Cantos Cautivos
Testimonies
Testimonies are sorted by witness.
Alejandro Olate:
- Music piece by:Roberto Ternán
- Experience in:
- Tags:
- « The youngest among us, aged 17 or even 16 years, did the heaviest work on Dawson Island. We had to fell trees, cut them, split them in two, cut them into wedges, and walk the several hundred meters back to the barracks carrying the logs on our shoulders. »
- [Read full testimony]
Alfonso Padilla:
- Music piece by:Luis Advis
- Experience in:
- Tags:
- « Between March 1974 and July 1975, I had the opportunity to arrange about 200 songs and direct the production of the Cantata de Santa María de Iquique. In truth, the prison was my conservatoire. That’s where I learnt the basics of the profession of musician. »
- [Read full testimony]
Alfonso Padilla Silva:
I’m Not from Here - To my Comrade, my Love (No soy de aquí - A mi compañera)
- Music piece by:Facundo Cabral, with lyrics modified by a political prisoner
- Experience in:Campamento Prisioneros Estadio Regional, 25 December 1973
- Tags:
- « The choir of male prisoners sang a piece called 'A mi compañera' (To my comrade, my love) to the music of 'No soy de aquí, ni soy de allá' (I'm not from here, nor from there) by Facundo Cabral. »
- [Read full testimony]
- Music piece by:Attributed to Charles Albert Tindley
- Experience in:Cárcel de Concepción / Cárcel El Manzano, December 1974
- Tags:
- « When the concentration camp that operated for nearly five months at the Regional Stadium of Concepción was closed in early February 1974, hundreds of political prisoners were transferred to the Concepción Prison, a wing of which was turned into a concentration camp. »
- [Read full testimony]
- Music piece by:Víctor Jara
- Experience in:Campamento Prisioneros Estadio Regional, 25 December 1973
- Tags:
- « During Christmas 1973, I was one of some 600 men and 100 women prisoners in Concepción Regional Stadium. »
- [Read full testimony]
- Music piece by:Rafael Alberti (lyrics), Ángel Parra (music)
- Experience in:Campamento Prisioneros Estadio Regional, 25 December 1973
- Tags:
- « During Christmas 1973, approximately 660 men and 100 women were held as prisoners in the Concepción Regional Stadium. Concentration camp officials allowed us to celebrate Christmas on the pitch. We were in a corner of the pitch and we used the pole vault pit as a stage. »
- [Read full testimony]
Amelia Negrón:
- Music piece by:original by Friedrich von Schiller (lyrics) and Ludwig van Beethoven (music). Free version in Spanish by Amado Regueiro Rodríguez, aka Orbe (lyrics) y Waldo de los Ríos (music), popularised in Chile by Miguel Ríos.
- Experience in:Campamento de Prisioneros, Tres Álamos, 31 December 1975
- Tags:
- « Preparations for that Wednesday night became more intense. It would be a different night. We women prisoners had secretly organised ourselves, but more importantly, we had also coordinated with the male prisoners. »
- [Read full testimony]
- Music piece by:Roberto Ternán
- Experience in:Campamento de Prisioneros, Tres Álamos, June 1976
- Tags:
- « We were in Pavilion 1. One of us came up with the idea, I can’t remember who. There were so many of us and we spent the day inventing and creating things! »
- [Read full testimony]
- Music piece by:José Agustín Goytisolo (lyrics) and Paco Ibáñez (music)
- Experience in:Campamento de Prisioneros, Tres Álamos, 1975 and 1976, until the closure of Tres Álamos
- Tags:
- « There were so many of us women prisoners. Despite the circumstances, we had managed to invent our own world, one with our rules, according to what we thought and wanted for ourselves, our families and all the Chilean people. »
- [Read full testimony]
Ana María Arenas:
- Music piece by:Roberto Cantoral
- Experience in:Calle Irán Nº 3037 / Venda Sexy / La Discotheque, December 1974
- Tags:
- « The day I was captured, after the first torture session, I asked for permission to sing a Christmas carol, the name of which I cannot remember. I did it to let one of my captive friends know that I was also at the Venda Sexy. »
- [Read full testimony]
Ana María Jiménez:
- Music piece by:Eugène Pottier (lyrics) and Pierre Degeyter (music). Popularised by Quilapayún in Chile in the 1970s.
