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Edited by
Patricia Vilches
Mapping Violeta Parra’s Cultural Landscapes
Patricia Vilches
Editor
Mapping Violeta
Parra’s Cultural
Landscapes
Editor
Patricia Vilches
Harlaxton College
Harlaxton, Lincolnshire
UK
Cover illustration: Pattern adapted from an Indian cotton print produced in the 19th century
vii
viii CONTENTS
Index 119
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
ix
x NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
xiii
LIST OF TABLE
xv
CHAPTER 1
Patricia Vilches
Abstract This essay introduces the volume Mapping Violeta Parra’s Cul-
tural Landscapes, which explores the legacy and artistic corpus of Violeta
Parra. During her meandering life, the artist compiled and pursued a
multidimensional craft. She was a singer-songwriter, visual artist, poet,
and political activist, among many other things. Contributors analyze
Parra from interdisciplinary angles that include history, music, film studies,
literary studies, and visual arts, with a view toward casting an innovative
light on her multifaceted career. Although there were other well-known
compilers, Parra broke new ground. She expressed the trends of the rural in
the urban and vice versa and returned to the countryside melodies that, as
her career evolved, she imbued with socio-political awareness.
P. Vilches (*)
Harlaxton College, Harlaxton, Lincolnshire, UK
Mapping Violeta Parra’s Cultural Landscapes explores the legacy and artis-
tic corpus of Violeta Parra. Contributors have approached her work from
interdisciplinary angles that include history, music, film studies, literary
studies, and visual arts. They have mapped out the richness of the Chilean
artist’s cultural production, approaching her work with a view to casting an
innovative light on her multifaceted career. The benefit to our understand-
ing of Violeta from the perspective of a twenty-first-century audience is
tremendous. In her Décimas, she disclosed a deep attachment to her craft,
viewing her guitar, for instance, as an agent of work, something that would
sustain her during difficult times, as it did after the breakup of her first
marriage:
During her career in Chile, the artist experienced success among eclectic
groups, such as the cultural elite and the low-income, marginalized sectors.
Her relationship to these specific groups was colored in varying hues;
individuals such as Gastón Soublette, Sergio (Queco) Larraín, and so on
were considered pitucos [well-to-do] by the artist, potentially
problematizing any chance that their artistic association would develop
into a friendship (Sáez 1999, 93–4). On the other hand, she felt at ease in
the company of the humble, especially those who lived in the peripheral
areas of Santiago, such as doña Rosa Lorca, from Barrancas, a former
community composed mostly of migrant farmers. Violeta understood that
a critical aspect of artistic collaboration, such as the transcription or record-
ing of a musical repertoire, required earning people’s trust and respecting
their craft. For the artist, doña Rosa possessed a trove of folkloric knowl-
edge; she was an expert in homemade remedies and knew how to arrange
angelitos [dead babies] in an original and creative manner (Manns 1984,
55–6). In the words of her son, the late Ángel Parra, finding Chile’s hidden
folklore in the repertoires of the humble signified finding herself, the real
Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval (2006, 2; section 3).
The Viola Chilensis, as she was baptized by her brother Nicanor Parra, is
a subject of keen interest in Ethnic Studies, ethno-musical studies, and Latin
American Studies in general. She was born on October 4, 1917, in San
Carlos, near Chillán. She shares a geographical area of origin with Víctor
CON FUERZA, VIOLETA PARRA: THE ARTIST AND HER LEGACY 3
Jara and Claudio Arrau. Her father had great musical and poetic skills but
did not live up to his potential, working at one point as an elementary school
teacher, but mostly drowning his artistic frustrations with heavy drinking
and carousing. Certainly, Violeta and her siblings endured a childhood that
was challenging but also artistically infused. In spite of the measures taken
by her mother, who believed that her husband’s love for the guitar had
wrecked his life, Violeta stubbornly learned how to play the instrument first
for pleasure but later to earn a living (Herrero 2017, 54–55). She continued
that practice in Santiago, in humble musical venues, interpreting songs of a
rather commercial nature, enduring barroom brawls and managing to
poeticize about it. These incursions would sustain her while she searched
for her true artistic expression. In a definitive way, her research and subse-
quent musical compositions reflected how artificial Chile’s official rendition
of folklore had become. Violeta found that people were enamored of
imported popular culture and disdainful of her voice and campesina
[peasant-style] musical renditions. They struck many as “cantos cómicos”
[comical songs] (Parra 2006, 3; section 1). Combatively, she opened new
paths and bequeathed to the nation a repertoire of music that had been
neglected by a Chile that had become infatuated with Euro-Northern
musical markets. Followers of Violeta are now familiar with her avant-
garde compositions, such as “El gavilán” [The hawk] and “Mazúrquica
Modérnica”, and her playing the cuatro [Venezuelan lute], the guitarrón,
and the charango. During her time, however, Violeta’s originality and
mastery of those instruments made an impression on other artists
(NHRSC 2013, 18:31–18:48).
