Cantos Cautivos

« 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

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« 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

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« 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

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« 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

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Captain, our Destiny is a Wandering Island (Capitán, el rumbo es una isla errante)

Music piece by:

Sergio Vesely

Testimony by:

Sergio Vesely

Experience in:

Campamento de Prisioneros Melinka, Puchuncaví, 1975

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« This song was dedicated to Óscar Castro, whom I was lucky enough to meet in 1975, in Puchuncaví. With his experience in theatre – Óscar was already a fairly well-known actor before his arrest – he threw himself into the cultural work we had organised, in what was then called “Camp Melinka” where the prisoners presented a show every Friday. »

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« venerated by the waters »

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

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« 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. »

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« Look how they speak to us about freedom »

Anthem of Puchuncaví (Himno de Puchuncaví)

Music piece by:

Sergio Vesely

Testimony by:

Sergio Vesely

Experience in:

Campamento de Prisioneros Melinka, Puchuncaví, 1975

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« 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. »

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« From the Andes peaks »

Musicalized Dialogue between Two Old Prisoners (Diálogo musicalizado entre dos ancianos presos)

Music piece by:

Sergio Vesely

Testimony by:

Sergio Vesely

Experience in:

Campamento de Prisioneros Melinka, Puchuncaví, 1975

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« At Puchuncaví Detention Camp (Melinka) I shared a cell with an elderly man from Lota, where he had spent his entire life working in the coal mines. »

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« What’s the matter with you, buddy, why don't you cumpa*? »

« This zamba was the first song we tried to perform in Puchuncaví, with a group made up of prisoners transferred from Chacabuco Detention Camp together with us, newly arrived 'puchuncas'. »

La López Pereyra

Music piece by:

Artidorio Cresseri

Testimony by:

Germán Larrabe

Experience in:

Campamento de Prisioneros Melinka, Puchuncaví, 1974 - 1976

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« I think obsessively of the falsehood »

« This song is based on a poem Guillermo wrote in the Puchuncaví Prison Camp dedicated to his partner Soledad. Of all the songs I composed as a prisoner, this is the only one where the lyrics are not mine. »

Love (Amor)

Music piece by:

Guillermo Núñez (lyrics) and Sergio Vesely (music)

Testimony by:

Sergio Vesely

Experience in:

Campamento de Prisioneros Melinka, Puchuncaví, 1975

Tags:

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« The two of us… »