Balderrama

Music piece by:
Manuel José Castilla (lyrics) and Gustavo Leguizamón (music). Popularised by Mercedes Sosa
Testimony by:
Eduardo Ojeda
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Isla Dawson, 1973
Tags:
« 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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Candombe for José (Candombe para José)

Music piece by:
Roberto Ternán
Testimony by:
Alejandro Olate
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Isla Dawson, 1974
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. »
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Cantata Our Great Mother (Cantata Nuestra Madre Grande) - Towards the Light (Hacia la luz)

Music piece by:
Manuel Luis Rodríguez Uribe (lyrics), Fernando Lanfranco Leverton (music), Marco Antonio Barticevic Sapunar (notation)
Testimony by:
Fernando Lanfranco Leverton
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Isla Dawson, December 1973; Cárcel de Punta Arenas, September 1975
Tags:
« Most of us, political prisoners from the Magallanes region, were transferred to the detention and torture camp on Dawson Island on 21 December 1973. We came from the more than twenty detention, torture and interrogation centres of the civil-military dictatorship in the Magallanes region. »
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Far Away (Tamo daleko)

Music piece by:
Djordje Marinkovic. Chilean adaptation of traditional Serbian song, originally composed in 1916.
Testimony by:
Eduardo Ojeda
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Isla Dawson, 1973
Tags:
« 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
Testimony by:
Eduardo Ojeda
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Isla Dawson, 1973
Tags:
« We had a comrade who sang beautifully. He was called Peye and was a student at the State Technical University. »
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Let’s Break the Morning (Rompamos la mañana)

Music piece by:
René “Popeye” Cárdenas Eugenin
Testimony by:
María Soledad Ruiz Ovando
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Isla Dawson, 1973 - 1974
Tags:
« Music was very important for us (my mother Sylvia, my sister Alejandra and myself) while my dad, Daniel Ruiz Oyarzo, 'el Negro Ruiz', was imprisoned during the dictatorship, when Alejandra was seven and I was four. »
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National Anthem of Chile

Music piece by:
Eusebio Lillo and Ramón Carnicer
Testimony by:
Eduardo Ojeda
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Isla Dawson, September 1973
Tags:
« 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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They Say the Homeland Is (Dicen que la patria es)

Music piece by:
Chicho Sánchez Ferlosio
Testimony by:
Sergio Reyes Soto
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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