Cantos Cautivos

(Captive Songs)

Music was often written, sung and heard in political detention and torture centres in Chile during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).

The memory of these experiences is an important fragment of the lives of those who resisted, fought and shared their stories for this project.

We invite you to explore and share these experiences.

About the project

Portrait of Manuel Flores
Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco
Watercolour by Francisco Aedo

Explore

Testimonies can be explored by detention centre, witness or victim, via the menu, the search box or tags.

Your memories on music in detention are part of our collective memory. Share them via a text or audio.

Featured

Katia Chornik, Director of Cantos Cautivos, gave a talk on the project at the University of Glasgow

The event was part of the Royal Music Association Colloquia. March 2019.

Short Video Tamo Daleko (Punta Arenas / Dawson Island, 2018)

Part of the Fragments of Memory series of the Central University of Chile's Audiovisual Laboratory, this video explores the song “Tamo Daleko”, adapted and used as a symbol of resistance by political prisoners. Watch the video here and see other testimonies about “Tamo Daleko” in Cantos Cautivos. Jan 2019.

Katia Chornik, Director of Cantos Cautivos, gave a talk on the project at the University of Edinburgh

Students and academics from Music, Latin American Studies, History and other disciplines attended the event. Sept 2019.

Ed Vulliamy launches his book, When Words Fail: A Life with Music, War and Peace

The author, journalist of The Guardian and The Observer, with his band at the launch in London. The book contains a chapter on Cantos Cautivos. Sept 2018. Photo: Daniel Díaz.

Cantos Cautivos at the British Museum

The British Museum's exhibition I Object, Ian Hislop's search for dissent (Sept 2018-Jan 2019) included the recording of "Doctorcitos", collected by the Cantos Cautivos team.

Reconstruction of "Filistoque's Cueca", written by Víctor Canto in Chacabuco concentration camp

Forty-four years later, the work has been reconstructed and recorded for the first time by the group MACOMBA, directed by Marcelo Coulon (Inti-Illimani) and formed in honour of the detained-disappeared Marcelo Concha Bascuñán, who was interned in Chacabuco. Listen to the recording and read the testimony here.