162 results where found for «Melody by Jorge Peña Hen»


Sufferings (Dolencias)

Music piece by:
Víctor Valencia Nieto
Testimony by:
Domingo Chávez Navarro
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, November 1973 - April 1974
« Marcelo Concha Bascuñán sang this song, which many of us liked. I personally knew Marcelo and we were both released from prison at the same time. I left the country, whereas Marcelo stayed in Chile. The DINA picked him up and since then he is one of so many disappeared people. »
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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. »
[...]
« If freedom was decreed when the prisoner was at another camp, the prisoner would be transferred to this detention centre. In the version sung in the camps, the verse that goes, 'se va, se va, se va y regresará' ('going away, going away, going away and will come back') was replaced by 'se va, se va, se va y no volverá' ('going away, going away, going away, never to come back'). »
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Today I Sing for the Sake of Singing (Hoy canto por cantar)

Music piece by:
Nydia Caro and Riccardo Ceratto
Testimony by:
Beatriz Bataszew Contreras
Experience in:
« I have never been a great music listener. Nevertheless, before the coup I used to listen to Nueva Canción, especially Quilapayún and Rolando Alarcón. I also liked cumbias, to fool around. We would dance and have fun. »
[...]
« When they detained me I was 20 years old and studying forest engineering. The first detention centre they took me to was Venda Sexy. Many of my comrades were there. »
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Free (Libre)

Music piece by:
José Luis Armenteros and Pablo Herrero, popularised by Nino Bravo.
Testimony by:
anonymous
Experience in:
« While waiting in the grandstands to be interrogated for the first, second or more times, we would sing 'Free' to those who were being lined up to be released. 'Free' was a catharsis, a mixture of joy for those who were going and hope for those of us left behind. Unfortunately, the dictatorship and its civil and military henchmen employed the song for their own propaganda. »
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We Shall Prevail (Venceremos)

Music piece by:
Claudio Iturra (lyrics) and Sergio Ortega (music)
Testimony by:
Lucía Chirinos
Experience in:
« The parish priest at Buen Pastor played the accordion. He played so beautifully. Because I played the piano, I asked him if I could borrow it. 'I'll lend it to you' he said. »
[...]
« Learning all these songs on the accordion turned out to be a rather tiring task, all the more so since I could only do it in the afternoons when the girlies went to watch their beloved soap operas. »
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The Internationale

Music piece by:
Eugène Pottier (lyrics) and Pierre Degeyter (music). Popularised by Quilapayún in Chile in the 1970s.
Testimony by:
Ana María Jiménez
Experience in:
Villa Grimaldi, April 1975
« In April 1975, the triumph of Vietnam was celebrated. We heard about it through a comrade who went to the bathroom and found a piece of the week’s newspaper. It was so beautiful for us to be there, having shouted so often for Vietnam at demonstrations. »
[...]
« We coordinated through secret mail: for example, messages would be exchanged when someone went to the bathroom. »
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Anthem of Puchuncaví (Himno de Puchuncaví)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony 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. »
[...]
« The song was written so that every prisoner, regardless of political affiliation, could sing it. The only way to strengthen prisoners’ unity was to realise that all of us lived in the same conditions. »
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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. »
[...]
«  Day when the Chilean armed forces led by Augusto Pinochet overthrew President Salvador Allende. »
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The Valley Swallow (La golondrina del valle)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony 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. »
[...]
« This happened when a flock of swallows made a surprise visit and hundreds of them perched at different heights on the stiff barbed wire. It was the image that inspired this song. »
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Beloved Friend (Amado amigo)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony 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. »
[...]
« Breadcrumbs (migas de pan): These were the raw material we used in the interrogation centres for sculpting little figurines. This activity was important to keep the prisoners' minds occupied. In situations of extreme solitary confinement, when all contact with the outside world had been cut off, prisoners used these figurines to build a tiny bridge of communication with their fellow prisoners. A person in solitary confinement would place the figurine where others could see it, leaving leave a sign life. »
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