193 results where found for «The Prisoner of Til Til»


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. »
[...]
« It was recorded from underneath the wood plank stage the prisoners themselves had built. An official stationed at the concentration camp supplied the cassette recorder. Ángel Parra took the cassette out of the camp and it was first produced as a vinyl LP in Italy between 1974 and 1975. This cueca also appears on Ángel Parra’s record Pisagua + Chacabuco, produced in 2003 in Chile. »
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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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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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The Little Fence (La rejita)

Music piece by:
lyrics: collective creation; music: 'Jálame la pitita' by Luis Abanto Morales (Peruvian polka)
Testimony by:
Lucía Chirinos
Experience in:
« Let’s get going, would say “the lizards”, as we called the policemen, because they dress all in green. »
[...]
« Just then, the representative of the International Red Cross arrived. He was blond, blue-eyed and well tanned. I had seen on him on the television when he visited Pisagua. In Buen Pastor, there was a place we called “the pigsty” because the prisoners were all dirty, in their nighties or petticoats. They were all crying inconsolably. »
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You Hear It Far Away (Se escucha muy lejos)

Music piece by:
Collective creation
Testimony by:
Ignacio Puelma
Experience in:
« 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. »
[...]
« That was how the prisoners organised the Ritoque Song Festival. My family had sent me a guitar. Improvising, I came across a few chords that sounded good to me, and I used them to create a melody. It was starting material. »
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Neither Fish nor Fowl (Ni chicha ni limoná)

Music piece by:
Víctor Jara
Testimony by:
Joaquín Vallejos
Experience in:
« I was arrested at home together with a childhood friend who they’d gone to pick up first. My family thought he’d stitched me up, which was not true. »
[...]
« I realised over time that it was a way to provoke the guards, who sometimes seemed to suffer the same as the prisoners, even though they did nothing about it. »
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Valparaíso

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
Experience in:
« This song was written and sung in cell number 198 of Valparaíso’s former prison, that is to say, on the top floor of the main building, which was higher than the walls that surrounded it. »
[...]
« This had several advantages for the prisoner, for if they perched on a stool to peer through the skylight, they could enjoy the company of a good part of the city during their hours of confinement. »
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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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The Wall (La muralla)

Music piece by:
Nicolás Guillén (lyrics) and Quilapayún (music)
Testimony by:
Domingo Lizama
« In prison, there was a guy who played the guitar. He cheered up the afternoons in the cell. We all sang with him. »
[...]
« Among the prisoners, there was a craftsman who built guitars. We played his guitars. »
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National Anthem of Chile

Music piece by:
Eusebio Lillo and Ramón Carnicer
Testimony by:
anonymous
Experience in:
« I was detained in Panguipulli on 24 September 1973, along with 17 other young people. I was a high school student. I was also working at the forestry and logging company of Huilo Huilo, which had been taken over by the working class. »
[...]
« In the prison, one of the prisoners spent night and day in a dungeon. Despite being in solitary confinement, he would open his window and sing the National Anthem at full blast. »
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