Barr-Melej Spotlighted in Chilean Rock-Music Magazine Dr. Patrick Barr-Melej, Professor of History and Interim Executive Director of the Center for International Studies, was interviewed by the Chilean music magazine Rockaxis for a recent special edition on rock music and Chilean musical icon Víctor Jara. Dr. Patrick Barr-Melej, Professor of History and Interim Executive Director of the Center for International Studies, was interviewed by the Chilean music magazine Rockaxis for a recent special edition on rock music and Chilean musical icon Víctor Jara. Jara, who was murdered by the emergent military regime of Gen. Augusto Pinochet in 1973, was a revolutionary activist and key figure in Chile’s Nueva Canción (New Song) movement, known for its strongly folkloric rhythms and lyrics that spoke of and to the working class and poor. While remembered and still celebrated internationally for his folk music and Marxist credentials, Jara’s musical tastes and friendships were more complex than many assume today, Barr-Melej explains in Rockaxis.