Musical Mutualism in Valparaiso during the Rise of the Labor Movement (1893–1931)

Abstract

The Musicians’ Mutual Aid Society of Valparaiso was active from 1893 to well into the twentieth century in what was then Chile’s main port city. In this article, I will examine the characteristics of this social organization of Chilean musicians during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and its relationship to the rising labor movement. Moreover, I will report some relevant findings based on a range of archival material. To conclude, I will discuss the role of the Mutual Aid Society of Valparaiso as a forerunner to the creation of the country’s first Musicians’ Union in 1931.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Eva Moreda, Martin Cloonan, and John Williamson for their comments on earlier versions of this paper, and especially to José Manuel Izquierdo and Martín Farías for their insights on different findings of this research. My special thanks go to Cristian Molina for his generosity, ideas, and camaraderie, without which this research would not have been possible.

Notes

1. All English translations of texts cited in this article that were originally published in Spanish – from both the literature on Chilean music history and documents from the SMSMV (such as meeting minutes and internal rules) – are my own. Transcriptions of archival material are available from the author upon request.

2. Valparaiso is located at 77.27 miles (124.36 km) to the west of Santiago.

3. In the belief that a larger population would increase the economy, and that a population of European settlers will be better for the country, “this program sought to populate the land and promote industry and the exportation of raw materials in specific regions of the country” (Cano y Soffia 132). This policy was informed by an idealized, colonial, image of Europeans. As stated by Chilean historians, “the idea was not just to bring people to an almost uninhabited country, but to bring better people” (Villalobos et al. 456).

4. Among these organizations were the Sociedad de Música Clásica (Classical Music Society), founded in 1879; the Sociedad Cuarteto (Quartet Society) established in 1885; the Club de la Unión de Valdivia (Union Club of Valdivia) established in 1879; and the Sociedad Reformada de Valparaíso (Reformed Musical Society of Valparaiso) founded in 1881. Following this tide, in the 1920s the Sociedad Bach (Bach Society) was established, and later played a relevant role in designing the institutionalization of Chilean music in the 1940s (Castillo 11, 15).

5. In addition to the establishment of the Sociedad de la Igualdad, Zapiola was a key figure in the development of music in Chile. He wrote a treatise for teaching music, created the music program at the Escuela Normalista de Santiago, and became the director of the National Conservatoire of Music in 1857 (Pereira Salas 97).

6. The Musicians’ Mutual Aid Society of Santiago was founded on September 15, 1889, and both organizations maintained frequent and close communication.

7. Chilean Musicologist Cristian Molina and I carried out this project in 2015, after the documents were found. In order to disseminate our research findings and, above all, make available the documents uncovered, we created the website www.memoriamusicalvalpo.cl, on which a selection of the digitalized documents of the SMSMV and research reports are available.

8. Although not a mutual aid society, this organization was focused in the mutual support. Sociedade Beneficiencia was founded in Rio de Janeiro in 1833, and followed the statutes of the Saint Cecilia Brotherhood, created in the same city, alongside the church Nossa Senhora do Porto in 1784 (Cardoso 433–44).

9. By the end of the nineteenth century, musicians’ unions were established in Britain, France, and the U.S. by orchestra members (Jempson 2–5; David-Guillou 289–91). A similar situation occurred with orchestral musicians in Portugal and Belgium where musicians’ unions were established by the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (Deniz; Murray). Although the comparison is made between different kinds of organizations, the Chilean mutual aid society is not directly comparable to these musicians’ unions because of two reasons. First, at the time there were not yet musicians’ unions in Chile and, secondly, the musicians’ mutual aid societies of those other countries were no longer functioning, having been replaced by musicians’ unions. What both types of organizations had in common was that they were created by musicians themselves, i.e. by those who made a living from music and wanted to improve musicians’ working conditions. Other musicians’ societies in Chile at the time, like Sociedad de Santiago, while also being created by musicians, sought to spread classical music and gather together academic musicians who did not necessarily making a living from music, rather than being formed to improve musicians’ lives and working conditions,.

10. Italian Pietro Cesari became Pedro Césari in Chile because, at the time, foreign names were translated into their Spanish equivalents.

11. One of his compositions was the patriotic piece, “Canto a Prat” and another the piano waltz, “Adiós a Valparaíso.”

12. Rosa Fürth de González was the wife of Abraham González, President of the SMSMV board, and she was elected to hold the position of Assistant Treasurer in February 1937. However, there were women linked to the SMSMV, who also attended some meetings but were not members of the organization. One example is those who studied in the Music Academy created by the SMSV in 1918 (see Note 17). In the general meeting of 18th January of 1919 five women performed some pieces which they had learned at this Music Academy (Sociedad, Libro de Juntas Generales).

13. Some guiding examples are the Sociedad de Obreras (Women Workers’ Society) founded on November 1887 in Valparaiso, the Sociedad de Socorros Mutuos “Igualdad Obrera” (Mutual Aid Society “Equal Workers”), also founded in Valparaiso on November 1890, and the Sociedad de Obreras de Iquique (Iquique’s Workers Society), established in May 1890 in the northern port city of Iquique (Grez, “Regeneración” 611–15).

14. Estudiantinas was a kind of band comprised mainly of string instruments, such as guitars, bandurrias, mandolins, and violins. However, “unlike the Spanish model, formed by university students set by a tradition dating back to the very birth of the Spanish university in the thirteenth century, Chilean estudiantinas were comprised of amateur musicians” (González and Rolle 61).

15. Grez considers the period from 1891 to 1924 as the height of mutualism in Chile. After 1925 mutualism entered to stage of crisis and decline when the social legislation was approved. For example, law 4.057 provided the right to unionize and the law 4.054 created Compulsory Health Insurance for workers. Such legislation had a substantial impact on the mutual aid societies, harming them and opening the path for the creation of trade unions (Grez, “Trayectoria” 309).

16. For example in the session of November 6, 1926, after realizing the difficulties of assembling the majority of the members of the SMSMV, the Board decided to modify the SMSMV’s election system in order to help it in such situations. In 1927 several meetings were cancelled because they were not quorate.

17. In 1918 the SMSMV created a Music Academy where the members of this Society could work as instructors and anybody in the city could attend it.