Cantos Cautivos

We Shall Prevail (Venceremos)

Music piece by:

Claudio Iturra (lyrics) and Sergio Ortega (music)

Testimony by:

María Cecilia Marchant Rubilar

Experience in:

Cárcel de Mujeres Buen Pastor, La Serena, September 1973 - January 1974

Tags:

« I was studying to be a chemistry teacher at the University of Chile in La Serena. I was 21 years old when I was arrested. I think I was picked up due to a specific fact. I was regularly sent copies of the El Rebelde newspaper by train, in order to distribute them in parts of Region IV. »

[...]

« a thousand chains we will have to break »

Errant Wind (Viento errante)

Music piece by:

Patricio Hermosilla Vives

Testimony by:

Patricio Hermosilla Vives

Experience in:

Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, January 1974

Tags:

« Finally, in the Chacabuco Concentration Camp, after three days aboard the Policarpo Toro (a war ship which had an uncertain destination since sailing from Valparaíso in December 1973; the question was not when and where we would dock, but how we would fall overboard), I felt that death had decided to take a step back and watch from me from a little further away. »

[...]

« I will call myself wind and live within you »

« 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. »

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

Tags:

[...]

« I will rocket away. »

« The Puchuncaví detention camp’s daily routine included mandatory participation in the ceremonies of raising and taking down the Chilean flag on the flagpole at the entrance to the camp. »

Music piece by:

Eusebio Lillo and Ramón Carnicer

Testimony by:

Boris Chornik Aberbuch

Experience in:

Campamento de Prisioneros Melinka, Puchuncaví, March 1975

Tags:

[...]

« I was detained in Panguipulli on 24 September 1973, along with 17 other young people. I was a high school student. I was also working at the forestry and logging company of Huilo Huilo, which had been taken over by the working class. »

Music piece by:

Eusebio Lillo and Ramón Carnicer

Testimony by:

anonymous

Experience in:

Cárcel de Valdivia / Cárcel de Isla Teja, September 1973

Tags:

[...]

« The Puchuncaví Prisoners Camp had a daily routine similar to that of military regiments. In a ridiculous ceremony, the flag was raised every morning at dawn and then it was taken down at nightfall. »

Music piece by:

Eusebio Lillo and Ramón Carnicer

Testimony by:

Sergio Vesely

Experience in:

Campamento de Prisioneros Melinka, Puchuncaví, 1975

Tags:

[...]

« 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. »

Music piece by:

Eusebio Lillo and Ramón Carnicer

Testimony by:

Eduardo Ojeda

Experience in:

Campamento de Prisioneros Isla Dawson, September 1973

Tags:

[...]

Story of the Chair (Historia de la silla)

Music piece by:

Silvio Rodríguez

Testimony by:

Eduardo Andrés Arancibia Ortiz

Experience in:

Cárcel de Santiago, 1990

Tags:

« This was one of the songs Silvio Rodríguez sang to us the day he visited the political prisoners in Santiago’s Public Jail in 1990. »

[...]

« He who has a song will have storm »

« A very sad song, often performed by parents of young children. »

Sadness (Tristeza)

Music piece by:

Hermanos Núñez

Testimony by:

Germán Larrabe

Experience in:

Campamento de Prisioneros Melinka, Puchuncaví, 1974 -1976

Tags:

[...]

« Go to sleep and I will cover you. »