Testimonies

Testimonies are sorted by publication date, showing the newest first.
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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. »
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Published on: 23 September 2015

King Ñaca Ñaca (El rey Ñaca Ñaca)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Renato Alvarado Vidal
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Melinka, Puchuncaví, May - October 1975
Tags:
« 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. »
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Published on: 26 April 2020

La Adelita

Music piece by:
Unknown
Testimony by:
Luis Cifuentes Seves
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, January – February 1974
Tags:
« This is another song that was performed by the band Los de Chacabuco and was sung in the prisoners’ weekly show. It’s a very old Mexican song that was popular in Chile. »
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Published on: 11 November 2015

La López Pereyra

Music piece by:
Artidorio Cresseri
Testimony by:
Germán Larrabe
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Melinka, Puchuncaví, 1974 - 1976
Tags:
« This zamba was the first song we tried to perform in Puchuncaví, with a group made up of prisoners transferred from Chacabuco Detention Camp together with us, newly arrived 'puchuncas'. »
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Published on: 05 March 2015

Lament for the Death of Augusto the Dog (Lamento a la muerte del perro Augusto)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Melinka, Puchuncaví, 1975
Tags:
« Augusto the dog (not to be confused with the journalist Augusto Olivares, affectionately nicknamed 'Augusto the Dog', who was murdered in the Presidential Palace on 11 September 1973), was the mascot of the political prisoners held at the Ritoque concentration camp, and accompanied his master when the military junta decided to close that prison and transfer the inmates to the neighbouring Puchuncaví concentration camp. »
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Published on: 22 June 2015

Las mañanitas

Music piece by:
Manuel M. Ponce
Testimony by:
Beatriz Bataszew Contreras
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros, Tres Álamos, December 1974 - May 1976
Tags:
« To every comrade who had a birthday, we would sing 'Las mañanitas' and we would give them presents. The majority of the female prisoners would come together and sing to you. I spent one birthday in prison. Birthdays were important for everyone because we were alive. »
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Published on: 08 November 2016

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. »
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Published on: 30 July 2015

Lili Marlene

Music piece by:
Hans Leip
Testimony by:
Rogelio Felipe Castillo Acevedo
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Melinka, Puchuncaví, November 1974
Tags:
« We were forced to belt out these marching songs. »
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Published on: 12 January 2015

Lili Marlene

Music piece by:
Hans Leip
Testimony by:
Renato Alvarado Vidal
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Melinka, Puchuncaví, May - Octobre 1975
Tags:
« During the daily flag-lowering ritual in the camp Melinka, the prisoners first had to get into formation in the courtyard and then walk in line to the location of the mast. »
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Published on: 26 April 2020

Little Doctors (Doctorcitos)

Music piece by:
unknown. Folk tune from the Andes highlands
Testimony by:
Luis Cifuentes Seves
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, January - February 1974
Tags:
« Agreeing to a suggestion from Ricardo, Los de Chacabuco learned and arranged this tune. In the Andean high plateau, the tune is a satirical reference to lawyers and, by implication, to civil servants. It is performed at carnival time. »
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Published on: 09 April 2015