During her meandering life, the artist compiled and pursued a
multidimensional craft. She was a singer-songwriter, visual artist, poet,
political activist and more. Although there were other well-known com-
pilers, she broke new ground. She expressed the trends of the rural in the
urban and vice versa and returned to the countryside melodies that, as her
career evolved, she imbued with socio-political awareness. Consider, for
instance, the artist’s folkloric-political defiance in the song “Al centro de la
injusticia” [At the Center of Injustice]. She tapped the resources that were
available to her—or that she made available through sheer force—to
re-conceptualize, invigorate, and politicize Chile’s cultural production.
Demanding respect for her craft, she reached international status; in fact,
in the 1950s, one of her compositions captivated musician and composer
Les Baxter, who incorporated it into his orchestral arrangements of world
music. Two decades later, an enduring connection between Violeta and the
international community was established through folk singer Joan Baez,
4 P. VILCHES
cuando ella hizo la exposición en el Louvre, recuerdo haber ido con ella con
las cosas debajo de los brazos, las telas y las tapicerías . . . y pusimos todo,
tirado, delante del escritorio del director del Museo de Artes Decorativas, y el
tipo quedó convencido inmediatamente, cuando vio todas esas obras por el
suelo. El tipo estaba entre fascinado, aterrado y yo creo que es un caso único
en la historia, en la historia del museo y en la historia de mi mamá, también,
eso de haber obtenido en el plazo de cuatro meses todo el segundo piso para
ella del Museo de Artes Decorativas, y eso era por la fuerza que trasmitía
(2003, 47:56–48:48).
[when she exhibited at the Louvre, I remember going along with her with
things under my arms, cloths and tapestries . . . and we laid everything out,
spread it on the floor, in front of the desk of the director of the Museum of
Decorative Arts; when he saw all these works on the floor the man was
CON FUERZA, VIOLETA PARRA: THE ARTIST AND HER LEGACY 5
[You will never be erased from our memories, Gabriela. Divine Providence
took the prettiest flower.]
Violeta ended her life with a self-inflicted gunshot at her Carpa [Tent], her
last home, which was also her final artistic venue. Located in La Reina, an
upper middle–class municipality in Santiago, the circus-like structure sym-
bolized Violeta’s journey back to her roots. Having enjoyed success touring
Europe, she had returned to Chile and had accepted a generous offer by the
mayor to install herself in La Reina. She laid out an ambitious project, the
creation of the University of Folklore, which she believed could be accom-
plished in the sui generis life structure she had created for herself. Unfortu-
nately, her international success was not matched nationally and she
remained rather marginalized in her Carpa de La Reina without access to
a wide audience. Many accounts relate how the artist would prepare a first-
class musical repertoire and then no audience would come. She was reborn
on the day of her death for the majority of Chileans, becoming a legend in
the style of Kurt Cobain and Alexander McQueen; photos in the popular
press showed the artist’s coffin at the Carpa de La Reina, surrounded by
flowers and a long line of mourners. For her wake, Chile rose to its feet to
recognize the artist’s contribution to her nation. She was commemorated
by all, from the humblest to the Chair of the Senate (Salvador Allende) and
the President of the Republic (Eduardo Frei) (Sáez 1999, 13).
6 P. VILCHES
This section integrates four chapters that analyze Violeta’s approach to the
visual arts and her music on a national as well as a global stage. Contributors
analyze her music and her development as an artist. Likewise, they treat
themes relating to the intricate relationship between her visual art (in oil,
ceramics, and arpilleras) and her many successes as well as her failures and
her place in Chilean iconography.
The first chapter, Ericka Verba’s “Violeta Parra and the Chilean Folk
Revival of the 1950s”, examines the artist’s work as a folclorista (folklorist),
interpreted through the dual meaning of the word in Spanish: someone who
collects folk songs (folklorist) and someone who performs those songs (folk
singer). Widely recognized as a pioneer of the Chilean folk revival in the 1950s,
Violeta and other influential folcloristas desired to show the nation that
CON FUERZA, VIOLETA PARRA: THE ARTIST AND HER LEGACY 7
connection between textual content and activist music but not so much
about how the musical composition itself also participated in an expression
of protest. He wonders “are there parallel or extra-textual elements that
echo the activist’s text? Is it possible to find other elements of protest
beyond the words being sung? If so, how do they work? Could they be
present in other artworks by Parra?” Ultimately, Escobar Mundaca aims to
reflect on Parra’s art as activism, which focuses on chilenidad and—in a
larger framework, recalling Neruda—on americanidad.
