Cantos Cautivos
Testimonies
Testimonies are sorted by witness.
Marianella Ubilla:
- Music piece by:José Luis Armenteros and Pablo Herrero, popularised by Nino Bravo.
- Experience in:Campamento Prisioneros Estadio Regional, Christmas 1973
- Tags:
- « I was taken prisoner on 23 November 1973, at the University of Concepción. In the Regional Stadium of Concepción, we had to sing the National Anthem every day. »
- [Read full testimony]
Mario Patricio Cordero Cedraschi:
- Music piece by:Mario Patricio Cordero Cedraschi
- Experience in:Cárcel de Valparaíso, Winter of 1975
- Tags:
- « I’d spent two years in prison and there was no end in sight for my time in jail. I observed during visiting hours that many prisoners had children, a wife, family. »
- [Read full testimony]
Mónica García Cuadra:
- Music piece by:All the women present at that moment in Chacabuco
- Experience in:Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, Summer of 1974
- Tags:
- « I am the daughter of a former political prisoner who spent a long time imprisoned at Chacabuco, among other places. I am Monica, a little 9-year-old girl who travelled with a heavy heart full of sadness to visit her father, Gerardo García Salas, held at the Chacabuco concentration camp. »
- [Read full testimony]
Nelly Andrade Alcaino:
- Music piece by:Sandro
- Experience in:
- Tags:
- « The military officials in charge of the Tejas Verdes camp made us sing. They gave us just one day to select the songs and rehearse. »
- [Read full testimony]
Paicavi Painemal:
- Music piece by:José Luis Armenteros and Pablo Herrero, popularised by Nino Bravo.
- Experience in:Comisaría de Carabineros N° 2, Temuco, 22 April 1985
- Tags:
- « I’m from Chol Chol, part of the Coihue community. I was arrested along with 12 other people and they took us to the Second Police Station of Temuco. »
- [Read full testimony]
- Music piece by:Violeta Parra
- Experience in:Cárcel de Temuco, 1985
- Tags:
- « We set up a band with a group of fellow prisoners. They were young, university students. One of them had a guitar. »
- [Read full testimony]
Patricio Hermosilla Vives:
- Music piece by:Patricio Hermosilla Vives
- Experience in:Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, January 1974
- Tags:
- « Finally, in the Chacabuco Concentration Camp, after three days aboard the Policarpo Toro (a war ship which had an uncertain destination since sailing from Valparaíso in December 1973; the question was not when and where we would dock, but how we would fall overboard), I felt that death had decided to take a step back and watch from me from a little further away. »
- [Read full testimony]
Patricio Polanco:
- Music piece by:unknown
- Experience in:Campamento de Prisioneros de Pisagua, November 1973
- Tags:
- « In 1973 and 1974, Pisagua was characterised by the harsh and cruel treatment of political prisoners. Singing was mandatory for prisoners, who were guarded by Army platoons, and it was also a means to avoid beatings and collective mistreatment. »
- [Read full testimony]
Pedro Humire Loredo:
- Music piece by:Pedro Humire Loredo
- Experience in:Tenencia de Carabineros Nueva España, Población San Gregorio, September 1973
- Tags:
- « This
tonada recalls the horrible situation I was subjected to in the cells of the police station in the San Gregorio district in southern Santiago. »- [Read full testimony]
Pedro Mella Contreras:
The Brief Space Where You Are Absent (El breve espacio en que no estás)
- Music piece by:Pablo Milanés
- Experience in:
- Tags:
- « In the Penitentiary, we listened to the song 'The Brief Space Where You Are Absent' on the radio stations Aurora and Nuevo Mundo. »
- [Read full testimony]
- Music piece by:Violeta Parra
- Experience in:
- Tags:
- « In January 1987, when solitary confinement was lifted and we were able to receive visitors, a brother who lived in Santiago travelled to see me. »
- [Read full testimony]
- Music piece by:Roberto Carlos
- Experience in:Recinto CNI calle Pérez Rosales 764, Valdivia, September 1986
- Tags:
- « I was arrested when I was 32 years old, along with approximately 23 other people. »
- [Read full testimony]
- Music piece by:Víctor Jara
- Experience in:Cárcel de Valdivia / Cárcel de Isla Teja, 1988-1989
- Tags:
- « When they took me out to physiotherapy treatment, I sang some verses of the song ‘The Apparition’ loudly: »
- [Read full testimony]
Renato Alvarado:
- Music piece by:Patricio Manns
- Experience in:
- Tags:
- « I arrived at Tres Álamos on the eve of the departure for Mexico with a large group of prisoners. The group included Dr. Ipinza, who before leaving entrusted me with the job of physician, the medicine donated by the Red Cross, and his position in the
Council of Elders . »- [Read full testimony]
- Music piece by:poem by Francisco Pezoa Astudillo set to music by Quilapayún
- Experience in:Campamento de Prisioneros Cuatro Álamos, February 1975
- Tags:
- « The first song that we managed to sing was Quilapayún's setting of the poem Canto a la Pampa (Song to the Pampa), by the anarchist poet Francisco Pezoa Astudillo, which recounts one of the bloodiest episodes of the class struggle in Chile: the massacre of the Santa María school in Iquique in December 1907. »
- [Read full testimony]
- « I arrived at Tres Álamos on the eve of the departure for Mexico with a large group of prisoners. The group included Dr. Ipinza, who before leaving entrusted me with the job of physician, the medicine donated by the Red Cross, and his position in the
- « This