Testimonies

Testimonies are sorted by witness.
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Sergio Vesely:

Lament for the Death of Augusto the Dog (Lamento a la muerte del perro Augusto)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
« Augusto the dog (not to be confused with the journalist Augusto Olivares, affectionately nicknamed 'Augusto the Dog', who was murdered in the Presidential Palace on 11 September 1973), was the mascot of the political prisoners held at the Ritoque concentration camp, and accompanied his master when the military junta decided to close that prison and transfer the inmates to the neighbouring Puchuncaví concentration camp. »
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Today Was Visitors’ Day (Hoy fue día de visitas)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Experience in:
« Visitors’ day was an exceptional day that broke the monotonous routine of all the other days of the week. »
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Song of a Middle-Class Man (Canción de un hombre medio)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Experience in:
« In our political discussions, we always spoke disdainfully of the middle class. In the view of the Marxist ideologues in prison, that sector of society supported the dictatorship and it was necessary to reverse that trend. »
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How Can I Describe This to You? (Cómo hacer para darte una idea)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Experience in:
« This is one of two songs I wrote in prison for my beloved Graciela. In the song I tried to draw her closer to me, describing my everyday world and my experience of life as a captive. »
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Priests and Soldiers (Curas y milicos)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
« I don’t want to exaggerate but Camp Melinka became not only a factory that produced handicrafts and a performance hall but also a university. »
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King Ñaca Ñaca (El rey Ñaca Ñaca)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
« 'Ñaca-ñaca' was an interjection we used at Camp Melinka whenever we wanted to signal and poke fun at any dark thought that might cross our minds. That may be why it seemed the ideal name to give to the paper maché puppet that played the role of the mean king in the puppet stories we performed to entertain the children who came to visit their captive fathers. »
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Captain, our Destiny is a Wandering Island (Capitán, el rumbo es una isla errante)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
« This song was dedicated to Óscar Castro, whom I was lucky enough to meet in 1975, in Puchuncaví. With his experience in theatre – Óscar was already a fairly well-known actor before his arrest – he threw himself into the cultural work we had organised, in what was then called “Camp Melinka” where the prisoners presented a show every Friday. »
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Anthem of Puchuncaví (Himno de Puchuncaví)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
« A few weeks before being transferred to Valparaíso Jail - where I would face a war council on account of alleged violations of the State Interior Security Law and other military regulations that existed during the state of siege - I wrote a song that I called anthem, because I wanted it to be sung as a group at the end of our cultural events on Fridays. »
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Musicalized Dialogue between Two Old Prisoners (Diálogo musicalizado entre dos ancianos presos)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
« At Puchuncaví Detention Camp (Melinka) I shared a cell with an elderly man from Lota, where he had spent his entire life working in the coal mines. »
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Love (Amor)

Music piece by:
Guillermo Núñez (lyrics) and Sergio Vesely (music)
« This song is based on a poem Guillermo wrote in the Puchuncaví Prison Camp dedicated to his partner Soledad. Of all the songs I composed as a prisoner, this is the only one where the lyrics are not mine. »
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The Black King (El rey negro)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
« One cold winter night of 1975, the small clinic of Melinka, in the Puchuncaví Detention Camp, became the setting for a touching story. »
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Alfonsina and the Sea (Alfonsina y el mar)

Music piece by:
Félix Luna (lyrics) and Ariel Ramírez (music). Popularised by Mercedes Sosa.
Experience in:
Villa Grimaldi, January 1975
« It was not easy to endure being locked up in one of Villa Grimaldi’s miserable cells, which resembled vertical coffins. It was even harder in the high temperatures of the summer months of the Andes foothills in Peñalolén. I was inside one of those cells, blindfolded, my feet and hands in chains. »
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A Finger-Picked Cueca from a Solidary Companion (Cueca punteada de un solidario)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
« It is true that the hard experience of torture and prison unified us and at times even generated strong ties of friendship among the prisoners. »
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Three Indian Songs (Tres canciones indias)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
« After our transfer from Tres Álamos to Puchuncaví in April 1975, a group of prisoners began toying with the idea of presenting a poetic-theatrical performance about the history of Latin America’s indigenous cultures and their extermination under Iberian domination. »
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Poet of Destiny (Poeta del destino)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Experience in:
« This song is a tribute to Miguel Enríquez, Secretary-General of the MIR, who was gunned down by a commando of the dictatorship’s secret police on 5 October 1974. »
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That General (Ese General)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Experience in:
« The night of 24 March 1976, the residents of cell 198 hardly slept. We hadn’t slept on account of a long, heated discussion about the prospects of revolution in Latin America’s Southern Cone. »
[Read full testimony]


