159 results where found for «Words for Julia»


Lucky Devil (El suertúo)

Music piece by:
Víctor Canto and Luis Cifuentes (lyrics), Roberto Parra (music)
Testimony by:
Luis Cifuentes Seves
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, November 1973 - February 1974
« This cueca was composed at Chacabuco sometime between November 1973 and February 1974 and was sung by Los de Chacabuco, of which Víctor Canto and I were members. »
[...]
« The words might be difficult to understand as they refer to concentration camp culture, making fun of the military with such subtlety that they never understood them. »
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Candombe for José (Candombe para José)

Music piece by:
Roberto Ternán
Testimony by:
Sara De Witt
Experience in:
« We were in Tres Álamos barracks in September 1976. I don’t recall how many of us women were imprisoned there. I believe there were close to a hundred of us. »
[...]
« I entered one of the rooms to gather up the things on the floor and straighten up the place. I found a notebook with the owner’s name on the cover, Guacolda; she had been very meticulous about compiling the words of our songs. I still have the notebook in my house in London, and even though its pages have turned yellow with age, you can still read the lyrics of our songs. That night, dressed in our blue tracksuits, after having a bite to eat, we began to sing again. »
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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. »
[...]
« Then I remembered Sandro’s song "Después de la guerra" and made the following argument: “All of us are prisoners of war, so everyone can relate to this song”. I recited the words and everyone agreed to sing it, so we rehearsed it all day long. »
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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
« 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. »
[...]
« So we transcribed the song. That was difficult because we listened to the song on a small cassette. Then we analysed its words, phrase by phrase over a couple of days. We listened to it over and over again. »
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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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They Say the Homeland Is (Dicen que la patria es)

Music piece by:
Chicho Sánchez Ferlosio
Testimony by:
Sergio Reyes Soto
Experience in:
« 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 later Quilapayún, introduced “Dicen que la patria es” (or “Canción de soldados”) to Chile. »
[...]
« I sang this song often because it accurately described our situation. The words plead to soldiers not to fire against their own people. Rarely did this occur in Chile, but we shared our prisoners’ barracks, called Remo, with three members of the Air Force. »
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Priests and Soldiers (Curas y milicos)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
« 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. »
[...]
« Songs are good for releasing a singer from tempestuous doubts and allowing him to denounce injustice openly, with no qualms. In other words, the way things are painted when we see the world in black and white. Joking aside, the positive medicinal effect of music therapy is undeniable. Beyond the value that a songwriter gives a song or that others may give, I think songwriting was a discovery that helped me, above all, to give meaning to my life as a prisoner. »
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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. »
[...]
« At the time, I understood that my road to freedom would be a bit longer than that of the comrades who simply walked out the prison gates. My prison sentence had been commuted to deportation from Chile. Exile. In other words, I would have to board a plane and fly several hours before landing in freedom. »
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King Ñaca Ñaca (El rey Ñaca Ñaca)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Renato Alvarado Vidal
Experience in:
« During the last third of the 20th century, the concentration camps of the Chilean dictatorship were characterised by a high grade of organisation among prisoners, as well as the overflowing creativity they applied to all areas of human ingenuity. »
[...]
«  A play on the words 'uniforme' (uniform) and 'infierno' (inferno). »
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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. »
[...]
« watered with your blood, Julián Grimao. »
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