August 25, 2025
Carlos Muñoz Villalobos belongs to the obituary

Carlos Muñoz Villalobos belongs to the obituary

My friend Carlos Muñoz Villalobos, who died of cancer at the age of 72 cancer, was the founder of the band Caliche, a music teacher, a customs officer, a trained opera singer, a restaurateur and a businessman.

Carlos was also a political refugee. He had his home in Birmingham in 1976 after the Chilean military coup of 1973, after “disappearing” in prison under the regime of General Augusto Pinochets. Despite his ordeal, Carlos contributed a carefree attitude to this dark chapter, and never wanted to be defined.

Carlos Jr was born in Viña del Mar, Chile, the son of Carlos, a shipper, and Irma and attended the Escuela in the city. While others were traveling at the disco, Carlos could read. At a young age he played guitar and loved classical music.

Shortly before his arrest in 1975, he qualified as a customs officer in the Universidad de Chile, Santiago. After being a member of the socialist groups, he was an inevitable goal for Dina, Chile’s secret police.

He was released in 1976, arrived in Great Britain and received a doctoral administrative course at Aston University. A year later he met Anne (born Britton), a teacher, in Birmingham by a Chilean friend who was also a refugee, and they married in 1982.

In the early 1980s, a group of Chilean refugees joined the couple to found a popular restaurant on the Bristol Road named Los Andden. The restaurant became a center for Latin American live music, parties, political and cultural exchange, which were often visited by Simon Rattle and the nearby university community.

Carlos was imaginative, relentless and creative. He believed in the power of the cooperatives and was significantly involved in setting up many through the cooperative development agency in Birmingham.

He brought Andean music to a wider European audience, sang with the city of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and filled his home with instruments. He spoke of his “absolute biological need” to make music.

He founded Caliche, a four-part Andean band of the word refers to mineral deposits in the desert regions of the north Chili. The group performed in the Southbank Center in London, Midland’s Arts Center and the Symphony Hall in Birmingham, for the BBC and toured at festivals like Womad. They also gave workshops in hundreds of schools.

Carlos later obtained a music lesson at the University of Central England, which is now Birmingham City University. After applied to Birmingham Rep, he received a call from Vanessa Redgrave and was involved in her planet without a Visa theater project, which examined the topic of exile.

Carlos was a committed father and grandfather and a talented conversation partner. He was a man of great integrity, friendliness and gentle humility.

He is survived by Anne, his children, Rosanna and Tomás, his grandson Benjamin, Isabella and Luca and his siblings Javiera and Alvaro.

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