Reflections (Reflexiones)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
« Prison forced me to think quite a lot about my political past and my total commitment to an ideological cause, and its consequences. »
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Mid-Afternoon Love (Amor de media tarde)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Experience in:
« This song is dedicated to Graciela Navarro, who managed to make my prisoner's life more beautiful on the days we were allowed to receive visitors. »
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National Anthem of Chile

Music piece by:
Eusebio Lillo and Ramón Carnicer
« The Puchuncaví Prisoners Camp had a daily routine similar to that of military regiments. In a ridiculous ceremony, the flag was raised every morning at dawn and then it was taken down at nightfall. »
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Future (Futuro)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Experience in:
« The dream of the political prisoner was to regain freedom. All of us would feel joy when one of us was about to be released from prison, although it far from easy to see a comrade depart. Even less so for those who suspected they would never enjoy that privilege. »
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Song of the Seed and the Plant (Canción de la semilla y la planta)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
« The history of the seed and the plant, of which this song forms part, was performed as a play to entertain our audience of children during a family visit to the prison. Imagination had no limits when it came to kindling a small flame of hope in our hearts. »
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Valparaíso

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Experience in:
« This song was written and sung in cell number 198 of Valparaíso’s former prison, that is to say, on the top floor of the main building, which was higher than the walls that surrounded it. »
[Read full testimony]


Song of the Disappeared (Canción del desaparecido)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Experience in:
« Several of my friends and comrades disappeared after being arrested. The dictatorship denied knowledge of their whereabouts but I knew they were lying. »
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The Man Who Transformed into an Animal (El hombre que se convirtió en animal)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
« I wrote this song shortly after reading Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, one of the books that circulated in Camp Melinka from hand to hand and cabin to cabin. »
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Love Song for a Disappeared Woman (Canción de amor a una desaparecida)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
« Daniela was the political codename of María Cecilia Labrín, a member of the MIR. Agents of the DINA arrested her at her home on Latadía Street in Santiago in August 1974. She has never been seen again. »
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The Little Snail (El caracolito)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Experience in:
« I composed this song for a small children’s party we organised in the visitors’ yard of the Valparaíso Jail. I remember how the children had fun that day and enjoyed the play. That was the first time I put down the guitar so that a prisoner who played the accordion could accompany me. »
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Beloved Friend (Amado amigo)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
« This song, written in my cell at the Puchuncaví Prison Camp, speaks to a friend and fellow prisoner; it could be any one of the thousands behind bars. »
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The Valley Swallow (La golondrina del valle)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
« One of the most amazing experiences I had during my six months in the Puchuncaví Prison Camp was to see the metamorphosis of the barbed wire fence into a huge musical score. »
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Servando Becerra Poblete:

The Crux of the Matter (La madre del cordero)

Music piece by:
Tito Fernández
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, 9 November 1973 - 10 November 1974
« I recited this poem in the National Stadium. I continued to do so in the Chacabuco prison camp, earning the nickname of “Venancio” from my fellow prisoners. »
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Sigifredo Ramos Vásquez:

I Can Trust the Lord (Puedo confiar en el Señor)

Music piece by:
Unknown
Experience in:
Cárcel de Temuco, September - December 1973
« My experience during our captivity can be summed up in this personal observation. Protest songs were forbidden, so we had no other option than to sing religious songs. »
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Víctor Canto Fuenzalida:

Filistoque's Cueca (Cueca del Filistoque)

Music piece by:
Víctor Canto Fuenzalida (lyrics), Efraín Navarro (music)
Experience in:
« Filistoque is a real-life person in all his mighty height (1.90 metres tall). I always remember him laughing. In Chacabuco, we shared a house for nearly ten months. Around him, you were never allowed to become depressed or get into a stew over our situation. »
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Vilma Rojas Toledo:

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

Music piece by:
Pablo Milanés
Experience in:
Cárcel de Coronel, 1986 - 1988
« I recall that during my time as a political prisoner, Pablo Milanés was one of our greatest companions. His songs filled us with life, helped us to keep breathing and living behind the bars imposed by Pinochet’s military dictatorship. »
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