National Anthem of Chile

Music piece by:
Eusebio Lillo and Ramón Carnicer
Testimony by:
anonymous
Experience in:
Cárcel de Valdivia / Cárcel de Isla Teja, September 1973

I was detained in Panguipulli on 24 September 1973, along with 17 other young people. I was a high school student. I was also working at the forestry and logging company of Huilo Huilo, which had been taken over by the working class.

We were tortured for two or three days at the police station of Panguipulli. They left me unconscious.

Then they took us to a police station in Valdivia. In the stables they took our names and addresses, and then sent us to the prison on Teja Island.

In the prison, one of the prisoners spent night and day in a dungeon. Despite being in solitary confinement, he would open his window and sing the National Anthem at full blast.

We all went outside to have a look, even the guards. The prisoner didn’t sing the verse about the brave soldiers, out of protest I imagine. He sang for about four days. After that, we heard nothing more about him.


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Published on: 13 January 2018

Pure Chile is your blue sky
pure breezes cross over you too
and your field of embroidered flowers
is the happy copy of Eden.

Majestic is the white mountain
that the Lord gave you for bulwark
and that sea that serenely bathes you
promises the splendour to come.

[Your names, courageous soldiers
who have been the pillar of Chile
are engraved on our breasts
our children will know it too.]The Pinochet regime reinstated this stanza, which had previously been in disuse for a long time. It was removed again when democracy was restored in 1990.

Sweet Fatherland, receive the vows
which Chileans swore on your altar.
May you be the tomb of the free
or their refuge against oppression.




Related testimonies:

  • Sinner, come to sweet Jesus (Pecador, ven al dulce Jesús)  anónimo, Cárcel de Valdivia / Cárcel de Isla Teja, September 1973

    One time, a group of male and female evangelicals came to Teja Island to preach. They were taken to the visitors’ yard.

  • Three White Lilies (Tres blancos lirios)  Domingo Lizama, Cárcel de Valdivia / Cárcel de Isla Teja, 9 October 1973

    They arrested me at my workplace in October 1973 . I was 31 years old and worked as a porter at a logging business in Chumpullo, near Valdivia.

  • The Wall (La muralla)  Domingo Lizama, Cárcel de Valdivia / Cárcel de Isla Teja, 1973 - 1978

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

  • Fifth Symphony  anónimo, Cárcel de Valdivia / Cárcel de Isla Teja, September 1973

    I like all classical music, particularly Beethoven and Mozart. I listen to it all day on Radio Esperanza, on the bus I drive. The passengers like it.

  • Luchín  anónimo, Cárcel de Valdivia / Cárcel de Isla Teja, September 1973

    They said that once you got to the prison of Teja Island, you were safe.

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