry with deep roots in Chilean rural culture. By doing so, he helped bring a lesser-known aspect of Chile’s heritage into broader recognition.

Experiments in Audiovisual Media

In the early 1970s, Arévalo received a scholarship to study directing and production in Scotland. While in Glasgow, he began experimenting with filmed performances that connected song to moving images. One notable project was his filmed version of La lavandera, a song by Violeta Parra, performed by his wife, the singer Charo Cofré.

This project is widely considered one of the first Chilean filmed songs, an early example of what would later be called the music video. For Arévalo, the filmed song was not mere illustration but a way of amplifying music’s expressive power through visual narrative. The camera and the edit became tools for interpreting song, enriching its meaning, and reaching audiences in new ways.

After returning to Chile, Arévalo continued this line of work at Canal 13, where he produced documentaries and filmed performances. He invited key figures of the Nueva Canción movement — Víctor Jara, Patricio Manns, Quilapayún, and others — to participate, giving their songs visual forms that reinforced their cultural and political resonance.

Coup, Exile, and Resistance

The military coup of September 11, 1973, brought this flourishing artistic era to an abrupt halt. The overthrow of Salvador Allende’s government and the establishment of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship meant censorship, persecution, and exile for many artists. Víctor Jara was murdered, and numerous musicians fled abroad.

Hugo Arévalo and Charo Cofré were forced into exile. Even outside Chile, however, they continued their artistic and cultural work, preserving Chilean folk traditions and protest music. They became part of the diaspora of Chilean musicians who kept the memory of the Nueva Canción alive in exile, ensuring that it reached international audiences and contributed to solidarity movements against the dictatorship.

Return and Later Years

Eventually Arévalo and Cofré returned to Chile, settling in Isla Negra, a coastal town forever associated with Pablo Neruda. There they ran a restaurant called La Candela, which doubled as a cultural space. Music, performance, and community continued to surround their lives.

Although less in the public spotlight than in earlier decades, Arévalo remained an important figure in preserving Chile’s cultural memory, particularly through his work in documenting and filming music. His life demonstrates the resilience of artistic practice even under political repression.

Timeline of Key Moments

1940: Born in Villa Alegre, Chile.
1958: Moves to Concepción; works as journalist and theater scriptwriter.
1960: Relocates to Santiago; begins work at Canal 13 as cameraman.
1960s: Becomes involved with the Peña de los Parra; records guitarrón chileno; supports Nueva Canción artists.
Early 1970s: Studies directing and production in Glasgow, Scotland; creates filmed versions of Chilean songs including La lavandera.
1973: Following the coup, goes into exile with Charo Cofré.
1970s–1980s: Continues cultural work abroad, producing and performing with Chilean exile communities.
1980s–1990s: Returns to Chile; settles in Isla Negra; operates La Candela.
2000s: Recognized as pioneer of Chilean filmed songs and as a cultural bridge between music and audiovisual media.

Discography

Arévalo recorded several works, many in collaboration with Charo Cofré:

El guitarrón y el canto a lo poeta (1969)
Solo digo compañeros (1975, with Charo Cofré)
Cantos campesinos de Chile, Vols. 1 and 2 (1976, with Charo Cofré)
Una canción para El Salvador (1982)
En esta ausencia (1984, with Charo Cofré)
¿En dónde tejemos la ronda? (1985, with Charo Cofré)
Ardiente paciencia (1986)
El mundo de Violeta Parra (1987)

These works highlight his dedication to rural traditions, political solidarity, and the reinterpretation of Violeta Parra’s legacy.

Aesthetic and Political Impact

Arévalo’s filmed songs are particularly significant. In them, one sees the convergence of technology and tradition, of music and moving image. They helped expand the expressive possibilities of Chilean music at a time when audiovisual media was becoming central to cultural life.

Politically, his work reinforced the message of the Nueva Canción: music as resistance, as a vehicle for memory, and as a collective expression of hope. By bringing these songs into visual form, Arévalo preserved not only melodies but also contexts, faces, and atmospheres that might otherwise have been lost.

Legacy

Hugo Arévalo’s legacy rests on several pillars. He was a musical innovator, helping to preserve and modernize Chilean folk traditions such as the guitarrón. He was an audiovisual pioneer, experimenting with filmed songs before the concept of the music video was established in Chile. He was also a cultural bridge, connecting artists, audiences, and traditions both in Chile and abroad.

Perhaps most importantly, he represents the resilience of Chilean culture in the face of repression. His exile and return, his persistence in making art despite obstacles, and his role in sustaining cultural memory testify to the power of music and image to resist silence.

Hugo Arévalo’s life reminds us that art is never only about aesthetics. It is also about community, politics, and survival. Through his work, Chilean music and imagery found new forms and new audiences, ensuring that the voices of his generation would not be forgotten.