The Role of Music in the UK’s Chile Solidarity Campaign and in Developing an Exile’s Sense of Self and Place: Francisco Carrasco, Musician, and Member of Merseyside’s Chilean Community

The role of music in the UK’s Chile Solidarity Campaign and in developing an exile’s sense of self and place are explored in this article through the artistic and political life of Francisco Carrasco. Francisco arrived in the UK with his family in 1975, a child refugee aged almost eleven, and his first public performances were with his family at solidarity events in Leeds. His cultural activism developed when he moved to Liverpool, where, years later, he founded Luma Creations to promote Latin American culture. Francisco is a singer–songwriter–composer, has written poems and books, produced plays and exhibitions documenting his experiences as a child refugee and exile, and he is Luma Creations’ Creative Director. Luma produce an annual Latin American festival, La Feria, in Liverpool, and stage performances by key exponents of Chilean Nueva Canción such as Illapu and Nano Stern. In this article we focus on Francisco Carrasco and his local community using techniques of microhistory, illuminating how his Chilean political and cultural heritage has shaped his life, identity and work. We also explore the part music has played in Chile Solidarity Campaign meetings and in the curation and transmission of the emerging Liverpudlian Chilean community’s cultural identity.