They Say the Homeland Is (Dicen que la patria es)

Music piece by:
Chicho Sánchez Ferlosio
Testimony by:
Sergio Reyes Soto
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Isla Dawson, 1973 - 1974

This song, like so many others, was not at all “captive”. The revolutionary songs we sang behind bars imbued us with a sense of freedom. Rolando Alarcón(1929-1973) Chilean singer-songwriter and poet of the Nueva Canción and Neofolklore movements., and later QuilapayúnFamous Chilean group of the Nueva Canción movement, with strong affiliation to the Popular Unity coalition., introduced “Dicen que la patria es” (or “Canción de soldados”) to Chile.

I sang this song often because it accurately described our situation. The words plead to soldiers not to fire against their own people. Rarely did this occur in Chile, but we shared our prisoners’ barracks, called Remo, with three members of the Air Force.

Freedom songs travelled with those who sang them. This song travelled from Pudeto Military Base in Punta Arenas, to Dawson Island, to the Municipal Stadium occupied by the Air Force, and then to the Punta Arenas Jail. However, I don’t recall singing it much at the Cochrane Military Base next to Los Ciervos River, to the south of Punta Arenas.


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Published on: 07 September 2015

They say the homeland is
a gun and a flag
my homeland is my brothers
who work the land.

My homeland is my brothers
who toil the earth
while here they teach us
how to kill at war.

Oh, I won’t shoot, no
Oh, I won’t shoot, no
Oh, I won’t shoot at my brothers.
Oh, if I were to shoot, yes
Oh, if I were to shoot, yes
against those who choke the people with their bare hands.

If my brother raises himself up
when I am in the regiment
I take the gun and blanket
and I take for the hills with him.

The war they so fear
doesn’t come from foreign lands
these are strikes just like those
the miners won.

Oh, I won’t shoot, no…

Officers, officers
you are so brave
we’ll see if you are still brave
when our day comes.

The war they so fear
doesn’t come from foreign lands
these are strikes just like those
the workers won.

Oh, I won’t shoot, no…

They train us to fight
against workers
may lightning strike me
if I attack my comrades.

Related testimonies:

  • 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.

  • Free (Libre)  anónimo, Campamento de Prisioneros, Estadio Nacional, September - November 1973

    While waiting in the grandstands to be interrogated for the first, second or more times, we would sing 'Free' to those who were being lined up to be released. 'Free' was a catharsis, a mixture of joy for those who were going and hope for those of us left behind.

  • Free (Libre)  Marianella Ubilla, Campamento Prisioneros Estadio Regional, Christmas 1973

    I was taken prisoner on 23 November 1973, at the University of Concepción. In the Regional Stadium of Concepción, we had to sing the National Anthem every day.

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