Love Song for a Disappeared Woman (Canción de amor a una desaparecida)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Melinka, Puchuncaví, 1975

Daniela was the political codename of María Cecilia Labrín, a member of the MIR(Revolutionary Left Movement) Left-wing political organisation founded in 1965 at the Univ. of Concepción.. Agents of the DINA(National Intelligence Directorate) Secret police of Pinochet’s dictatorship between 1974 and 1977. arrested her at her home on Latadía Street in Santiago in August 1974. She has never been seen again.

In my cell, I wrote this song dedicated to the memory of Daniela, I mean, of Cecilia...

Victims remembered in this testimony:

Tags:

Published on: 22 June 2015

Daniela in pain
bell without a toll
a lamp in its sleep
regret of the waves.
Bearer of algae
from a hidden sea,
messenger immersed
in a wounded body.

In her eyes dwelt
an emerald green
and a blue butterfly
dwelt on her lips.
From her womb flies out
misted-over love,
returns to the scents
a condemned wind.

Watch over her journey,
you bedecked sun.
Keep her from the cold,
you slumberous moon.
Land of shadow,
water of life,
build for her a shelter
beyond forgetting.


Related testimonies:

  • Lament for the Death of Augusto the Dog (Lamento a la muerte del perro Augusto)  Sergio Vesely, Campamento de Prisioneros Melinka, Puchuncaví, 1975

    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.

  • Ode to Joy (Himno a la alegría)  Luis Madariaga, Cárcel de Valparaíso, 1974 - 1976

    In prison, we would sing the 'Ode to Joy' when a comrade was released or sent to exile.

  • 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.

  • Today Was Visitors’ Day (Hoy fue día de visitas)  Sergio Vesely, Cárcel de Valparaíso, 1976

    Visitors’ day was an exceptional day that broke the monotonous routine of all the other days of the week.

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