In the 1970s, Marta Contreras Laporte was an active part of the musical and cultural movement “La nueva canción chilena” in Valparaíso, together with authors and performers such as Osvaldo “Gitano” Rodríguez and Payo Grondona.
With a moving letter addressed to the Municipality and the inhabitants of Valparaíso, the outstanding artist thanked the honor conferred earlier this month which classifies her as an “illustrious citizen”.
Marta Contreras Laporte is a Chilean actress and singer belonging to the New Chilean Song, active mainly in the 70s, and who has recorded with various artists, such as Manguaré. In 1972, Marta Contreras, with the collaboration of the newly formed Cuban group Grupo Manguaré who traveled to Chile that year, released the album Música para Guillén which sets several poems by Nicolás Guillén to music.
Paper:
“Very grateful for this award and recognition and happy to have belonged to a musically glorious generation that delighted the ears of contemporaries, sounds that reached all of Chile from Valparaíso, music that together with Payo Grondona and Osvaldo the gypsy Rodríguez will always remain in the collective memory and in the sound history of our city. Always leaving the name of our country high outside, like when I put music to the verses of our poet Gabriela Mistral.
I’ve always thought that when you get to this point in life where someone like me (speaking of football) already plays life’s penalties, fighting against the enemy of time, you’re left with nothing but nostalgia and what’s left of your memory
Happily forgetting helps when you don’t want to remember some things. Then, forgetful and somewhat clueless, chronologically tempted to remember what she wants.
I’ve done all. I tried my hand at writing poetry, songwriting, singing, theater acting and directing. Every 30 years I made records with my songs and musicalizations of great poets, I learned to ride a bicycle, but not to drive cars, I was a wife, a mother, but not a grandmother. In my youth as a political volunteer in the hills of Valparaíso, youth leader and piano student, I did not transfer one iota, nor fame nor recognition of any kind, I was intensely passionate and lazy.
This is a sketch of my life, I regret few things. The sun doesn’t always shine. I admire the loyalty in human beings, therefore, in life and in its expressions and finally the political loyalty that we experience on a daily basis. I believe in President Boric and in his government, because it has brought me hope and the will to live again. I conclude by thanking the Illustrious Municipality of Valparaíso, for continuing the tradition of nominating and distinguishing directors and hardworking people of the city in a good and grateful hour”.