Part 2, “‘Como dijera Violeta’: Expressions of her Legacy in the Twenty-
First Century”, includes three chapters that address Violeta’s legacy in
contemporary times. From this vantage point, Violeta’s expressions in
Chile and abroad and in various media (film, exhibits, material culture,
and the like) are discussed. In the Seventies, Víctor Jara wrote his memo-
rable “Manifiesto”, singing about his trade and identifying Violeta as a
source of inspiration and direction, “Como dijera Violeta” [as Violeta
said]. Focusing on Violeta as a woman of action and passion, this part
considers people’s perception of Violeta across her multiple artistic plat-
forms and through her portrayal in film.
Juan Pablo González’s “Creator of Worlds and Songs” focuses on
Violeta’s legacy in Chile and Latin America at large. Through her last
three recordings, Recordando a Chile (1965), Las últimas composiciones
(1966), and the posthumous Canciones reencontradas en París (1971),
her various artistic expressions come through as a folclorista and composer
as well as a sculptor and an embroiderer. She kept these artistic areas in a
permanent dialogue allowing her not only to expand on definitions of what
being a collector of folklore or a singer-songwriter signified but also to
delineate her own life within the scope of her work, a fact that for González
points to her decision to end her life. In her work, Violeta juxtaposed, or
rather transformed, the old into the new, making her the mother of the
Chilean Nueva Canción movement, which shaped Chilean cultural identity.
Rosa Tapia’s chapter, “Violeta Went to Heaven and the Ethics of Con-
temporary Latin American Melodrama”, focuses on Andrés Wood’s film
Violeta Went to Heaven (2011), the first bona fide film about the Chilean
artist, based on the eponymous book by Ángel Parra. Tapia argues that the
film’s melodramatic emphasis mythologizes popular identity, which makes
for a Violeta with diminished political potency. On the other hand, Tapia
argues that old dichotomies, such as Hollywood versus national cinemas,
are becoming blurrier, making filmmakers’ choices difficult. Using Wood’s
film as a model, Tapia explores the ethical dilemmas encountered by twenty-
CON FUERZA, VIOLETA PARRA: THE ARTIST AND HER LEGACY 9
that inhered in her role as author and compiler all contributed to making
Violeta a unique and powerful agent for depicting the cultural landscapes of
the Chilean nation.
NOTE
1. All translations from Spanish to English are my own unless otherwise
indicated.
REFERENCES
Herrero, Víctor. 2017. Después de vivir un siglo: Una biografía de Violeta Parra.
E-book ed. Barcelona: Lumen.
Manns, Patricio. 1984. Violeta Parra. 2nd ed. Madrid: Júcar.
No hay revolucion sin canciones (NHRSC). 2013. ELNAVEGADOR.CL, 1:04:45.
https://vimeo.com/80870121. Accessed June 20, 2016.
Parra, Ángel. 2003. ‘Viola Chilensis:’ Documental Biografía de Violeta Parra.
YouTube video, 1:23:45, posted by Mario Zepeda on Aug. 29, 2011. https://
youtu.be/bLDkrtjU6Hs. Accessed March 9, 2016.
———. 2006. Violeta se fue a los cielos. Santiago: Catalonia. Kindle edition.
Parra, Isabel. 2015. El libro mayor de Violeta Parra: Un relato biográfico y testimo-
nial. 4th ed. Santiago: Chabe Producciones.
Parra, Violeta. 1976. Décimas: Autobiografía en versos. Barcelona: Pomaire.
Piña, Juan Andrés. 1976. Violeta Parra: Fundadora musical de Chile. In 21 son los
dolores: Antología amorosa, by Violeta Parra, ed. Juan Andrés Piña, 13–25.
Santiago: Ediciones Aconcagua.
Sáez, Fernando. 1999. La vida intranquila: Violeta Parra, biografía esencial. San-
tiago: Editorial Sudamericana.
PART I
Research for this chapter was made possible, in part, by a grant from the National
Endowment for the Humanities.
E.K. Verba (*)
California State University, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
In June 1954, Violeta Parra landed her first and what would prove to be only
feature interview in Chile’s premier entertainment weekly, Ecran. She had
been introduced to the magazine’s staff the preceding November by well-
known folclorista (folklorist, folk singer) Margot Loyola, who had recently
“discovered” Violeta and who, impressed by her obvious talent, was helping
to jump-start her new career as a solo artist and would-be folclorista.1 The
non-committal title of the resultant short article from November 3, 1953,
asked: “¿Surge nuevo valor folklórico?” [Is a New Folkloric Talent Emerg-
ing?]2 By the time of Violeta’s Ecran interview several months later, the
answer was unequivocal. The piece began with a summary of Violeta’s
professional activities, which now included hosting her own program on
Radio Chilena and appearing regularly on Radio Cooperativa’s folk music
show “Chile Lindo”. In recognition of the local celebrity she was fast
becoming, Violeta was asked about her personal life and this was followed
by several questions regarding Chilean folklore. She obligingly explained
some of its salient characteristics, then modestly acknowledged that she still
had much to learn. She concluded by averring that her dream would be
[to travel the entire country, absorbing all of its music in order to learn it, and
then to teach it to everyone else.]
