Gilbert Favre

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Gilbert Favre (November 19, 1936 – December 12, 1998) was a flautist of Swiss descent. He also played the quena as a founding member of the popular Bolivian folk group Los Jairas. Favre was commonly referred to as "El Gringo" by the Bolivian public. Allegedly, while living in Chile, as an assistant to the Swiss anthropologist Jean Christian Spahni, Favre and Violeta Parra met and they fell in love, provoking Parra's divorce.^{[citation needed]} Favre eventually left for Bolivia and started playing and experimenting with Andean music with virtuoso guitar player Alfredo Dominguez and renowned Ernesto Cavour, but Violeta would follow and be part of the scene of La Paz for a while. Gilbert moved back to Geneva in the early 60's together with Violeta Parra. After a few years in Europe, they returned to South America. However, as Favre, Dominguez and Cavour started having resonance in the media and becoming popular he decided that he was not going back to Chile and Violeta left for good; she would later write the famous song Gracias A la Vida (que me ha dado tanto)", dedicated to Gilbert, and commit suicide.

Favre met Indiana whilst in Bolivia, they married and returned to Europe to settle in the Dordogne area of France. They had two sons, Patrick and Christian. Christian died in a motorcar accident whilst holidaying in France. Favre and Indiana divorced and whilst in Paris, he met Barbara Erskine who at the time was working for the New York Times. They moved to Russin in Geneva where they got married.