- Experience in:Villa Grimaldi, April 1975
- Tags:
- « In April 1975, the triumph of Vietnam was celebrated. We heard about it through a comrade who went to the bathroom and found a piece of the week’s newspaper. It was so beautiful for us to be there, having shouted so often for Vietnam at demonstrations. »
- [Read full testimony]
- Music piece by:Hamlet Lima Quintana
- Experience in:Villa Grimaldi, April 1975
- Tags:
- « I want to recall a night at Villa Grimaldi. »
- [Read full testimony]
Ángeles Álvarez Cárdenas:
- Music piece by:Nydia Caro and Ricardo Ceratto
- Experience in:Villa Grimaldi, 6 - 15 January 1975
- Tags:
- « At that time, many prisoners were subjected to extreme torture in the interrogations. Some managed to get through those processes alright, while others broke down. »
- [Read full testimony]
anónimo:
- Music piece by:José Luis Armenteros and Pablo Herrero, popularised by Nino Bravo.
- Experience in:Campamento de Prisioneros, Estadio Nacional, September - November 1973
- Tags:
- « While waiting in the grandstands to be interrogated for the first, second or more times, we would sing 'Free' to those who were being lined up to be released. 'Free' was a catharsis, a mixture of joy for those who were going and hope for those of us left behind. »
- [Read full testimony]
- Music piece by:Unknown
- Experience in:Cárcel de Valdivia / Cárcel de Isla Teja, September 1973
- Tags:
- « One time, a group of male and female evangelicals came to Teja Island to preach. They were taken to the visitors’ yard. »
- [Read full testimony]
- Music piece by:Ludwig van Beethoven
- Experience in:Cárcel de Valdivia / Cárcel de Isla Teja, September 1973
- Tags:
- « I like all classical music, particularly Beethoven and Mozart. I listen to it all day on Radio Esperanza, on the bus I drive. The passengers like it. »
- [Read full testimony]
- Music piece by:Víctor Jara
- Experience in:Cárcel de Valdivia / Cárcel de Isla Teja, September 1973
- Tags:
- « They said that once you got to the prison of Teja Island, you were safe. »
- [Read full testimony]
- Music piece by:Eusebio Lillo and Ramón Carnicer
- Experience in:Cárcel de Valdivia / Cárcel de Isla Teja, September 1973
- Tags:
- « I was detained in Panguipulli on 24 September 1973, along with 17 other young people. I was a high school student. I was also working at the forestry and logging company of Huilo Huilo, which had been taken over by the working class. »
- [Read full testimony]
Beatriz Bataszew Contreras:
- Music piece by:Joan Manuel Serrat
- Experience in:Campamento de Prisioneros, Tres Álamos, December 1974 - May 1976
- Tags:
- « Tres Álamos was a more 'normal' camp, even though we never had a trial. There was a lot of music, it was sort of ritualistic. »
- [Read full testimony]
- Music piece by:Nydia Caro and Ricardo Ceratto
- Experience in:Calle Irán Nº 3037 / Venda Sexy / La Discotheque, 12 - 18 December 1974
- Tags:
- « I have never been a great music listener. Nevertheless, before the coup I used to listen to
Nueva Canción , especially Quilapayún and Rolando Alarcón. I also liked cumbias, to fool around. We would dance and have fun. »- [Read full testimony]
- Music piece by:Manuel M. Ponce
- Experience in:Campamento de Prisioneros, Tres Álamos, December 1974 - May 1976
- Tags:
- « To every comrade who had a birthday, we would sing 'Las mañanitas' and we would give them presents. The majority of the female prisoners would come together and sing to you. I spent one birthday in prison. Birthdays were important for everyone because we were alive. »
- [Read full testimony]
Boris Chornik Aberbuch:
- Music piece by:Eusebio Lillo and Ramón Carnicer
- Experience in:Campamento de Prisioneros Melinka, Puchuncaví, March 1975
- « I have never been a great music listener. Nevertheless, before the coup I used to listen to