181 results where found for «The Crux of the Matter»


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. »
[...]
« not even in the prettiest part of the season. »
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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. »
[...]
« As for the common prisoners, there were about 500 of them, and, needless to say, they were held in other parts of the complex. »
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The Little Cigarette (El cigarrito)

Music piece by:
Víctor Jara
Testimony by:
Alfonso Padilla Silva
Experience in:
« During Christmas 1973, I was one of some 600 men and 100 women prisoners in Concepción Regional Stadium. »
[...]
« The concentration camp officials allowed us to celebrate Christmas in the sports arena. To be precise, we were in one corner of the playing field and we used the pole vault pit as a stage. »
[Read full testimony]

I’m Not from Here - To my Comrade, my Love (No soy de aquí - A mi compañera)

Music piece by:
Facundo Cabral, with lyrics modified by a political prisoner
Testimony by:
Alfonso Padilla Silva
Experience in:
« The choir of male prisoners sang a piece called 'A mi compañera' (To my comrade, my love) to the music of 'No soy de aquí, ni soy de allá' (I'm not from here, nor from there) by Facundo Cabral. »
[...]
« I don’t remember who wrote the lyrics. But that’s how I wrote it down in one of the ten notebooks I used to copy songs during my imprisonment. »
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Zamba so as Not to Die (Zamba para no morir)

Music piece by:
Hamlet Lima Quintana
Testimony by:
Ana María Jiménez
Experience in:
Villa Grimaldi, April 1975
« I want to recall a night at Villa Grimaldi. »
[...]
« At that moment, I wondered if it was fair to let all my comrades get soaking wet just because of my stubborn dignity. But I didn’t have to think long: among us was the journalist Gladys Díaz, a member of the MIR, who whispered: »
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Partisan Anthem (Himno guerrillero)

Music piece by:
anonymous Russian melody. During the Russian Revolution, several lyrics with different ideological content circulated. This version is based on 'Makhnovtchina', attributed to Nestor Makhno, Ukrainian anarchist revolutionary.
Testimony by:
Julio Laks Feller
Experience in:
« In late September 1974, the Soviet partisan’s song was intoned softly but with an awe-inspiring force in the José Domingo Cañas torture centre. »
[...]
« Our comrade and beloved friend Sergio Pérez Molina, leader of the MIR who had fallen into the hands of the DINA a few days earlier, was being tortured again. »
[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. »
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Answer Me

Music piece by:
Fred Rauch (lyrics) and Gerhard Winkler (music). English lyrics by Carl Sigman. Recorded by Frankie Laine.
Testimony by:
Luis Cifuentes Seves
Experience in:
« I sang this song, as a soloist, in the dressing rooms of the National Stadium. »
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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:
Luis Madariaga
Experience in:
« In prison, we would sing the 'Ode to Joy' when a comrade was released or sent to exile. »
[...]
« The reaction of the political prisoners watching from the third gallery of that hellish prison was total silence. The word had spread asking that no one should applaud whatever Iglesias had to say. »
[Read full testimony]

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

Music piece by:
Violeta Parra
Testimony by:
Claudio Durán Pardo
« We made a Venezuelan cuatro from a large plank of wood attached to one of the walls of the "ranch" where we ate. »
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