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In prison, there was a guy who played the guitar. He cheered up the afternoons in the cell. We all sang with him.

Among the prisoners, there was a craftsman who built guitars. We played his guitars.

For Christmas, we got permission for our wives and children to come to visit us. We sang 'Noche de Paz', 'Señora Doña María' and 'Arrorró mi niño'.

When our visitors brought food, we would share it with the gendarmes. They were starving. They were conscripted youngsters.

One day, we were singing 'El pueblo unido jamás será vencido' ('The people united will never be defeated') when the cops turned up. We had to change the lyrics to 'El pueblo unido, toma Leche NidoA brand of powdered milk.' ('The people united, drink Nido Milk'). We would laugh at our jokes.

We also changed the lyrics to 'La Muralla' ('The Wall'): instead of 'the colonel’s sabre' we said 'Pinochet’s sabre'.

We sang a lot of songs from the Spanish Civil War, for example, 'Dime dónde vas morena', the Mexican song 'Carabina 3030' and the Argentinian song 'Balderrama'.

We sang them when we already knew that they would not kill us, after a visit from a delegation of the United Nations.

I separated from my wife a year after being imprisoned. One time when we were reunited we remembered the songs from the prison, especially 'Tres blancos lirios' and 'Arrorró'. These were terrible times.

When I listen to 'La Muralla' ('The Wall'), I remember an old Spaniard who was a prisoner with us. He was 70-something years old. Because there were no showers, he would wash with cold water in the sink, and he would say 'I want to die in prison so the stigma of my death falls upon these dogs'. That was the beginning of a campaign that the prisoners ran to have a shower cabin installed.