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


Lili Marlene

Music piece by:
Hans Leip
Testimony by:
Renato Alvarado Vidal
Experience in:
« During the daily flag-lowering ritual in the camp Melinka, the prisoners first had to get into formation in the courtyard and then walk in line to the location of the mast. »
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King Ñaca Ñaca (El rey Ñaca Ñaca)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Renato Alvarado Vidal
Experience in:
« During the last third of the 20th century, the concentration camps of the Chilean dictatorship were characterised by a high grade of organisation among prisoners, as well as the overflowing creativity they applied to all areas of human ingenuity. »
[...]
« Initially, the theatre performances were meant to entertain the children coming to see their parents during visits. These then generated more complex works played by the prisoners, always under the watchful eye of the commanders who sometimes understood what was happening but often did not. »
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The Woman from Huillinco (La Huillincana)

Music piece by:
Liborio Bórquez Guzmán, popularised by Héctor Pavez
Testimony by:
Rubén Torres Ávila
« When I was in the last year of secondary school at the Liceo 8 in Santiago, I suggested to a teacher to do an interview with a prisoner of the youth detention centre Blas Cañas. After the interview, I offered the prison’s governor to take the school’s folk group to present a show to the inmates. »
[...]
« After the show, one of the prisoners offered to sing the cumbia ‘Cortando caña’ a cappella: ‘Cutting cane, buddy, I spend my life.’ »
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Song to the Pampa (Canto a la pampa)

Music piece by:
poem by Francisco Pezoa Astudillo set to music by Quilapayún
Testimony by:
Renato Alvarado Vidal
Experience in:
« The first song that we managed to sing was Quilapayún's setting of the poem Canto a la Pampa (Song to the Pampa), by the anarchist poet Francisco Pezoa Astudillo, which recounts one of the bloodiest episodes of the class struggle in Chile: the massacre of the Santa María school in Iquique in December 1907. The prisoners of the large Room 13 of Cuatro Álamos camp sang it complete and as a chorus around February 1975. »
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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. »
[...]
« Prisoner of your doggy luck »
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The Brief Space Where You Are Absent (El breve espacio en que no estás)

Music piece by:
Pablo Milanés
Testimony by:
Vilma Rojas Toledo
Experience in:
Cárcel de Coronel, 1986 - 1988
« I recall that during my time as a political prisoner, Pablo Milanés was one of our greatest companions. His songs filled us with life, helped us to keep breathing and living behind the bars imposed by Pinochet’s military dictatorship. »
[...]
« Today, I can remember it and speak about it. I can say that when I hear his songs I am immediately transported back to those years in jail in the city of Coronel, to that woman who is a political prisoner of Pinochet’s dictatorship. I remember him as the great comrade he was, through his music and his songs. »
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Run Run Went up North (Run Run se fue pa'l norte)

Music piece by:
Violeta Parra
Testimony by:
Ernesto Parra Navarrete
Experience in:
« Run Run... On the big pitch, mild summer weather was in the air. »
[...]
« But for us, aching from the torture, hungry, haggard, stinking, tattered, tired of our uncertain future, all we longed for was a breath of energy that would allow us to feel that we were still alive and that the feelings of our absent loving partners were present. »
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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 entered one of the rooms to gather up the things on the floor and straighten up the place. I found a notebook with the owner’s name on the cover, Guacolda; she had been very meticulous about compiling the words of our songs. I still have the notebook in my house in London, and even though its pages have turned yellow with age, you can still read the lyrics of our songs. That night, dressed in our blue tracksuits, after having a bite to eat, we began to sing again. »
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Return, Return (Volver, volver)

Music piece by:
Fernando Z. Maldonado. Popularised by Vicente Fernández
Testimony by:
Jorge Montealegre Iturra
« At the Chacabucan artistic shows, Hugo sang tangos, including 'Volver' (Return) by Gardel and Le Pera. »
[...]
« Back then, when he performed on the prison camp stage, he sang it mischievously and a sense of dark humour. This was expressed not only because of the real possibility of returning to the prison, but also by the gestures he made when singing 'Voy camino a la locura y aunque todo me tortura…' ('I’m on the road to madness and still everything tortures me...'). »
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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. »
[...]
« When they heard the National Anthem, the policemen stopped, stood to attention and stayed still in the middle of the court. They had to wait until we finished the anthem. We sang with rage: 'and a refuge from oppression'. »
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