459 results where found for «They Say the Homeland Is»


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. »
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Casida of the Dark Pigeons (Casida de las palomas oscuras)

Music piece by:
Federico García Lorca (words), Paco Ibáñez (music)
Testimony by:
Luis Alfredo Muñoz González
Experience in:
« According to scientists, memory and music processing are situated in a deep, ancestral part of the brain, where it is zealously guarded. »
[...]
« “Who are you?” I asked. “They’ve taken everyone away. They told me they were going to kill those that are still here,” she said. “Who are you?”. “They call me La Jovencita (The Young Girl). I am from Argentina and they caught me in Valparaíso. Do you think they will kill me?” »
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Today I Sing for the Sake of Singing (Hoy canto por cantar)

Music piece by:
Nydia Caro and Riccardo Ceratto
Testimony by:
Beatriz Bataszew Contreras
Experience in:
« I have never been a great music listener. Nevertheless, before the coup I used to listen to Nueva Canción, especially Quilapayún and Rolando Alarcón. I also liked cumbias, to fool around. We would dance and have fun. »
[...]
« Why is it in my mind? Because the dinos amused themselves with it. They would say to us “sing”, because singing also means grassing on someone. For me, this was fresh aggression, because whenever they played this song, and they would put it on very loud, it was to pressure you to collaborate. »
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Tacit Song (Canción tácita)

Music piece by:
All the women present at that moment in Chacabuco
Testimony by:
Mónica García Cuadra
Experience in:
« I am the daughter of a former political prisoner who spent a long time imprisoned at Chacabuco, among other places. I am Monica, a little 9-year-old girl who travelled with a heavy heart full of sadness to visit her father, Gerardo García Salas, held at the Chacabuco concentration camp. I am an only child and in my young life, he is my sole reference point and, in essence, my image of masculinity. »
[...]
« From the guard tower, the order was given for the comrades to come, and they appeared behind the bars that separated our lives, but never our purpose and meaning in life. With heartache and streaming tears, several prisoners began to appear, as well as the love and silent solidarity that vibrated and pulsated through those moments waiting for, anticipating the embrace, the looking directly into his eyes, making contact with the loved one’s heart, the touch of skin against skin among equals. »
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The Letter (La carta)

Music piece by:
Violeta Parra
Testimony by:
Paicavi Painemal
Experience in:
« We set up a band with a group of fellow prisoners. They were young, university students. One of them had a guitar. »
[...]
« We went to any of the prison wings and presented a show. They would look at us with a lot of respect because they knew that we were political prisoners. We had our followers. »
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The Little Fence (La rejita)

Music piece by:
lyrics: collective creation; music: 'Jálame la pitita' by Luis Abanto Morales (Peruvian polka)
Testimony by:
Lucía Chirinos
Experience in:
« Let’s get going, would say “the lizards”, as we called the policemen, because they dress all in green. »
[...]
« When you are arrested, you stop being a person. They kill first, they ask questions later. That’s what you hear from the women who are in the know. The decay wafts over from the barracks. The sickening smell doesn’t go away, despite the enforced disappearance of people. »
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Words for Julia (Palabras para Julia)

Music piece by:
José Agustín Goytisolo (lyrics) and Paco Ibáñez (music)
Testimony by:
Amelia Negrón
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros, Tres Álamos, 1975 and 1976, until the closure of Tres Álamos
« There were so many of us women prisoners. Despite the circumstances, we had managed to invent our own world, one with our rules, according to what we thought and wanted for ourselves, our families and all the Chilean people. »
[...]
« There were also women who worked like an arrow crocheting: they made the borders to the blouses and dresses, putting the finishing touches. And there were also the little spider weavers. Their knitting needles produced beautiful jackets of wool and linen, in purl stitch, beehive stitch, fretwork, with and without caps, with and without pockets, open jackets, sweaters, turtle necks or V-necks, with braids, fretwork, using colours or plain. »
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Neither Fish nor Fowl (Ni chicha ni limoná)

Music piece by:
Víctor Jara
Testimony by:
Joaquín Vallejos
Experience in:
« I was arrested at home together with a childhood friend who they’d gone to pick up first. My family thought he’d stitched me up, which was not true. »
[...]
« There I could hear the women held in the cell in front of ours (they were almost certainly much worse off than we were), singing a song that has stuck in my mind ever since. It was the one that says 'Usted no es ná, no es chicha ni limoná' (You’re nothing, you're neither fish nor fowl). This example of fortitude and commitment helped me to get back on my feet, forget the physical pain and try to help those comrades who were worse off than me. »
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Lament for the Death of Augusto the Dog (Lamento a la muerte del perro Augusto)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
« Augusto the dog (not to be confused with the journalist Augusto Olivares, affectionately nicknamed 'Augusto the Dog', who was murdered in the Presidential Palace on 11 September 1973), was the mascot of the political prisoners held at the Ritoque concentration camp, and accompanied his master when the military junta decided to close that prison and transfer the inmates to the neighbouring Puchuncaví concentration camp. »
[...]
« The soldiers guarding us put up with him, although in truth they couldn’t stand the animal. They never lost an opportunity to show how much they disliked him. The situation became critical for Augusto when the soldiers realised that he had the same name as the dictator. »
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Free (Libre)

Music piece by:
José Luis Armenteros and Pablo Herrero, popularised by Nino Bravo.
Testimony by:
Paicavi Painemal
Experience in:
« 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. »
[...]
« Before getting to the prison of Temuco, they took me in a car to a place that appears to have been the Puente Viejo (Old Bridge) over the river Cautín. I could hear the train passing and the noise of the water. »
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