She would devote a large portion of her unmatched energies and passion
over the remainder of her lifetime in pursuit of that dream.
This chapter examines Violeta’s contribution to the veritable folk
“boom” that swept Chile in the 1950s. Many of its participants, Violeta
included, were leftists. Their project of folk revival, however, was not
exclusive to the Left. Its object was an idealized pueblo [folk], timeless and
past, and not the overtly political pueblo [working class] of class struggle.
Consequently, it constituted one of the few cultural arenas during the
politically charged decade to allow for some degree of non-partisan collab-
oration.3 All of the folcloristas, by definition, were cultural nationalists; they
undertook their work propelled by the shared belief that there existed a
“true” and untouched Chilean folklore awaiting their discovery and that
said folklore was under siege on multiple fronts.4 In their interlocking
practice of definition and defense of Chilean traditions, Violeta and her
colleagues contributed to the ideological struggle over what it meant to be
VIOLETA PARRA AND THE CHILEAN FOLK REVIVAL OF THE 1950S 15
Chilean in their epoch. Viewed through this historical lens, the ensuing
discussion is necessarily an exploration of the contested meanings of
chilenidad [Chilean identity] during a critical juncture in the economic,
social, and cultural evolution of Chilean society.
Chile has a long and established tradition of folkloric studies dating back
to the earliest decade of the twentieth century. The 1950s folcloristas had
much in common with their predecessors. Like earlier generations, they
conceived of Chile as the sum of its varied regions, and the folklore of these
regions as the nation’s patrimony. Their common charge was to seek out
and rescue the “true” folklore of el pueblo chileno from its state of oblivion.
The 1950s folcloristas defined their task as urgent, as Chilean folklore was
widely perceived as being on the verge of extinction due to rapidly
expanding processes of modernization and urbanization. As rural migrants
poured into Santiago and other urban areas, they shed their traditional ways
and adopted the more cosmopolitan cultural practices of city life. Moving in
the contrary direction, mass popular culture had been encroaching on the
Chilean countryside via the modern media of records, radio, and cinema
from roughly the 1930s onward. By the 1950s, the invasion was near
complete (González and Rolle 2005). As traditional songs were fast becom-
ing relics of the past, a new generation of Chilean folcloristas made it their
mission to seek out the traditional singers, many of whom were already
aged, “collect” the songs that had been passed down from across the
centuries, and restore them to the Chilean people through their
performance.
The 1950s folcloristas thus practiced their vocation according to the dual
meaning of the Spanish term: as someone who collects folk songs (folklor-
ist) and as someone who performs them (folk singer). The performative
character of their work is what fundamentally differentiated their generation
from preceding ones. Whereas folcloristas in earlier decades had been
content to guard their findings within a small circle of like-minded intellec-
tuals, their mid-twentieth-century counterparts were committed to dissem-
inating the folklore they collected to the widest audience possible via all the
modern means of conveyance at their disposal, including concerts, radio
shows, sound recordings, documentary movies, and eventually television.
The fact that the 1950s folcloristas proposed to preserve and restore Chilean
traditions by availing themselves of the very same media that threatened
them with extinction reflects the Sisyphean nature of their quest. Violeta
was well aware of this paradox; as she commented to a French reporter in a
1964 interview, “la radio a, en m^eme temps, tué le folklore et l’a popularisé”
16 E.K. VERBA
[radio has, at the same time, killed folklore and popularized it] (Stéphany
1964, 54).
What made the 1950s folcloristas’ combined efforts a “boom” was that,
for a brief cultural moment, there was an overlap between their promotion
of folklore, defined as the “rescate, preservación y difusión de la música de
tradición oral . . . con fines patrimoniales y educativos” [rescue, preserva-
tion, and diffusion of music from oral tradition . . . for educative and
patriotic purposes], and popular music, defined as music that reaches people
through the market mechanisms of the music industry and mainstream
media (González and Rolle 2005, 371). Violeta’s interview in Ecran is
testament to this fleeting phenomenon, as is Margot Loyola’s even grander
coup: a full-page photo of her dancing the cueca5 with her partner and
fellow folclorista Raul Gardy on the cover of the magazine’s issue for
September 15, 1953, bookended between issue covers of Italian actress
Silvana Mangano and Hollywood heartthrob Gregory Peck. At the peak of
the folk revival, traditional music was being promoted by such unlikely
sources as Ecran and via radio stations, major record labels, amateur talent
shows, and countless concerts and related events. The record label Odeón
Chilena, for example, premiered its groundbreaking folk music series in
1956 with Violeta Parra as its featured solo artist on the first four albums.
