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


From the Poplars I have Come, Mother (De los álamos vengo, madre)

Music piece by:
Juan Vásquez
Testimony by:
Luis Cifuentes Seves
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, November 1973 - February 1974
« Los de Chacabuco, a band created and conducted by Ángel Parra, performed this traditional Spanish song at the Chacabuco concentration camp. »
[...]
« From the poplars I have come, mother »
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The Black King (El rey negro)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony 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. »
[...]
« A woman from the neighbouring village of Rungue, who was not a prisoner, gave birth to a daughter in that unusual place. Two political prisoners, both of them medical students, assisted the mother in labour while the other 208 prisoners slept in their respective cells, oblivious to what was happening. »
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We Shall Overcome

Music piece by:
Attributed to Charles Albert Tindley
Testimony by:
Alfonso Padilla Silva
Experience in:
« When the concentration camp that operated for nearly five months at the Regional Stadium of Concepción was closed in early February 1974, hundreds of political prisoners were transferred to the Concepción Prison, a wing of which was turned into a concentration camp. »
[...]
« On that occasion, our newly formed band (without a name) performed the following programme: 'Soy del pueblo' ('I Am of the People') by Carlos Puebla; 'El aparecido' ('The Apparition') by Víctor Jara; 'Los pueblos americanos' ('The American Peoples') by Violeta Parra; 'Vamos a Serchil' ('Let's Go to Serchil') by the Guatemalan Leopoldo Ramírez; 'Del Norte vengo, Maruca' ('I Come from the North, Maruca') by Ángel Parra (although some people say it was written by his mother); 'Villancico nortino' ('Northern Christmas Carol'), a traditional song; and finally 'We Shall Overcome', written between 1950 and 1960 in the United States within the context of the Afro-American civil rights movement. »
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Tacit Song (Canción tácita)

Music piece by:
All the women present at that moment in Chacabuco
Testimony by:
Mónica García Cuadra
Experience in:
« 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. I am an only child and in my young life, he is my sole reference point and, in essence, my image of masculinity. »
[...]
« From the guard tower, the order was given for the comrades to come, and they appeared behind the bars that separated our lives, but never our purpose and meaning in life. With heartache and streaming tears, several prisoners began to appear, as well as the love and silent solidarity that vibrated and pulsated through those moments waiting for, anticipating the embrace, the looking directly into his eyes, making contact with the loved one’s heart, the touch of skin against skin among equals. »
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Candombe for José (Candombe para José)

Music piece by:
Roberto Ternán
Testimony by:
Sara De Witt
Experience in:
« 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. »
[...]
« I tried to raise my voice to the infinite space way beyond the edge of the barrack roof that reminded me of my limitations. Amelia put her arm around my shoulder. I did the same to Tuca and all of us embraced each other, singing from the tabletop. We were so close together, and a sense of sisterhood enveloped us. I was not alone; I was with those women who were my sisters. We had survived so much brutality and suffering. I sang with all my might on top of the table with those dear women: Amelia, Tuca, Anita, Anita María, Elena, Gabriela, Nieves, Cristina, Fidelia, Cecilia and another friend whose name I have forgotten. »
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National Anthem of Chile

Music piece by:
Eusebio Lillo and Ramón Carnicer
Testimony by:
Boris Chornik Aberbuch
« The Puchuncaví detention camp’s daily routine included mandatory participation in the ceremonies of raising and taking down the Chilean flag on the flagpole at the entrance to the camp. »
[...]
« They steadfastly joined us as we marched from the square to the flagpole, as well as during the flag-raising ceremony. But they did not always keep the composure that would have been appropriate to the ceremony’s solemnity. »
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Prayer So You Don't Forget Me (Oración para que no me olvides)

Music piece by:
Óscar Castro (words) and Ariel Arancibia González (music)
Testimony by:
Rosalía Martínez
Experience in:
« 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. »
[...]
« At Cuatro Álamos, pick-up trucks full of detainees came and went day and night, and from there many of our comrades were taken away and have never been seen or heard of since. »
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The Clock (El reloj)

Music piece by:
Roberto Cantoral
Testimony by:
Ana María Arenas
« The day I was captured, after the first torture session, I asked for permission to sing a Christmas carol, the name of which I cannot remember. I did it to let one of my captive friends know that I was also at the Venda Sexy. »
[...]
« We were all from the left and were looking to have a safe space to share music and ideas. »
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Errant Wind (Viento errante)

Music piece by:
Patricio Hermosilla Vives
Testimony by:
Patricio Hermosilla Vives
Experience in:
« 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. »
[...]
« 'Viento Errante ('Errant wind') (composed towards the end of that year during the improvised 'literary workshop' in which Salas, Montealegre, another prisoner and myself, tried to divert the raw pain of those hours, exploring some possible forms of 'existential meaning'), a song more unconscious than conscious, which attempted from its inception to idealise freedom in the shape of a woman without a defined face or name although, on the other hand, she embodied all the roles of a woman: mother, daughter, sister, girlfriend. »
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Words for Julia (Palabras para Julia)

Music piece by:
José Agustín Goytisolo (lyrics) and Paco Ibáñez (music)
Testimony by:
Amelia Negrón
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros, Tres Álamos, 1975 and 1976, until the closure of Tres Álamos
« There were so many of us women prisoners. Despite the circumstances, we had managed to invent our own world, one with our rules, according to what we thought and wanted for ourselves, our families and all the Chilean people. »
[...]
« They had been made by women who were political prisoners, they would say to each other; they knew our names, knew of our struggle, our resistance against torture, and could not believe that from those confines we had succeeded in conveying our joy of life, to move forward, to silently shout here we are, and we’re still here. And so they bought our goods, for themselves, to give to their daughters, friends and mothers. »
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