Testimonies

Testimonies are sorted by witness.
Click on to sort by witness, to sort alphabetically by musical piece title, or to sort by publication date.


Eduardo Ojeda:

National Anthem of Chile

Music piece by:
Eusebio Lillo and Ramón Carnicer
Experience in:
« We arrived at Dawson Island on the afternoon of 11 September. All we knew was that we had been arrested in the morning - nothing else. »
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Far Away (Tamo daleko)

Music piece by:
Djordje Marinkovic. Chilean adaptation of traditional Serbian song, originally composed in 1916.
« At Compingin Camp on the island, Mario started telling us about the Spanish lyrics of the Yugoslav song 'Tamo daleko'. The song was not Croatian: it was Serbian. »
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Go Tell It to the Rain (Ve y díselo a la lluvia)

Music piece by:
Clan 91
« We had a comrade who sang beautifully. He was called Peye and was a student at the State Technical University. »
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Balderrama

Music piece by:
Manuel José Castilla (lyrics) and Gustavo Leguizamón (music). Popularised by Mercedes Sosa
« We arrived at Camp Compingin on Dawson Island on the afternoon of 11 September. We knew that we had been arrested that morning, and we knew nothing else yet. »
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Eduardo René Cuevas:

The Rain is Falling (Scende la pioggia)

Music piece by:
The Turtles ('Elenore'), with new lyrics by Gianni Morandi
Experience in:
Cárcel de Los Ángeles, September 1973
« This song was a workhorse for the prisoners. Iván Moscoso sang it, accompanied by a guitar, in a powerful and defiant voice, and the most altruistic among us sung along in the presence of the gendarme guards, in a courtyard that was only for political prisoners. »
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The Great Gigi L’amoroso (Gigi el amoroso)

Music piece by:
Jacqueline Misrahi, Lana Sebastian and Paul Sebastian. Popularised by Dalida in various languages: Italian ('Gigi L’amoroso'), Spanish ('Gigi el amoroso'), French ('Gigi l'amour'), English ('The Great Gigi l’amoroso'), German ('Gigi der Geliebte') and Japanese ('Ai suru Jiji').
« This song was used while the Military Intelligence Service (SIM) subjected me to cruel torture at a clandestine torture centre in the southern Chilean city of Los Ángeles. »
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Eliseo González:

Melody by Jorge Peña Hen

Music piece by:
Jorge Peña Hen
Experience in:
Cárcel de la Serena, October 1973
« Jorge Peña Hen was in solitary confinement that day. I don’t know how, but someone brought him matches. With his saliva, he made ink from the phosphorus tips, which he then used to write a score of music on a scrap of paper. »
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Ernesto Parra Navarrete:

Run Run Went up North (Run Run se fue pa'l norte)

Music piece by:
Violeta Parra
Experience in:
« Run Run... On the big pitch, mild summer weather was in the air. »
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Fernando Aravena:

You Will Pay (The Cigarette Smoke) (Pagarás [El humo del cigarrillo])

Music piece by:
Manuel Mantilla
Experience in:
« The political prisoners were isolated but when they made us go down to the courtyard, we were with the common prisoners. »
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The Prisoner of Til Til (El cautivo de Til Til)

Music piece by:
Patricio Manns
Experience in:
« The political prisoners organised mateadas once or twice a week, during which we did poetry and sang songs, amongst them ‘El cautivo de Til Til’ by Patricio Manns, ‘Samba Landó’ and ‘Vuelvo’ by Inti-Illimani, ‘Valparaíso’ by Osvaldo ‘Gitano’ Rodríguez, and songs by Eduardo ‘Gato’ Alquinta and Silvio Rodríguez. »
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I Come Back (Vuelvo)

Music piece by:
Patricio Manns (lyrics) and Horacio Salinas (music)
Experience in:
« During our mateadas in the Prison of Santiago, we always talked about the song ‘Vuelvo’ (I Come Back). It gave you the hope of returning to the fight. The prison was only something temporary. »
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Gabriela Durand:

To Be Seventeen Again (Volver a los diecisiete)

Music piece by:
Violeta Parra
« I was 18, and already I had been tortured on the parrilla several times. One day I was with some other comrade prisoners, and as sometimes happened, the guards put some music on. »
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Germán Larrabe:

La López Pereyra

Music piece by:
Artidorio Cresseri
« This zamba was the first song we tried to perform in Puchuncaví, with a group made up of prisoners transferred from Chacabuco Detention Camp together with us, newly arrived 'puchuncas'. »
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Sadness (Tristeza)

Music piece by:
Hermanos Núñez
« A very sad song, often performed by parents of young children. »
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Guillermo Orrego Valdebenito:

Free (Libre)

Music piece by:
José Luis Armenteros and Pablo Herrero, popularised by Nino Bravo.
« This song was performed in the Stadium grandstands by a worker from the Madeco factory: Peineta Vasquez, winner of a Song Festival that was organised at grassroots level, during the times when we were allowed to leave the spaces under the grandstands, inside the stadium,  to sunbathe, together with women from various countries, before they got sent off to the pool area. »
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Little Doctors (Doctorcitos)

Music piece by:
unknown. Folk tune from the Andes highlands
« In 1974 - I don’t quite remember the month - the Chacabuco Olympics were held. The opening ceremony consisted of symbolically carrying the Olympic torch through the concentration camp. »
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With the Sprouts I Sowed (Y con brotes de mi siembra)

Music piece by:
Andrés Rivanera (lyrics) and Eugenio Moglia (music). Popularised by Los Moros and Jorge Yáñez.
« In Chacabuco there were two theatres: one that was very beautiful and was linked to the old saltpetre works, where it is claimed (wrongly as it happens) that Caruso once performed, and another theatre that was inside the concentration camp. »
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Héctor Salgado:

We Shall Overcome

Music piece by:
Attributed to Charles Albert Tindley
Experience in:
« I would like to add, to the testimony of Alfonso Padilla, a picture of the musical group that performed the Joan Baez song, 'We Shall Overcome'. This group was formed and led by Alfonso Padilla during his time in prison. I was one of the first guitar students of Padilla. »
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Ignacio Puelma:

You Hear It Far Away (Se escucha muy lejos)

Music piece by:
Collective creation
Experience in:
« The sound of the sea was carried over the cabins of the Ritoque Prison Camp by the wind. It was the daily music given to us as a gift by the ocean. »
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