For the short space of a decade, perhaps less, it appeared as if significant
numbers of Chileans could be persuaded to embrace the rich traditions of
their forebears (González et al. 2009).
Even at the peak of the folk revival, the folcloristas’ share in the 1950s
marketplace of popular musical genres in Chile was never more than min-
iscule. The market included every kind of pop music imported from the
United States, whose recording artists consistently topped the charts in
Chile over the entire decade when the folk “boom” was presumably
“booming”. It also included the potpourri of similarly imported music
from other Latin American countries—tropical guarachas, Argentine
tangos, Peruvian vals, and Mexican rancheras and corridos—that is often
referred to as música criolla. The pan–Latin American songbook inspired its
share of Chilean imitators as well. Violeta called out some of them by name
in her 1954 Ecran interview, lamenting “Es un crimen que intérpretes de
calidad estén cantando—y grabando—mambo, ‘baion,’ etc.” [It’s a crime
that talented artists are singing—and recording—mambo, ‘baion,’ etc.].
Finally, the more traditionalist fokloristas had to contend with the folk-
derived, highly stylized music of the conjuntos huasos [cowboy bands] that
dominated the musical soundscape of Chilean nationalism since the early
VIOLETA PARRA AND THE CHILEAN FOLK REVIVAL OF THE 1950S 17
part of the twentieth century (Barr-Melej 2001). Marketed under the label
of música típica chilena, the conjuntos huasos’ repertoire featured elaborate
arrangements of the Chilean-identified song styles of tonadas and cuecas,
with lyrics that painted a bucolic view of life on the Chilean hacienda. Their
costumes—poncho and spurs for the men and the requisite china [cowgirl]
outfit of a flowery dress with a white laced apron for the women—
established a symbolic association between the musicians and campesina
culture but had little to no resemblance to the way actual Chilean campe-
sinos and campesinas dressed. From the purist point of view of Violeta and
her colleagues, the conjuntos huasos did more to deform Chilean folk music
than they did to preserve it. Violeta, for one, was known to vociferously
denounce Chile’s most famous conjunto huaso, Los Huasos Quincheros,
for being a bunch of “impostores. . .huasitos del Club de Golf, de tarjeta
postal” [impostors. . .little cowboys from the country club, from postcards]
(Štambuk and Bravo 2011, 82). That said, the traditionalist folcloristas’
efforts to draw a sharp distinction between their authentic folk music and
the música típica of the conjuntos huasos were undermined by the fact that
they chose to perform in the identical “traditional” costumes of huaso and
china to those worn by their musical nemeses.
It is therefore more than a little ironic that Violeta took up the vocation
of folclorista after a decades-long and, toward the end, thriving musical
career performing the full gamut of popular Latin American genres that fit
the expansive rubric of música criolla, from imported boleros, corridos,
rancheras, and tangos to the subset of highly stylized tonadas and cuecas
that defined the narrower, more nationalist category of música típica
chilena.6 The year 1953 marked the turning point in her artistic trajectory.
Violeta, then thirty-five, and her sister Hilda were making something of a
name for themselves performing as the duo Las Hermanas Parra, including
regular radio appearances and a record contract with RCA Victor. That year
the sisters’ promising musical career careened to a halt when Violeta broke
up the duo in anger after Hilda accepted a gig without her and against her
expressed wishes. By that time, Violeta, encouraged by her older brother,
the poet Nicanor Parra, had already begun collecting folk songs. With the
dissolution of the duo, she commenced her work as a folclorista in earnest.
Violeta quickly established herself at the forefront of the 1950s folk
revival. She stood out from her folclorista cohort in several respects. The
majority of her colleagues came from middle- or even upper-class back-
grounds, were university-educated, could read and write musical notation,
and had at least some academic training in the field. They approached
18 E.K. VERBA
"Dat 's ook wat!" zei Hugo, die dit niets geen gepast slot vond,
maar de andere kinderen klapten zoo hard dat er verder geen woord
tusschen te krijgen was.
Tante Lina vond dit slot mooier dan ze het hadden kunnen
bedenken.
"Zeker," zei Tante Lina, "wat ik gezien heb vond ik heel aardig!"
XI.
"Heb je nu eigenlijk gestudeerd of niet?" vroeg Mijnheer Hofman
ontevreden, want Eduard stond op een geweldige manier te knoeien
en hakkelde nu al voor de derde maal in een etude die hij de vorige
week al had moeten kennen.
Eduard keek van Mijnheer Hofman naar Theo, en van Theo naar
zijn viool.
"Hoeveel keer?"
Eduard zweeg.
