Cantos Cautivos
383 results where found for «To Sing by Improvising»
- Music piece by:Sergio Vesely
- Testimony by:Sergio Vesely
- Experience in:
- Tags:
- « This song, written in my cell at the Puchuncaví Prison Camp, speaks to a friend and fellow prisoner; it could be any one of the thousands behind bars. »
- [...]
- « Aimless strolls (caminatas sin destino): Nothing was more characteristic of life in the detention camps and jails than people who strolled alone or with another person in the corridors, halls, prison yard or in a cell. No observer could suppress a smirk upon watching the incongruous bustle to nowhere, changing direction upon nearing a wall or a barbed-wire fence. This ritual encouraged interpersonal relationships. We didn't go to the movies with a friend. Instead, we would take an aimless stroll to nowhere, which was also the safest 'place' for sharing information and to unleash the imagination without the risk of being overheard by some snoop. »
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- Music piece by:Sergio Vesely
- Testimony by:Sergio Vesely
- Experience in:Anexo Cárcel Capuchinos, 1976
- Tags:
- « This song is a tribute to Miguel Enríquez, Secretary-General of the
MIR , who was gunned down by a commando of the dictatorship’s secret police on 5 October 1974. »- [Read full testimony]
The Brief Space Where You Are Absent (El breve espacio en que no estás)
- Music piece by:Pablo Milanés
- Testimony by:Vilma Rojas Toledo
- Experience in:Cárcel de Coronel, 1986 - 1988
- Tags:
- « I recall that during my time as a political prisoner,
Pablo Milanés was one of our greatest companions. His songs filled us with life, helped us to keep breathing and living behind the bars imposed by Pinochet’s military dictatorship. »- [Read full testimony]
- Music piece by:Julio Numhauser, popularised by the band Amerindios
- Testimony by:José Selín Carrasco Vargas
- Experience in:
- Tags:
- « While we were imprisoned in Melinka, this song was sung every time that one of us was released. I remember a fellow prisoner nicknamed Bigote Molina (Moustache Molina) singing the song when we were going to Tres Álamos, from where we would be released a few days later. »
- [...]
- « It was exciting to hear the song when we said goodbye to someone, and even more when it was our turn. »
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- Music piece by:José Ángel Espinoza, aka Ferrusquillo
- Testimony by:Marcia Scantlebury
- Experience in:Campamento de Prisioneros Cuatro Álamos, June 1975
- Tags:
- « Mexican songs - and this one in particular - have always moved me. When I shared a cell with Miriam Silva, a young woman who belonged to the Communist Youth, arrested by the DINA when she was handing out leaflets on the street, we killed time in an organised fashion to keep ourselves from getting depressed and overcome by anxiety due to an unknown fate. »
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- Music piece by:Chicho Sánchez Ferlosio
- Testimony by:Sergio Reyes Soto
- Experience in:Campamento de Prisioneros Isla Dawson, 1973 - 1974
- Tags:
- « This song, like so many others, was not at all “captive”. The revolutionary songs we sang behind bars imbued us with a sense of freedom.
Rolando Alarcón , and laterQuilapayún , introduced “Dicen que la patria es” (or “Canción de soldados”) to Chile. »- [...]
- « Freedom songs travelled with those who sang them. This song travelled from Pudeto Military Base in Punta Arenas, to Dawson Island, to the Municipal Stadium occupied by the Air Force, and then to the Punta Arenas Jail. However, I don’t recall singing it much at the Cochrane Military Base next to Los Ciervos River, to the south of Punta Arenas. »
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- Music piece by:Manuel José Castilla (lyrics) and Gustavo Leguizamón (music). Popularised by Mercedes Sosa
- Testimony by:Eduardo Ojeda
- Experience in:
- Tags:
- « We arrived at Camp Compingin on Dawson Island on the afternoon of
11 September . We knew that we had been arrested that morning, and we knew nothing else yet. »- [...]
- « (1908-1973) Socialist president of Chile from 1970 to 1973. He was overthrown by Augusto Pinochet’s military forces in 1973. »
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- Music piece by:Sergio Vesely
- Testimony by:Sergio Vesely
- Experience in:
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- « 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: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:Renato Alvarado Vidal
- Experience in:
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- « Once upon a time, there was a good little wolf. … No. That’s another story. »
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- « Once he was left alone and recovered the use of his hands, the first thing he did was open that window. At that moment the warm air of Santiago's autumn came into the cell at the same time as the 'Ode to Joy', casually intoned by the prisoners of the adjacent prison section. »
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- Music piece by:Unknown
- Testimony by:Luis Cifuentes Seves
- Experience in:Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, January – February 1974
- Tags:
- « This is another song that was performed by the band Los de Chacabuco and was sung in the prisoners’ weekly show. It’s a very old Mexican song that was popular in Chile. »
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- « It used to be performed in the compound set up by the prisoners and rehearsed at Los de Chacabuco's venue in the so-called Civic District. Along with the other songs recovered from the historic cassette, this one was also recorded in the group’s aforementioned venue. »
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- « We arrived at Camp Compingin on Dawson Island on the afternoon of
- « This song, like so many others, was not at all “captive”. The revolutionary songs we sang behind bars imbued us with a sense of freedom.
- « I recall that during my time as a political prisoner,
- « This song is a tribute to Miguel Enríquez, Secretary-General of the