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


What Will the Holy Father Say (Qué dirá el Santo Padre)

Music piece by:
Violeta Parra
Testimony by:
María Cecilia Marchant Rubilar
Experience in:
Cárcel de Mujeres Buen Pastor, La Serena, September 1973 - January 1974
« We sang songs that were popular at the time. We’d sing 'What will the Holy Father say', especially the part that says 'What will the Holy Father who lives in Rome say ... they are slitting the throat of his dove...' quite often, for example when someone was taken off to Regimiento Arica, which was a torture centre. »
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The Scholar (El letrado)

Music piece by:
Quelentaro (Gastón and Eduardo Guzmán)
Testimony by:
Luis Cifuentes Seves
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, November 1973 – February 1974
« From the first time I heard it, I was impressed by the way the duo Quelentaro sang this song, which was also written by them. When I sang it, I always tried to sing it in their style. I never sang it on stage, only for myself or for small groups of friends strumming guitars together. »
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How We Resemble Each Other (En qué nos parecemos)

Music piece by:
Unknown. Popularised by Quilapayún
Testimony by:
Luis Cifuentes Seves
Experience in:
« During the 1960s, the group Quilapayún popularised this old Spanish song in Chile. Víctor Canto and I performed it as a duet in Santiago’s National Stadium, which had been converted into a concentration, torture and extermination camp. »
[...]
« Whenever the military allowed us to do so, we would sing it in the locker rooms where we slept, and in the grandstands where we spent much of the day. »
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Answer Me

Music piece by:
Fred Rauch (lyrics) and Gerhard Winkler (music). English lyrics by Carl Sigman. Recorded by Frankie Laine.
Testimony by:
Luis Cifuentes Seves
Experience in:
« I sang this song, as a soloist, in the dressing rooms of the National Stadium. »
[...]
« This happened when the soldiers allowed artistic performances to take place in the converted dressing rooms while we waited our turn to be interrogated or after returning from interrogations. These were often torture sessions. »
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To Sing by Improvising (Pa’ cantar de un improviso)

Music piece by:
Violeta Parra
Testimony by:
Claudio Durán Pardo
« We made a Venezuelan cuatro from a large plank of wood attached to one of the walls of the "ranch" where we ate. »
[...]
« After much work, help and dedication we built a cuatro from that plank of wood, with the assistance of another prisoner who had some experience as a luthier. So we finally had a brand new, captivating and captive cuatro, to sing to the three hundred souls of Puchuncaví. »
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Captive Quena (Quena cautiva)

Music piece by:
Claudio Durán Pardo
Testimony by:
Claudio Durán Pardo
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros, Tres Álamos, September - December 1975
« I first laid my hands on a quena when I was nine years old. It was resplendently fragile and lyrical. My passion for this instrument was immediate, or rather, the quena chose me. »
[...]
« Perhaps some of those who were with me will remember that, in the evening, almost at sunset, I made the quena sing in the Tres Álamos concentration camp. The laconic guards who watched me from the towers were unable to decipher the contraband of symbols which, driven by the wind, flew freely to the captive ears of the Women’s Pavilion. »
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Lili Marlene

Music piece by:
Hans Leip
Testimony by:
Rogelio Felipe Castillo Acevedo
« We were forced to belt out these marching songs. »
[...]
« When they realised what was causing our lack of coordination, they left that comrade out of the marches. »
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The Internationale

Music piece by:
Eugène Pottier (lyrics) and Pierre Degeyter (music). Popularised by Quilapayún in Chile in the 1970s.
Testimony by:
Ana María Jiménez
Experience in:
Villa Grimaldi, April 1975
« In April 1975, the triumph of Vietnam was celebrated. We heard about it through a comrade who went to the bathroom and found a piece of the week’s newspaper. It was so beautiful for us to be there, having shouted so often for Vietnam at demonstrations. »
[...]
« The guards arrived and started shouting 'what is happening here?', kicking about. We managed to sing two or three verses. This was another example of music in conditions of extreme oppression. »
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Zamba of my Hope (Zamba de mi esperanza)

Music piece by:
Luis H. Profili
Testimony by:
Edgardo Carabantes Olivares
« Horacio Carabantes Olivares, my brother, was locked up in January 1975 at the Maipo regiment of Valparaíso, with a large group of male and female prisoners, all arrested by the DINA. »
[...]
« Some of the survivors have told this story, stressing the significance of that action by Horacio, who in the midst of interrogation and torture did not lose his nerve but took the opportunity to give his comrades a sign of hope. »
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Little Doctors (Doctorcitos)

Music piece by:
unknown. Folk tune from the Andes highlands
Testimony by:
Luis Cifuentes Seves
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, January - February 1974
« Agreeing to a suggestion from Ricardo, Los de Chacabuco learned and arranged this tune. In the Andean high plateau, the tune is a satirical reference to lawyers and, by implication, to civil servants. It is performed at carnival time. »
[...]
« The most important thing for us when we were rehearsing and recording was the memory of our great and admired friend Marcelo Concha: we did it as a homage to him. It was a labour of friendship and respect. »
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