Testimonies

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


Sadness (Tristeza)

Music piece by:
Hermanos Núñez
Testimony by:
Germán Larrabe
« A very sad song, often performed by parents of young children. »
[Read full testimony]

Published on: 05 March 2015


Saint Gregory’s Tonada (Tonada San Gregorio)

Music piece by:
Pedro Humire Loredo
Testimony by:
Pedro Humire Loredo
« This tonada recalls the horrible situation I was subjected to in the cells of the police station in the San Gregorio district in southern Santiago. »
[Read full testimony]

Published on: 05 January 2015


Shadows (Sombras)

Music piece by:
Rosario Sansores and Carlos Brito Benavides. Popularised in Chile by Lucho Barrios
Testimony by:
Juan Carlos de Luján Peralta Aranguiz
« I arrived in this place as a war prisoner when I was 16 years old. »
[Read full testimony]

Published on: 30 September 2019


Sinner, come to sweet Jesus (Pecador, ven al dulce Jesús)

Music piece by:
Unknown
Testimony by:
anonymous
Experience in:
« One time, a group of male and female evangelicals came to Teja Island to preach. They were taken to the visitors’ yard. »
[Read full testimony]

Published on: 13 January 2018


Song of a Middle-Class Man (Canción de un hombre medio)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
Experience in:
« In our political discussions, we always spoke disdainfully of the middle class. In the view of the Marxist ideologues in prison, that sector of society supported the dictatorship and it was necessary to reverse that trend. »
[Read full testimony]

Published on: 23 September 2015


Song of the Disappeared (Canción del desaparecido)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
Experience in:
« Several of my friends and comrades disappeared after being arrested. The dictatorship denied knowledge of their whereabouts but I knew they were lying. »
[Read full testimony]

Published on: 23 September 2015


Song of the Seed and the Plant (Canción de la semilla y la planta)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
« The history of the seed and the plant, of which this song forms part, was performed as a play to entertain our audience of children during a family visit to the prison. Imagination had no limits when it came to kindling a small flame of hope in our hearts. »
[Read full testimony]

Published on: 23 September 2015


Song to the Pampa (Canto a la pampa)

Music piece by:
poem by Francisco Pezoa Astudillo set to music by Quilapayún
Testimony by:
Renato Alvarado Vidal
Experience in:
« The first song that we managed to sing was Quilapayún's setting of the poem Canto a la Pampa (Song to the Pampa), by the anarchist poet Francisco Pezoa Astudillo, which recounts one of the bloodiest episodes of the class struggle in Chile: the massacre of the Santa María school in Iquique in December 1907. »
[Read full testimony]

Published on: 02 July 2023


South-Eastern Storm (La Sudestada)

Music piece by:
Poni Micharvegas
Testimony by:
Luis Alfredo Muñoz González
Experience in:
« While I was in solitary confinement in Cuatro Álamos, one day I noticed there was a large room at the end of the corridor, which, overnight, the dinos had filled with prisoners. »
[Read full testimony]

Published on: 08 January 2015


St John Passion (Pasión según San Juan)

Music piece by:
Ángel Parra
Testimony by:
Luis Cifuentes Seves
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, January - February 1974
« This song is the third track on the cassette recorded in the Chacabuco concentration camp by the band Los de Chacabuco, formed by Ángel Parra and conducted by him until his release. »
[Read full testimony]

Published on: 13 November 2015