De eerste regels vielen hem mee, 't ging vrij goed, maar verderop
waren een paar moeilijke loopjes, en daarna raakte hij zoo in de war,
dat Mijnheer Hofman het al gauw mooi genoeg vond en hem
vertelde dat hij wel kon ophouden. "Berg je viool nu maar weg," zei
hij boos, "en dan zullen we zien of je er de volgende week meer van
kent. — Theo, wil jij de sonatine spelen alsjeblieft?"
Theo bracht het er nogal goed af, maar Eduard wilde er niet naar
luisteren. Vervelend gezanik ook, om hem zijn viool te laten
wegbergen; Theo maakte ook wel fouten; je moest het ook altijd
even prachtig kennen, en hij kon 't toch niet helpen dat Hofman
vandaag uit zijn humeur was. — Zoo vreeselijk slecht was 't niet
eens gegaan, maar omdat hij nu had verteld dat hij maar driemaal
gestudeerd had moest Hofman ook op alles vitten. Maar als die
malle vent soms dacht dat 't hem schelen kon, had hij het toch glad
mis!
"Zeker mag je 't zeggen!" zei Eduard kwaad, "als jij Hofman
geweest was had je me zeker dadelijk naar huis gestuurd!"
"Nou ja, maar heel veel gestudeerd had je toch ook niet!"
"Waarom niet?"
"Zoo maar. Je zei 't net of je dacht: drie keer vind ik wel zoowat het
minste dat ik zeggen kan!"
"Jij moest maar eens bij een Oom en Tante en zes nichtjes en
neefjes logeeren, dan zou je eens zien hoe hard je werken kon!"
vervolgde Eduard, verwoed tegen een steentje schoppend, en Theo
aanziende: "Zeg nou eens, wat zou jij tegen Hofman gezegd
hebben?"
"Dat weet ik niet," zei Theo, nadat hij even ge-[a206] floten had, "ik
zou 't misschien ook wel gezegd hebben, hoor!"
"Ja, dat is lam genoeg!" Eduard zuchtte. "'t Is net of 't me nu niets
meer zou kunnen schelen om te zeggen dat ik maar ééns
gestudeerd had. Hij was toch al woedend, en een beetje meer of
minder is dan toch zoo erg niet!"
"Krijg je ook een fiets? Wat moppig!" riep Eduard, want door dit
nieuwtje was hij opeens de narigheid van de vioolles vergeten. "Wat
zullen we dan van de zomer leuk samen kunnen rijden, zeg!"
"Ja, mijne is een Humber, hij staat nog thuis, maar zoo gauw als
het mooi weer wordt mag ik hem gaan halen!"
En ongeduldig stopte hij 't schrift in zijn lessenaar toen om twee uur
de bel luidde.
Broertje had voor 't eerst ook mee mogen spelen vanavond, en met
gesloten oogen dacht Tante Lina nog even aan het opgewonden
gezichtje en de drukke bewegingen van 't kleine ventje. Maar toen
viel haar iets in, en glimlachend keek ze Oom Tom aan en zei: "Die
jongste zoon van jou zal anders een beste worden!"
"Wel, vanmiddag nam ik hem mee uit, 't was mooi weer, en voor we
naar huis gingen liep ik nog even 't plantsoen door. Opeens zag ik
Kolonel Durand naar mij toekomen; hij maakte een praatje en begon
[a208] toen notitie te nemen van Broer, die hem met zijn groote
blauwe oogen strak stond aan te staren. 'Hoe heet je wel, vent?'
vroeg hij, en Broer verklaarde heel ernstig dat hij Willem Cornelis
Verhey heette, maar verder verkoos hij heelemaal geen antwoord
meer te geven, en toen Kolonel Durand eindelijk wegging en vroeg
of hij een hand kreeg hield Broer stijf zijn handen op zijn rug en zei
niets anders dan 'Ik doet het niet!'"
"Je zou 't nu niet meer van hem gelooven!" zei de Kapitein
droogjes, en Lineke zong zachtjes:
"Zeg eens, ken je onze Piet?
Och, da 's jammer, ken je 'm niet,
Och, hij was zoo'n lieve jo...."
Een harde klap op haar wang van Tommy deed haar plotseling
ophouden, en half verbaasd, half verschrikt vloog Lineke van haar
stoel, om de beleediging met de rente terug te betalen. Maar haar
Moeder hield haar tegen, en de Kapitein vroeg streng: "Tommy,
waarom sla je Lineke?"
Tommy gaf geen antwoord, en schopte met zijn [a209] laars tegen
de tafelpoot, maar toen zijn Vader opstond en naar hem toe kwam,
schoof hij haastig naar den anderen kant van de kamer.
Maar Tommy, die zich, zoolang hij buiten 't bereik van den Kapitein
was, nog veilig voelde, zei met een ondeugend gezicht: "Ik doet het
niet!"
