444 results where found for «The Man Who Transformed into an Animal»


Priests and Soldiers (Curas y milicos)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
« 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. »
[...]
« 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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Future (Futuro)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
Experience in:
« 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. »
[...]
« 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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The Little Snail (El caracolito)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
Experience in:
« 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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King Ñaca Ñaca (El rey Ñaca Ñaca)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
« '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. »
[...]
« 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
« 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. »
[...]
« 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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The Rain is Falling (Scende la pioggia)

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
« 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. »
[...]
« 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. »
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Candombe for José (Candombe para José)

Music piece by:
Roberto Ternán
Testimony by:
Alejandro Olate
« The youngest among us, aged 17 or even 16 years, did the heaviest work on Dawson Island. We had to fell trees, cut them, split them in two, cut them into wedges, and walk the several hundred meters back to the barracks carrying the logs on our shoulders. »
[...]
« At some specific moment, we were able to approach the commanders and the guards in a different way. I was one of several comrades who proposed the idea of putting on a show on the weekends, in order to entertain, to unwind, and to relax from the constant psychological pressure and torture. »
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National Anthem of Chile

Music piece by:
Eusebio Lillo and Ramón Carnicer
Testimony by:
Eduardo Ojeda
Experience in:
« We arrived at Dawson Island on the afternoon of 11 September. All we knew was that we had been arrested in the morning - nothing else. »
[...]
« At six o'clock in the afternoon, they lined us up to sing the National Anthem. We became aware of singing from the prisoners on the other side, the ones who had just arrived from Santiago. You could hear male voices. It wasn't the women. »
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Barlovento

Music piece by:
Eduardo Serrano
Testimony by:
Luis Cifuentes Seves
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, January – February 1974
« This is one of the songs the band Los de Chacabuco arranged and performed at the weekly show authorised by the military. »
[...]
« The lyrics include the word conuquero, referring to a person who works on a conuco, a small plot of land used for subsistence agriculture. »
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Chacabuco Mass (Misa chacabucana)

Music piece by:
Ángel Parra and Ariel Ramírez
Testimony by:
Luis Cifuentes Seves
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, January - February 1974
« This song is the second track on the cassette recorded in the Chacabuco prison camp by the band Los de Chacabuco, formed by Ángel Parra and led by him until his release. At the time that the cassette was recorded, Ángel had already been freed and Ernesto Parra had become the group's conductor. »
[...]
« It is interesting to note that Ángel was the only truly religious member in Los de Chacabuco. Nevertheless, the other members joined him enthusiastically and respectfully in singing these songs, essentially as a way of acknowledging the attitude of the Army chaplain Varela, who always treated the prisoners with great respect and solidarity. »
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