Cantos Cautivos

May the Omelette Flip Over (Que la tortilla se vuelva)

Music piece by:

Chicho Sánchez Ferlosio. Popularized by Quilapayún

Testimony by:

Claudio Melgarejo

Experience in:

Comisaría de Concepción, November 1973

Tags:

« I spent a week in captivity, in November 1973. I didn’t hear many songs, but the most popular ones sung by my comrades were 'Venceremos' (We Shall be Victorious) and 'Que la tortilla se vuelva' (May the Omelette Flip Over), also known as 'The Tomato Song', which portrays the bosses' exploitation of the workers. »

[...]

« Chicho Sánchez Ferlosio. Popularized by Quilapayún »

« 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. »

Music piece by:

José Luis Armenteros and Pablo Herrero, popularised by Nino Bravo.

Testimony by:

anonymous

Experience in:

Campamento de Prisioneros, Estadio Nacional, September - November 1973

Tags:

[...]

« 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. »

Music piece by:

José Luis Armenteros and Pablo Herrero, popularised by Nino Bravo.

Testimony by:

Guillermo Orrego Valdebenito

Experience in:

Campamento de Prisioneros, Estadio Nacional, 1973

Tags:

[...]

« I’m from Chol Chol, part of the Coihue community. I was arrested along with 12 other people and they took us to the Second Police Station of Temuco. »

Music piece by:

José Luis Armenteros and Pablo Herrero, popularised by Nino Bravo.

Testimony by:

Paicavi Painemal

Experience in:

Comisaría de Carabineros N° 2, Temuco, 22 April 1985

Tags:

[...]

« I was taken prisoner on 23 November 1973, at the University of Concepción. In the Regional Stadium of Concepción, we had to sing the National Anthem every day. »

Music piece by:

José Luis Armenteros and Pablo Herrero, popularised by Nino Bravo.

Testimony by:

Marianella Ubilla

Experience in:

Campamento Prisioneros Estadio Regional, Christmas 1973

Tags:

[...]

What Will the Holy Father Say (Qué dirá el Santo Padre)

Music piece by:

Violeta Parra

Testimony by:

María Cecilia Marchant Rubilar

Experience in:

Cárcel de Mujeres Buen Pastor, La Serena, September 1973 - January 1974

Tags:

« We sang songs that were popular at the time. We’d sing 'What will the Holy Father say', especially the part that says 'What will the Holy Father who lives in Rome say ... they are slitting the throat of his dove...' quite often, for example when someone was taken off to Regimiento Arica, which was a torture centre. »

[...]

« What Will the Holy Father Say (Qué dirá el Santo Padre) »

Saint Gregory’s Tonada (Tonada San Gregorio)

Music piece by:

Pedro Humire Loredo

Testimony by:

Pedro Humire Loredo

Experience in:

Tenencia de Carabineros Nueva España, Población San Gregorio, September 1973

Tags:

« This tonada recalls the horrible situation I was subjected to in the cells of the police station in the San Gregorio district in southern Santiago. »

[...]

« San Gregorio jail »

You Hear It Far Away (Se escucha muy lejos)

Music piece by:

Collective creation

Testimony by:

Ignacio Puelma

Experience in:

Campamento de Prisoneros Ritoque, February 1975

Tags:

« The sound of the sea was carried over the cabins of the Ritoque Prison Camp by the wind. It was the daily music given to us as a gift by the ocean. »

[...]

« who laughing kick over sand castles. »

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

Tags:

« 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. »

[...]

« Along the soft sand »