188 results where found for «Today I Sing Just for the Sake of Singing»


Return, Return (Volver, volver)

Music piece by:
Fernando Z. Maldonado. Popularised by Vicente Fernández
Testimony by:
Jorge Montealegre Iturra
« At the Chacabucan artistic shows, Hugo sang tangos, including 'Volver' (Return) by Gardel and Le Pera. »
[...]
« Back then, when he performed on the prison camp stage, he sang it mischievously and a sense of dark humour. This was expressed not only because of the real possibility of returning to the prison, but also by the gestures he made when singing 'Voy camino a la locura y aunque todo me tortura…' ('I’m on the road to madness and still everything tortures me...'). »
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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. »
[...]
« From what I remember, he was a music teacher and they allowed him to keep the instrument. In the band, we also played the bombo and the charango. I accompanied by singing. »
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We Shall Prevail (Venceremos)

Music piece by:
Claudio Iturra (lyrics) and Sergio Ortega (music)
Testimony by:
Lucía Chirinos
Experience in:
« The parish priest at Buen Pastor played the accordion. He played so beautifully. Because I played the piano, I asked him if I could borrow it. 'I'll lend it to you' he said. »
[...]
« I quickly started playing the first chords of the National Anthem. We were singing loudly 'How pure, Chile, is your blue sky'. We sang with force and courage. »
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Amalia Rosa

Music piece by:
Tino Carrasco
Testimony by:
Luis Cifuentes Seves
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, November 1973 - February 1974
« Los de Chacabuco, a band founded and conducted by Ángel Parra, performed this Venezuelan folk song, in the style of a joropo, singing it at the weekly prison camp show. I dare say it was one of the favourite songs of the audience, comprised of political prisoners. »
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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. »
[...]
« Meanwhile, we continued in the middle of the belly of the beast, embroidering and singing our song that later, much later, became our anthem: 'Otros esperan que resistas, que les ayude tu alegría, que les ayude tu canción, entre sus canciones. Nunca te entregues, ni te apartes, junto al camino, nunca digas no puedo más y aquí me quedo, y aquí me quedo' (Others expect you to resist, that your joy helps them, that your song helps them among their songs. Never give in or turn away, stay on the path, never say I can’t go on anymore, and here I stay, here I stay). »
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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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Alfonsina and the Sea (Alfonsina y el mar)

Music piece by:
Félix Luna (lyrics) and Ariel Ramírez (music). Popularised by Mercedes Sosa.
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
Experience in:
Villa Grimaldi, January 1975
« It was not easy to endure being locked up in one of Villa Grimaldi’s miserable cells, which resembled vertical coffins. It was even harder in the high temperatures of the summer months of the Andes foothills in Peñalolén. I was inside one of those cells, blindfolded, my feet and hands in chains. »
[...]
« All of a sudden, I heard the metal gate that separated us from the rest of the facility unexpectedly open and the guard asking who was singing. To avoid collective punishment, I knocked on the door from inside my “coffin cell” and identified myself as the singer. The guard, who I could not see, opened the cell door and stood in front of me. 'Nice song', he said. 'Sing it again'. »
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Beloved Friend (Amado amigo)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
« 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. »
[...]
« Paper boat (barco de papel): We had a habit of wishing farewell to our comrades who were released or about to be transferred to other prisons. People who were not fortunate enough to be included in the group would gather around those who were about to leave, a ritual that sometimes included singing Julio Numhausser’s beautiful song 'El barco de papel'. The first verse goes like this: 'Se va el barco de papel por el mar de la esperanza, llevando un montón de sueños y los niños no lo alcanzan. Se va, se va y no volverá. Se va, se va a la libertad.' (The paper boat sails to a sea of hope, carrying dreams and children can’t reach it. There it goes, there it goes, and it will never return. There it goes, there it goes to freedom.). »
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Three White Lilies (Tres blancos lirios)

Music piece by:
Unknown composer. This song probably relates to European early-years pedagogy.
Testimony by:
Domingo Lizama
Experience in:
« They arrested me at my workplace in October 1973 . I was 31 years old and worked as a porter at a logging business in Chumpullo, near Valdivia. »
[...]
« One time, the prison authorities brought in a singing teacher to form and conduct a choir. He was not a prisoner. »
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You Can Blame Me (Échame a mí la culpa)

Music piece by:
José Ángel Espinoza, aka Ferrusquillo
Testimony by:
Marcia Scantlebury
« 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. »
[...]
« Since Miriam also liked music, one of the activities we planned was to spend the afternoons singing. On a piece of toilet paper I copied down the words to the song 'Échame a mí la culpa', so she could learn it and then we could sing it together. »
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