162 results where found for «What Will the Holy Father Say»


To Be Seventeen Again (Volver a los diecisiete)

Music piece by:
Violeta Parra
Testimony by:
Gabriela Durand
« I was 18, and already I had been tortured on the parrilla several times. One day I was with some other comrade prisoners, and as sometimes happened, the guards put some music on. »
[...]
« With that mixture of fear, of wondering what would happen if you didn’t sing, afraid of being out of tune, of how your voice was going to project, of not knowing if you were going to be told off, and of knowing that in any case, they were laughing at you - the fear of ridicule. It was like torture - an intense form of it. »
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Captain, our Destiny is a Wandering Island (Capitán, el rumbo es una isla errante)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
« This song was dedicated to Óscar Castro, whom I was lucky enough to meet in 1975, in Puchuncaví. With his experience in theatre – Óscar was already a fairly well-known actor before his arrest – he threw himself into the cultural work we had organised, in what was then called “Camp Melinka” where the prisoners presented a show every Friday. »
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That General (Ese General)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
Experience in:
« The night of 24 March 1976, the residents of cell 198 hardly slept. We hadn’t slept on account of a long, heated discussion about the prospects of revolution in Latin America’s Southern Cone. »
[...]
« What had ignited our discussion was clear: that day we heard the news about the military coup in neighbouring Argentina. »
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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. »
[...]
« It is hard to express what we felt upon reading the official notice informing us of the good news. From that moment on, our only thoughts were about our future beyond the prison walls: the imprisonment chapter of our lives was drawing to a close. We were about to be born again. »
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A Finger-Picked Cueca from a Solidary Companion (Cueca punteada de un solidario)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
« It is true that the hard experience of torture and prison unified us and at times even generated strong ties of friendship among the prisoners. »
[...]
« I wrote this song while at Camp Melinka, thinking openly about our flaws. Thinking about the double standards that ruled our daily behaviour: talking about love on one hand and feeding hatred on the other. Thinking about how far we were from living what we preached every day: to live together in equality, in peace, in brotherhood and in solidarity with everyone. »
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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. »
[...]
« Every minute, every day represented a victory of one more day over death and the desire to cling to life. This is part of what thousands of comrades had to live through in different circumstances of their lives. »
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Prayer So You Don't Forget Me (Oración para que no me olvides)

Music piece by:
Óscar Castro (words) and Ariel Arancibia González (music)
Testimony by:
Rosalía Martínez
Experience in:
« When Katia Chornik contacted me a few years ago asking me to provide my testimony about my musical experience in prison, I thought I didn’t have much to say. »
[...]
« Some of those songs have remained in my memory as an indelible mark of those times, and on the whole, I cannot or do not want to sing them. I would like to tell you about one of those songs, which I never knew what it was called nor its author, nor did I ever try to find out. It was taught to us by Cecilia Bojanic, a young 23-year-old woman who was a member of MIR and who had been arrested together with her husband Flavio Oyarzún. »
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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. »
[...]
« In Cochrane, the marines were really ignorant about music. More than once Lanfranco sang 'Te recuerdo Amanda' (I remember you, Amanda). The marines had no idea what they were listening to. »
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The Prisoner of Til Til (El cautivo de Til Til)

Music piece by:
Patricio Manns
Testimony by:
Renato Alvarado Vidal
« I arrived at Tres Álamos on the eve of the departure for Mexico with a large group of prisoners. The group included Dr. Ipinza, who before leaving entrusted me with the job of physician, the medicine donated by the Red Cross, and his position in the Council of Elders. »
[...]
« Through the open door, which had been left open, I could see Toluca flat on his back in a corner, in the middle of all the debris, and he was saying to Pacheco, “What a mighty right hook, Commander!” while the police officer stupidly gazed at his own fist and the damage it had caused, trying to fathom how he had caused such destruction. »
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Melody by Jorge Peña Hen

Music piece by:
Jorge Peña Hen
Testimony by:
Eliseo González
Experience in:
Cárcel de la Serena, October 1973
« Jorge Peña Hen was in solitary confinement that day. I don’t know how, but someone brought him matches. With his saliva, he made ink from the phosphorus tips, which he then used to write a score of music on a scrap of paper. »
[...]
« Keep in mind that the prisoners included farmworkers, miners and intellectuals. So if you put on classical music for an old guy from the hills, he would say 'What’s that?' Or, if you played corridos for the intellectuals or pseudo-intellectuals, they might not like it much. »
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