"Nee!"
Zonder verder nog iets te zeggen ging de Kapitein op hem af; nog
eenige oogenblikken deed Tommy vergeefsche moeite om te
ontkomen, toen voelde hij zich stevig bij den kraag gepakt. "Waarom
heb je Lineke geslagen?"
Tommy zweeg.
"Zeg nu maar dadelijk tegen je zusje: 'Het spijt me dat ik je
geslagen heb,' en laat het dan uit zijn alsjeblieft."
Tante Lina wenkte Oom Tom, den kleinen jongen [a210] verder aan
zijn lot over te laten, en stuurde de andere kinderen de kamer uit.
"Neem de kaarten maar mee en ga in de leerkamer een spelletje
doen!"
"'k Ga nog lang niet naar bed!" verklaarde Lineke met een kleur van
plezier, toen haar bakje met fiches steeds voller werd.
"Ma zal wel spijt hebben dat ze dat verhaal over Broertje verteld
heeft!" merkte Piet lachend op.
"He Ma, nog even! 'k Heb nu juist zoo'n mooie kaart!" zeurde
Lineke, en Eduard zei dat hij juist heelemaal niet moe was; maar
Tante Lina's geduld was door 't gezanik met Tommy vrijwel uitgeput,
en met een "'t Is nu mooi geweest!" konden ze [a211] gaan
opruimen. Langzaam werden de fiches weer in de doosjes gestopt,
en na nog wat lachen en onzin praten gingen ze eindelijk naar
boven.
Wat zou hij nu toch eigenlijk niet willen doen? Hield die vervelende
jongen zijn mond nu toch maar! Net of je zoo kon slapen!
Eduard voelde zijn hart kloppen en met wijd open oogen bleef hij
liggen luisteren. Oom Tom liep langs zijn deur naar de kamer van de
kleine jongens, en begon daar heel kwaad tegen Tommy te praten —
Eduard verstond het niet, maar wel kon hij duidelijk [a212] de
klappen hooren, die toen volgden, en Tommy's huilend geroep: "Ik
zal wel gaan slapen!"
En ook wist hij nog heel goed wat er gebeurd was toen ze eindelijk
thuiskwamen; hoe Vader hem heel kortaf vertelde dat hij mee moest
gaan, naar Vaders eigen kamer, en wat Vader hem daar vroeg: of hij
dan heelemaal vergeten was hoe vreeselijk boos Vader werd als
hem iets verteld werd dat niet waar was; of hij er dan heelemaal niet
aan gedacht had hoe naar Vader het zou vinden, om te merken dat
zijn eigen jongen hem voorgelogen had, en of hij wel wist wat hij nu
verdiende?
En nu? Wat had hij vanmiddag gedaan? Wat had hij tegen Mijnheer
Hofman gezegd? Hoeveel keer had hij er wel bij gelogen dat hij
gestudeerd had? Dit was véél erger dan die ééne som! Wat zou
Vader wel zeggen als hij dát wist! Als Vader hem gehoord had
vanmiddag, hoe zou hij Vader tegengevallen zijn! Een gemeene
jongen was hij, en veel meer dan Tommy had hij verdiend wat zijn
kleine neefje zooeven gekregen had —
Maar niet van Oom Tom — dat mocht alleen Vader zelf doen!
En Eduard draaide zich om en drukte zijn gezicht zoo stijf in 't
kussen dat hij bijna geen adem kon halen — och, kwam Vader maar!
[a214]
XII.
"Zeg Kerner!" klonk het zachtjes.
"Nou?"
Mijnheer Snijders zag zoekend de klas rond. "Van Hamel, wil jij de
gebergten Van Zwitserland eens komen aanwijzen?" En Van Hamel
schoof zijn bank uit om langzaam naar voren te komen.
"Nou, steek je hand dan uit. — Voorzichtig, doe nou niet zoo sloom,
straks ziet hij het!"
"Ik heb niks geen zin om op te letten!" ging de stem achter hem
voort.
"Wat?"
"Ik zeg dat 't net zoo taai is als die drop van jou, je tanden blijven er
in kleven!"
Eduard keek verschrikt op. "Een stukje drop," zei hij toen.
"Nee meneer."
"Nee meneer."
Mijnheer Snijders keek nog even naar hem, maar liet hem verder
stil zitten.
"We zullen voortgaan met de les; Van Effen, het is jouw beurt!"
[a221] Toen om twaalf uur de bel gegaan was en de andere jongens
weg waren liet Mijnheer Snijders Eduard bij zich voor de klas komen.
