Return, Return (Volver, volver)

Music piece by:
Fernando Z. Maldonado. Popularised by Vicente Fernández
Testimony by:
Jorge Montealegre Iturra
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, 1974

At the Chacabucan artistic shows, Hugo sang tangos, including 'Volver' (Return) by Gardel and Le Pera.

This caused a lot of self-ironic laughter when he sang  'que veinte años no es nada' (twenty years is nothing) given our situation of uncertainty in which no one knew how long we’d be imprisoned.

He also sang this tango during a farewell party for a group of comrades who were going to be released. To think of returning was tragicomic. And yet, four decades later, we returned. Of our own free will.

But 40 years is not nothing: it’s a long time. And 'Volver' is much more than a tango. In September 2013, we remembered the fortieth anniversary of the coup and the death of Salvador Allende(1908-1973) Socialist president of Chile from 1970 to 1973. He was overthrown by Augusto Pinochet’s military forces in 1973.. It was then that the journey began.

Names, ironies, places, omissions. After visiting the house where he lived as a prisoner, now filled with the ghosts of the past, like all the other houses there, Pollito Fonseca went to the theatre and sang one of his hits: the Mexican song 'Volver, volver' ('Return, Return') by Fernando Z. Maldonado(1917-1996) Mexican composer known for his songs in ranchera style..

Guitar in hand, Pollito once again sang about returning, literally, 40 years later.

Back then, when he performed on the prison camp stage, he sang it mischievously and a sense of dark humour. This was expressed not only because of the real possibility of returning to the prison, but also by the gestures he made when singing 'Voy camino a la locura y aunque todo me tortura…' ('I’m on the road to madness and still everything tortures me...').

At that point in the song, the entire captive audience would laugh at a verse that was not just funny but also bold: the word 'torture' was accusatory and symbolised our story prior to being taken to Chacabuco.


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Published on: 06 January 2015

This passionate love
is all excited
to return.
I'm on the path to madness
and still everything tortures me
I know how to love.

We left each other some time ago
but the time arrived to lose
you were quite right
I will obey my heart
and I'm dying to return.

And return, return, return
to your arms again
I'll go wherever you are
I know how to lose, I know how to lose
I want to return, return, return.

We left each other some time ago
but the time arrived to lose
you were quite right
I will obey my heart
and I'm dying to return.

And return, return, return
to your arms again
I'll go wherever you are
I know how to lose, I know how to lose
I want to return, return, return.

Related testimonies:

  • Blue Eyes (Ojos azules)  Luis Cifuentes Seves, Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, January – February 1974

    This is the last track on the cassette recorded by the band Los de Chacabuco in the concentration camp; it was digitised in 2015.

  • The Crux of the Matter (La madre del cordero)  Servando Becerra Poblete, Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, 9 November 1973 - 10 November 1974

    I recited this poem in the National Stadium. I continued to do so in the Chacabuco prison camp, earning the nickname of “Venancio” from my fellow prisoners.

  • The Crux of the Matter (La madre del cordero)  Servando Becerra Poblete, Campamento de Prisioneros, Estadio Nacional, 9 November 1973 - 10 November 1974

    I recited this poem in the National Stadium. I continued to do so in the Chacabuco prison camp, earning the nickname of “Venancio” from my fellow prisoners.

  • How We Resemble Each Other (En qué nos parecemos)  Luis Cifuentes Seves, Campamento de Prisioneros, Estadio Nacional, September - November 1973

    During the 1960s, the group Quilapayún popularised this old Spanish song in Chile. Víctor Canto and I performed it as a duet in Santiago’s National Stadium, which had been converted into a concentration, torture and extermination camp.

  • Chacabuco’s Soul (Alma de Chacabuco)  Luis Cifuentes Seves, Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, November - December 1973

    This is the original version of a composition by Ángel Parra at Chacabuco, as secretly recorded at the prison camp during his farewell concert. The composer’s voice can be heard.

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