187 results where found for «The Brief Space Where You Are Absent»


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. »
[...]
« they come from everywhere. »
[Read full testimony]

We Shall Overcome

Music piece by:
Attributed to Charles Albert Tindley
Testimony by:
Alfonso Padilla Silva
Experience in:
« When the concentration camp that operated for nearly five months at the Regional Stadium of Concepción was closed in early February 1974, hundreds of political prisoners were transferred to the Concepción Prison, a wing of which was turned into a concentration camp. »
[...]
« With a smaller group, which we called 'The hard-boiled eggs' (I still have no idea where that name came from or how we chose it), we presented a show every other Sunday at noon. There we’d accompany anyone who wanted to sing a song of their choice. But that, too, is another story. »
[Read full testimony]

How We Resemble Each Other (En qué nos parecemos)

Music piece by:
Unknown. Popularised by Quilapayún
Testimony by:
Luis Cifuentes Seves
Experience in:
« During the 1960s, the group Quilapayún popularised this old Spanish song in Chile. Víctor Canto and I performed it as a duet in Santiago’s National Stadium, which had been converted into a concentration, torture and extermination camp. »
[...]
« Whenever the military allowed us to do so, we would sing it in the locker rooms where we slept, and in the grandstands where we spent much of the day. »
[Read full testimony]

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. »
[...]
« This concern became a nightmare and led to these verses that turned into a song and filled the last page of my prison songbook, where I’d written down a number of ballads sung by other prisoners. »
[Read full testimony]

To Sing by Improvising (Pa’ cantar de un improviso)

Music piece by:
Violeta Parra
Testimony by:
Claudio Enrique Durán Pardo (Kila Chico)
« We made a Venezuelan cuatro from a large plank of wood attached to one of the walls of the "ranch" where we ate. »
[Read full testimony]

Ode to Joy (Himno a la alegría)

Music piece by:
original by Friedrich von Schiller (lyrics) and Ludwig van Beethoven (music). Free version in Spanish by Amado Regueiro Rodríguez, aka Orbe (lyrics) y Waldo de los Ríos (music), popularised in Chile by Miguel Ríos.
Testimony by:
Amelia Negrón
Experience in:
« Preparations for that Wednesday night became more intense. It would be a different night. We women prisoners had secretly organised ourselves, but more importantly, we had also coordinated with the male prisoners. »
[...]
« The other prisoners held at Cuatro Álamos, still classified as disappeared because the dictatorship had not acknowledged their arrests, now probably knew where they were being held, upon hearing our song. »
[Read full testimony]

Captive Quena (Quena cautiva)

Music piece by:
Claudio Durán Pardo
Testimony by:
Claudio Enrique Durán Pardo
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros, Tres Álamos, September - December 1975
« I first laid my hands on a quena when I was nine years old. It was resplendently fragile and lyrical. My passion for this instrument was immediate, or rather, the quena chose me. »
[...]
« I don’t know how the message reached me from the Women’s Pavilion, which was considerably removed from where I was. »
[Read full testimony]

Errant Wind (Viento errante)

Music piece by:
Patricio Hermosilla Vives
Testimony by:
Patricio Hermosilla Vives
Experience in:
« Finally, in the Chacabuco Concentration Camp, after three days aboard the Policarpo Toro (a war ship which had an uncertain destination since sailing from Valparaíso in December 1973; the question was not when and where we would dock, but how we would fall overboard), I felt that death had decided to take a step back and watch from me from a little further away. »
[Read full testimony]

After the War (Después de la guerra)

Music piece by:
Sandro
Testimony by:
Nelly Andrade Alcaino
« The military officials in charge of the Tejas Verdes camp made us sing. They gave us just one day to select the songs and rehearse. »
[...]
« When they took us out to the prison yard, we sang it with all our might. There was complete silence when we finished. The military officers looked at each other and then ordered that we be returned to the room. The soldiers in the guard towers came down to ask where we had found that song. »
[Read full testimony]

South-Eastern Storm (La Sudestada)

Music piece by:
Poni Micharvegas
Testimony by:
Luis Alfredo Muñoz González
Experience in:
« While I was in solitary confinement in Cuatro Álamos, one day I noticed there was a large room at the end of the corridor, which, overnight, the dinos had filled with prisoners. »
[...]
« When I became a recognised prisoner and was allowed to talk to other prisoners, I tried to find the comrade behind the song, but no one knew of his whereabouts. Some time afterwards someone told me that his name was Horacio Carabantes, and he was from Valparaíso. »
[Read full testimony]