For the Guy Who's Leaving

Music piece by:
Alfredo Zitarrosa
Testimony by:
Luis Cifuentes Seves
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, November – April 1974

Marcelo Concha Bascuñán, a member of the Los de Chacabuco band, was a young man of great charisma and personal skills. He had been a swimming champion and was an outstanding guitarist and singer.

In the Chacabuco concentration camp, he was renowned for his charm, excellent mood and spirit of collaboration. He taught songs to many of his colleagues, including myself, although I should note that I could never pluck the guitar as well as him.

Marcelo was released from Chacabuco in April 1974. He was arrested again, and he is missing to this date.

Victims remembered in this testimony:

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Published on: 12 January 2015


Don’t forget the payment
if you go up to the city
however far you go
the more you need to remember.

It’s true that there are many things
one can forget
but some are oversights
and others are just things.

Don’t place in your suitcase
what you’re never going to use
the roads are too long
to travel them overburdened.

Now that you’re a young man
and smoke like everyone else
never change to straw
even if you have nothing to smoke.

And if you feel sad
when you look back
don’t forget that the road
is for those who come and those who go.

Don’t forget the payment
if you go up to the city
however far you go
the more you need to remember.
However far you go
the more you need to remember.