Cantos Cautivos
452 results where found for «The Man Who Transformed into an Animal»
- Music piece by:Nicolás Guillén (lyrics) and Quilapayún (music)
- Testimony by:Domingo Lizama
- Experience in:Cárcel de Valdivia / Cárcel de Isla Teja, 1973 - 1978
- Tags:
- « In prison, there was a guy who played the guitar. He cheered up the afternoons in the cell. We all sang with him. »
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- Music piece by:Unknown
- Testimony by:anonymous
- Experience in:Cárcel de Valdivia / Cárcel de Isla Teja, September 1973
- Tags:
- « One time, a group of male and female evangelicals came to Teja Island to preach. They were taken to the visitors’ yard. »
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- « Something very funny happened that stayed with me for the rest of my life. After the music finished one of the evangelicals asked: 'Who wants to receive Jesus Christ as their saviour?' One prisoner replied: 'but what if they put us in prison again?' »
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- Music piece by:René “Popeye” Cárdenas Eugenin
- Testimony by:María Soledad Ruiz Ovando
- Experience in:Campamento de Prisioneros Isla Dawson, 1973 - 1974
- Tags:
- « Music was very important for us (my mother Sylvia, my sister Alejandra and myself) while my dad, Daniel Ruiz Oyarzo, 'el Negro Ruiz', was imprisoned during the dictatorship, when Alejandra was seven and I was four. »
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- « That’s how we decided that we’d teach the song to my son, who at the time was 12 or 13 years old, and also a family friend (Ximenota). »
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- Music piece by:Arturo Dávalos
- Testimony by:Luis Cifuentes Seves
- Experience in:Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, January - February 1974
- Tags:
- « A salamanca is a type of salamander that lives in caves in northern Argentina. By extension, it also represents the cave. In this song, the lyricist turns the salamanca into a place where a coven of witches gathers. »
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- « Under the direction of Ernesto Parra, all ten members of the group who appear in the photograph took part. Their aim was to preserve the songs of Ángel Parra, composed while he was a prisoner in the camp, along with songs by other artists. »
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- Music piece by:Sergio Vesely
- Testimony by:Sergio Vesely
- Experience in:
- Tags:
- « I don’t want to exaggerate but Camp Melinka became not only a factory that produced handicrafts and a performance hall but also a university. »
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- « While listening to one of those professors, I learned about Father Bartolomé de las Casas, a priest who lived in Central America and earned the title of Defender of the Indians during the harshest period of the Spanish Conquest. His life was marked by defeat. He was unable to stop the abuses committed with the consent of the Catholic Church, which was his spiritual home. »
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- Music piece by:Sergio Vesely
- Testimony by:Sergio Vesely
- Experience in:Cárcel de Valparaíso, 1976
- Tags:
- « The dream of the political prisoner was to regain freedom. All of us would feel joy when one of us was about to be released from prison, although it far from easy to see a comrade depart. Even less so for those who suspected they would never enjoy that privilege. »
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- « At the time, I understood that my road to freedom would be a bit longer than that of the comrades who simply walked out the prison gates. My prison sentence had been commuted to deportation from Chile. Exile. In other words, I would have to board a plane and fly several hours before landing in freedom. »
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- Music piece by:Sergio Vesely
- Testimony by:Sergio Vesely
- Experience in:Cárcel de Valparaíso, 1976
- Tags:
- « I composed this song for a small children’s party we organised in the visitors’ yard of the Valparaíso Jail. I remember how the children had fun that day and enjoyed the play. That was the first time I put down the guitar so that a prisoner who played the accordion could accompany me. »
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- Music piece by:Sergio Vesely
- Testimony by:Sergio Vesely
- Experience in:
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- « 'Ñaca-ñaca' was an interjection we used at Camp Melinka whenever we wanted to signal and poke fun at any dark thought that might cross our minds. That may be why it seemed the ideal name to give to the paper maché puppet that played the role of the mean king in the puppet stories we performed to entertain the children who came to visit their captive fathers. »
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- « Ñaca-Ñaca - the puppet - in his role as mean king, was certainly a third-class king, a dictator who enjoyed ridiculing his prisoners. These were none other than Cinturón de Lana (Woollen Belt), Anillo de Metal (Metal Ring), Huesito (Little Bone) and Caballito de Mar (Seahorse). These were all allegorical figures that had great meaning for us as prime examples of the handicraft that came from the hands of our fellow prisoners. »
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Song of the Seed and the Plant (Canción de la semilla y la planta)
- Music piece by:Sergio Vesely
- Testimony by:Sergio Vesely
- Experience in:
- Tags:
- « The history of the seed and the plant, of which this song forms part, was performed as a play to entertain our audience of children during a family visit to the prison. Imagination had no limits when it came to kindling a small flame of hope in our hearts. »
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- « With the scarce resources available to us, we made costumes and dressed up as a jester, a gardener, a sun, and clowns, and thus attired we came out to meet our loved ones that day, much to the surprise of the soldiers, who watched us from a distance not understanding what was going on. »
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- Music piece by:The Turtles ('Elenore'), with new lyrics by Gianni Morandi
- Testimony by:Eduardo René Cuevas
- Experience in:Cárcel de Los Ángeles, September 1973
- Tags:
- « This song was a workhorse for the prisoners. Iván Moscoso sang it, accompanied by a guitar, in a powerful and defiant voice, and the most altruistic among us sung along in the presence of the gendarme guards, in a courtyard that was only for political prisoners. »
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- « For me, a prisoner from (the city of) Laja who walked with a cane, it represented a glimmer of hope and being able to say I am still alive, after twice being threatened with death on the very
11 September 1973 . »- [Read full testimony]