Testimonies

Testimonies are sorted by publication date, showing the newest first.
Click on to sort by witness, to sort alphabetically by musical piece title, to sort by publication date, or to use advanced filters.

Priests and Soldiers (Curas y milicos)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Melinka, Puchuncaví, 1975
Tags:
« 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. »
[Read full testimony]

Published on: 23 September 2015

Captain, our Destiny is a Wandering Island (Capitán, el rumbo es una isla errante)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Melinka, Puchuncaví, 1975
Tags:
« 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. »
[Read full testimony]

Published on: 23 September 2015

King Ñaca Ñaca (El rey Ñaca Ñaca)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Melinka, Puchuncaví, 1975
Tags:
« 'Ñaca-ñaca' was an interjection we used at Camp Melinka whenever we wanted to signal and poke fun at any dark thought that might cross our minds. That may be why it seemed the ideal name to give to the paper maché puppet that played the role of the mean king in the puppet stories we performed to entertain the children who came to visit their captive fathers. »
[Read full testimony]

Published on: 23 September 2015

That General (Ese General)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
Experience in:
Cárcel de Valparaíso, 1976
Tags:
« 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. »
[Read full testimony]

Published on: 23 September 2015

They Say the Homeland Is (Dicen que la patria es)

Music piece by:
Chicho Sánchez Ferlosio
Testimony by:
Sergio Reyes Soto
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Isla Dawson, 1973 - 1974
Tags:
« 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. »
[Read full testimony]

Published on: 07 September 2015

The Salamander (La salamanca)

Music piece by:
Arturo Dávalos
Testimony by:
Luis Cifuentes Seves
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, January - February 1974
Tags:
« A salamanca is a type of salamander that lives in caves in northern Argentina. By extension, it also represents the cave. In this song, the lyricist turns the salamanca into a place where a coven of witches gathers. »
[Read full testimony]

Published on: 01 September 2015

To Be Seventeen Again (Volver a los diecisiete)

Music piece by:
Violeta Parra
Testimony by:
Gabriela Durand
Experience in:
Recinto CNI, Cuartel Central Borgoño, 1980
Tags:
« 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. »
[Read full testimony]

Published on: 01 September 2015

You Can Blame Me (Échame a mí la culpa)

Music piece by:
José Ángel Espinoza, aka Ferrusquillo
Testimony by:
Marcia Scantlebury
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Cuatro Álamos, June 1975
Tags:
« 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. »
[Read full testimony]

Published on: 28 August 2015

Let’s Break the Morning (Rompamos la mañana)

Music piece by:
René “Popeye” Cárdenas Eugenin
Testimony by:
María Soledad Ruiz Ovando
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Isla Dawson, 1973 - 1974
Tags:
« Music was very important for us (my mother Sylvia, my sister Alejandra and myself) while my dad, Daniel Ruiz Oyarzo, 'el Negro Ruiz', was imprisoned during the dictatorship, when Alejandra was seven and I was four. »
[Read full testimony]

Published on: 30 July 2015

May the Omelette Flip Over (Que la tortilla se vuelva)

Music piece by:
Chicho Sánchez Ferlosio. Popularized by Quilapayún
Testimony by:
Claudio Melgarejo
Experience in:
Comisaría de Concepción, November 1973
Tags:
« I spent a week in captivity, in November 1973. I didn’t hear many songs, but the most popular ones sung by my comrades were 'Venceremos' (We Shall be Victorious) and 'Que la tortilla se vuelva' (May the Omelette Flip Over), also known as 'The Tomato Song', which portrays the bosses' exploitation of the workers. »
[Read full testimony]

Published on: 13 July 2015