"Zoo, nu, dan wilde ik je eens even het volgende zeggen: ik heb
van de week de rapporten opgemaakt, die jullie vóór de
Paaschvacantie zult krijgen, en ik heb je voor Fransche taal een 4 en
voor rekenen een 3 gegeven. Het werk dat je tegenwoordig inlevert
is bepaald slecht, en je huiswerk is eigenlijk gezegd beneden alle
critiek; en het ergste is, dat het niets dan luiheid van je is; als je je
werkelijk inspant kun je heel goed werken, maar van de fouten die je
maakt is het grootste gedeelte slordigheid en onattentie, en ik heb je
voor vlijt dan ook niet meer dan een 4 kunnen geven."
Eduard luisterde met zijn handen op zijn rug, en aldoor keek hij
naar den grond.
"Je vader zal het zeker wel heel plezierig vinden als je hem dat
schrijft!"
"Zie je wel dat je 't wel weet?" vroeg Mijnheer Snijders, toen hij 't
nagekeken had.
"Ja, maar 't andere kun je ook wel! Heusch, span je nu eens in!
Begin nu eens met te maken dat er geen enkele fout in de Fransche
thema voor morgen zit! En ga nu maar gauw weg, dag Kerner!"
Eduard haastte zich niet om thuis te komen. Even holde hij tot hij
de straat uit was, toen bleef hij met aandacht bij den singel staan
kijken; een troepje jongens was er aan 't spelen op een vlot, dat met
een stevig touw aan den kant vastlag. Telkens klonk een luid gejuich
als een van de jongens met een [a223] flinke sprong op 't vlot terecht
kwam, en geen van 't troepje scheen zich er aan te storen dat bij 't
daarop volgende geschommel de klompen vol water liepen. Wat zou
't ze ook kunnen schelen! Zij hoefden geen akelige Fransche
thema's te maken, en toelatingsexamen voor 't gymnasium hoefden
ze ook niet te doen!
Met een harden schop tegen een kiezelsteentje liep Eduard verder.
Een 4 voor vlijt! Verbeeld je! En een 3 voor rekenen! Nou ja,
rekenen kon hij nou ook eenmaal niet, en dat zou hij wel nooit leeren
ook! Maar die 4 voor vlijt was onzin! Dat was zeker om vanmorgen;
net of je altijd maar hetzelfde uitgestreken gezicht kon zetten! En
natuurlijk had hij moeten schoolblijven, en Meertens, die begonnen
was, kon stilletjes naar huis gaan. Die kwam er altijd goed af, en hij
kreeg er de standjes voor! En die cijfers moest hij nu aan Vader
schrijven! Wat zou Vader 't ook lam vinden! Misschien kwam 't
rapport ook wel te laat om 't nog te schrijven, Oom Tom had gezegd
dat wanneer hij na de volgende week nog schreef Vader de brief
toch niet meer zou krijgen. Dan moest hij 't vertellen als Vader terug
was!
Vervelende boel hier ook al! Was hij maar weer goed en wel thuis!
Trijntje deed de deur open, brommend over 't malle gebel, maar
Eduard liep haar zonder iets te [a224] zeggen voorbij en hing zijn pet
aan de kapstok.
"Waarom niet?"
Eduard draaide zich om en hing zijn jas op. "Vraag 't maar aan
Hugo of Piet, hoor!" antwoordde hij, toen Lineke bleef staan
wachten.
"Dat heb ik al gedaan, maar die willen juist niet!" klonk het treurig,
"en 'k zou het toch zoo vreeselijk graag leeren!"
Eduard keek zijn nichtje even aan, maar hij zei niets.
Hij had niet gehuild, heelemaal niet, verbeeld je dat hij zou huilen
om dat malle schoolblijven! En hij keek Lineke aan en probeerde te
lachen. "Welnee!" antwoordde hij luchtig, "hoe kom je er bij?" en
haastig over het fietsen doorpratend: "In de Paaschvacantie zal ik
mijn fiets gaan halen en dan zal ik het je wel leeren hoor!"
Eduard wilde naar binnen gaan, maar Lineke hield hem bij zijn
mouw vast. "Wacht nog even," riep ze, "ik weet nog wat!"
"'t Zal wat zijn!"
"Nee, heusch!"
"Nou, voor jou, van Oom Eduard, en ...." Maar Eduard had zich al
losgetrokken en liep de huiskamer in.
"Daar ben je vet mee!" zei Hugo, en Piet reciteerde half hard:
"Ik heb een aardig neefje
Dat op zijn fiets óók rent!
En als je vraagt 'hoe rijd je toch?'
Dan zegt hij 'Wel, patent!'"
Dit vers was een blijvende aardigheid geworden en werd bij alle
mogelijke en onmogelijke gelegenheden en met alle denkbare
variaties te pas gebracht. Maar de geestigheid ging voor Eduard
deze keer verloren; haastig had hij het couvert met de Indische
postzegel opengescheurd, en met alle aandacht was hij verdiept in
wat Vader schreef:
[a230]