162 results where found for «From the Poplars I have Come, Mother»


Casida of the Dark Pigeons (Casida de las palomas oscuras)

Music piece by:
Federico García Lorca (words), Paco Ibáñez (music)
Testimony by:
Luis Alfredo Muñoz González
Experience in:
« According to scientists, memory and music processing are situated in a deep, ancestral part of the brain, where it is zealously guarded. »
[...]
« One night, amidst the guards’ shouting and bustling, all the prisoners were taken away from Cuatro Álamos. The rest of the night was very quiet. They had taken the birds away from the big hall. »
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Free (Libre)

Music piece by:
José Luis Armenteros and Pablo Herrero, popularised by Nino Bravo.
Testimony by:
Guillermo Orrego Valdebenito
« 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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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.
Testimony by:
Guillermo Orrego Valdebenito
« 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. »
[...]
« You can just imagine the answer that came back from the almost 1000 prisoners in the audience, full of force and inspiration. The din was such that the performance had to be stopped for a few moments, as the laughter and jokes exceeded everyone’s expectations. »
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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.
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
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. »
[...]
« All of a sudden, I heard the metal gate that separated us from the rest of the facility unexpectedly open and the guard asking who was singing. To avoid collective punishment, I knocked on the door from inside my “coffin cell” and identified myself as the singer. The guard, who I could not see, opened the cell door and stood in front of me. 'Nice song', he said. 'Sing it again'. »
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Musicalized Dialogue between Two Old Prisoners (Diálogo musicalizado entre dos ancianos presos)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony 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. »
[...]
« I was struck by the way he spoke. It was very different from the 'Chilean' way of a twenty-something-year-old from the capital like me. When he talked to our fellow prisoners, I could barely understand a word he said. I composed this song in the cell by transcribing some of our conversations. »
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Lament for the Death of Augusto the Dog (Lamento a la muerte del perro Augusto)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony 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. »
[...]
« In vain we tried to tie him up and keep him in one of the cells. Augusto was accustomed to his freedom and wouldn’t succumb to such indignation. But his wild spirit sensed the danger and the four-legged beast infuriated the soldiers, who from then on only wanted to find and kill him. »
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Candombe for José (Candombe para José)

Music piece by:
Roberto Ternán
Testimony by:
Alejandro Olate
« 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. »
[...]
« At some specific moment, we were able to approach the commanders and the guards in a different way. I was one of several comrades who proposed the idea of putting on a show on the weekends, in order to entertain, to unwind, and to relax from the constant psychological pressure and torture. »
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Oh Saving Victim (O salutaris Hostia)

Music piece by:
text by Saint Thomas Aquinas; music by Lorenzo Perosi
Testimony by:
Roberto Navarrete
Experience in:
Cárcel de Santiago, November 1973 - April 1974
« 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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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.
Testimony by:
Renato Alvarado Vidal
« Once upon a time, there was a good little wolf. … No. That’s another story. »
[...]
« The matter is that he had experienced all the dictatorship’s dungeons - from Conrado Pacheco's hole beneath the basement stairs at Tres Álamos to the wooden boxes of Villa Grimaldi's 'The Tower'. From there he was now being brought back and was being placed in one of DINA's cells in Cuatro Álamos. »
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La Adelita

Music piece by:
Unknown
Testimony by:
Luis Cifuentes Seves
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, January – February 1974
« This is another song that was performed by the band Los de Chacabuco and was sung in the prisoners’ weekly show. It’s a very old Mexican song that was popular in Chile. »
[...]
« It used to be performed in the compound set up by the prisoners and rehearsed at Los de Chacabuco's venue in the so-called Civic District. Along with the other songs recovered from the historic cassette, this one was also recorded in the group’s aforementioned venue. »
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