384 results where found for «How Can I Describe This to You?»


How Can I Describe This to You? (Cómo hacer para darte una idea)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony 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. »
[...]
« How Can I Describe This to You? (Cómo hacer para darte una idea) »
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Lucky Devil (El suertúo)

Music piece by:
Víctor Canto and Luis Cifuentes (lyrics), Roberto Parra (music)
Testimony by:
Luis Cifuentes Seves
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, November 1973 - February 1974
« This cueca was composed at Chacabuco sometime between November 1973 and February 1974 and was sung by Los de Chacabuco, of which Víctor Canto and I were members. »
[...]
« The first time we played the cueca at the weekly show, the audience roared in laughter because the situations described were so familiar to everyone. »
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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:
« 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. »
[...]
« I sang this song often because it accurately described our situation. The words plead to soldiers not to fire against their own people. Rarely did this occur in Chile, but we shared our prisoners’ barracks, called Remo, with three members of the Air Force. »
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Song of a Middle-Class Man (Canción de un hombre medio)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony 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. »
[...]
« I forgot my troubles and the idea occurred to me to describe a typical middle-class guy, somewhat submissive and timorous, modestly singing verses that end with him saying that phrase we so hoped to hear him say: “now I like the reds”. »
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Las mañanitas

Music piece by:
Manuel M. Ponce
Testimony by:
Beatriz Bataszew Contreras
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros, Tres Álamos, December 1974 - May 1976
« To every comrade who had a birthday, we would sing 'Las mañanitas' and we would give them presents. The majority of the female prisoners would come together and sing to you. I spent one birthday in prison. Birthdays were important for everyone because we were alive. Because you have a birthday when you’re alive. »
[...]
« How lovely is this morning »
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Friend (Amiga)

Music piece by:
Miguel Bosé
Testimony by:
Carolina Videla
Experience in:
« I was 19 years old when they arrested me. I was one of the youngest political prisoners at the time in Arica. »
[...]
« and how simple this word sounds today. »
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Dreams of my Imprisonment (Sueños de mi encierro)

Music piece by:
Mario Patricio Cordero Cedraschi
Testimony by:
Mario Patricio Cordero Cedraschi
Experience in:
Cárcel de Valparaíso, Winter of 1975
« I’d spent two years in prison and there was no end in sight for my time in jail. I observed during visiting hours that many prisoners had children, a wife, family. »
[...]
« In my case, however, having been arrested so young and just turned 19, I felt a growing concern that I’d die without bearing children, and never experience this wonderful human feeling. »
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Futuristic Anthem (Himno futurista)

Music piece by:
unknown
Testimony by:
Patricio Polanco
Experience in:
« In 1973 and 1974, Pisagua was characterised by the harsh and cruel treatment of political prisoners. Singing was mandatory for prisoners, who were guarded by Army platoons, and it was also a means to avoid beatings and collective mistreatment. »
[...]
« The repertory consisted of approximately 35 military anthems from all branches of the Armed Forces. To these military songs, we added a few songs or anthems that became a form of resistance and asserting our dignity, albeit not explicitly. The lyrics shown below sometimes varied a bit, but this became the anthem most sung by prisoners at the Pisagua concentration camp. »
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The Paper Boat (El barco de papel)

Music piece by:
Julio Numhauser, popularised by the band Amerindios
Testimony by:
Carlos Muñoz
Experience in:
« One of the most important songs in the detention centres. Impossible to count how many times we sang it. Every time someone was released from a detention camp or there was credible information that a person would be sent into exile, a gigantic chorus would sing this song, in a powerful unison. No one could possibly forget it. Especially significant at Tres Álamos, as this was the “exit” camp. »
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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. »
[...]
« The first was that there had been self-censorship regarding the importance of each individual's own experience. How could a person who had survived worry about what they had lived through if this meant nothing compared to the fate of the missing and the executed? The second reason had to do with the ineffectiveness of testifying at that time. »
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