Violeta Parra was born in 1917 in Chile's Ñuble province, the sister of the poet Nicanor Parra. From 1952 she travelled the country collecting old folk songs from rural singers, and that research fed straight into her own writing. She also painted and made arpilleras, embroidered burlap pictures, and in 1964 she became the first Latin American artist to hold a solo exhibition at the Louvre's Museum of Decorative Arts.
She pioneered Nueva Canción Chilena, the reinvention of Chilean folk music that her children Isabel and Ángel Parra also became part of. Her best-known song, "Gracias a la vida", came out on Las últimas composiciones in 1966, the year before her death, and Mercedes Sosa's 1971 version carried it far beyond Chile. Her catalogue also includes "Volver a los 17" and "Casamiento de negros".