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.

Pedro Humire Loredo:

Saint Gregory’s Tonada (Tonada San Gregorio)

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. »
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Pedro Mella Contreras:

The Brief Space Where You Are Absent (El breve espacio en que no estás)

Music piece by:
Pablo Milanés
Experience in:
Penitenciaría de Santiago (Centro de Detención Preventiva Santiago Sur), April 1987
Tags:
« In the Penitentiary, we listened to the song 'The Brief Space Where You Are Absent' on the radio stations Aurora and Nuevo Mundo. »
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The Letter (La carta)

Music piece by:
Violeta Parra
Experience in:
Cárcel de Valdivia / Cárcel de Isla Teja, 1987
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. »
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A Million Friends (Un millón de amigos)

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. »
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The Apparition (El aparecido)

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: »
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Renato Alvarado Vidal:

Ode to Joy (Himno a la alegría)

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 Cuatro Álamos, 1975
Tags:
« Once upon a time, there was a good little wolf. … No. That’s another story. »
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King Ñaca Ñaca (El rey Ñaca Ñaca)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Melinka, Puchuncaví, May - October 1975
Tags:
« During the last third of the 20th century, the concentration camps of the Chilean dictatorship were characterised by a high grade of organisation among prisoners, as well as the overflowing creativity they applied to all areas of human ingenuity. »
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The Prisoner of Til Til (El cautivo de Til Til)

Music piece by:
Patricio Manns
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros, Tres Álamos, 1975
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. »
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Lili Marlene

Music piece by:
Hans Leip
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Melinka, Puchuncaví, May - Octobre 1975
Tags:
« During the daily flag-lowering ritual in the camp Melinka, the prisoners first had to get into formation in the courtyard and then walk in line to the location of the mast. »
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Song to the Pampa (Canto a la pampa)

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. »
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Roberto Navarrete:

Oh Saving Victim (O salutaris Hostia)

Music piece by:
text by Saint Thomas Aquinas; music by Lorenzo Perosi
Experience in:
Cárcel de Santiago, November 1973 - April 1974
Tags:
« The political prisoners’ cell block in Santiago Prison was established when they transferred many people from the National Stadium in October or November 1973. »
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Rogelio Felipe Castillo Acevedo:

Lili Marlene

Music piece by:
Hans Leip
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Melinka, Puchuncaví, November 1974
Tags:
« We were forced to belt out these marching songs. »
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Rosalía Martínez:

Prayer So You Don't Forget Me (Oración para que no me olvides)

Music piece by:
Óscar Castro (words) and Ariel Arancibia González (music)
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Cuatro Álamos, November - December 1974
Tags:
« When Katia Chornik contacted me a few years ago asking me to provide my testimony about my musical experience in prison, I thought I didn’t have much to say. »
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Rubén Torres Ávila:

The Woman from Huillinco (La Huillincana)

Music piece by:
Liborio Bórquez Guzmán, popularised by Héctor Pavez
Experience in:
Cárcel de Menores Blas Cañas / Centro de Reinserción Abierto Manuel Rodríguez, 1976
Tags:
« When I was in the last year of secondary school at the Liceo 8 in Santiago, I suggested to a teacher to do an interview with a prisoner of the youth detention centre Blas Cañas. After the interview, I offered the prison’s governor to take the school’s folk group to present a show to the inmates. »
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Sara De Witt:

Candombe for José (Candombe para José)

Music piece by:
Roberto Ternán
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros, Tres Álamos, September 1976
Tags:
« We were in Tres Álamos barracks in September 1976. I don’t recall how many of us women were imprisoned there. I believe there were close to a hundred of us. »
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Scarlett Mathieu:

How We Resemble Each Other (En qué nos parecemos)

Music piece by:
Unknown. Popularised by Quilapayún
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Cuatro Álamos, 1974
Tags:
« In Cuatro Álamos, I was profoundly marked by the singing of a current detained-disappeared named Juan Chacón. He sang ‘En qué nos parecemos’, a love song from the Spanish Civil War. It remained engraved in me because that comrade disappeared from Cuatro Álamos. »
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Moments (Los momentos)

Music piece by:
Eduardo Gatti
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros, Tres Álamos, 1974
Tags:
« ‘Moments’ was a song sung by the female comrades whose partners were imprisoned on the other side of Tres Álamos, or were fugitives or disappeared. We all sang it, but it was like their anthem. »
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Sergio Reyes Soto:

They Say the Homeland Is (Dicen que la patria es)

Music piece by:
Chicho Sánchez Ferlosio
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Isla Dawson, 1973 - 1974
Tags:
« This song, like so many others, was not at all “captive”. The revolutionary songs we sang behind bars imbued us with a sense of freedom. Rolando Alarcón, and later Quilapayún, introduced “Dicen que la patria es” (or “Canción de soldados”) to Chile. »
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