Today I Sing for the Sake of Singing (Hoy canto por cantar)

Music piece by:
Nydia Caro and Ricardo Ceratto
Testimony by:
Ángeles Álvarez Cárdenas
Experience in:
Villa Grimaldi, 6 - 15 January 1975

At that time, many prisoners were subjected to extreme torture in the interrogations. Some managed to get through those processes alright, while others broke down.

Breaking down meant 'speaking' and for the members of the DINA(National Intelligence Directorate) Secret police of Pinochet’s dictatorship between 1974 and 1977. it meant 'this jerk is singing'. I often heard them saying: 'eventually all of them are going to sing'.

Alongside all this horror, the DINA had a radio playing the latest popular music, and I was struck to hear a song by Nydia Caro, who had won the OTI Festival in 1974. It was very popular in Chile at the time.

When I was free, I sought out that song and to this day it makes me relive those moments of great pain. I listen to it and it takes me back to those events.


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Published on: 02 December 2015

I'm empty
I feel nothing
I don’t even want to talk
and I'm singing
I’m too weary
to open my mouth
to say the same
that so many others have said
how stupid
to sing to the world
asking for love and peace
everywhere
if nobody listens
to what we say
what we singers ask for
verse by verse.

[Chorus]
So today I sing just for the sake of singing
without a reason to worry
since the problems
are each person's problems
and each one already has their song.
Today I sing just for the sake of singing
to sing, even though it hurts my heart
To me, the river or the sea are all the same
the north, the south, the cold, the warmth.

I'm empty
I feel nothing
I don’t even want to talk
and I'm singing
I’m too weary
to open my mouth
to say the same
that so many others have said
people want
to hear songs
to forget
the pain of our land,
what use are
our dreams
if a song
can never stop the war.


Related testimonies:

  • Ode to Joy (Himno a la alegría)  Amelia Negrón, Campamento de Prisioneros, Tres Álamos, 31 December 1975

    Preparations for that Wednesday night became more intense. It would be a different night. We women prisoners had secretly organised ourselves, but more importantly, we had also coordinated with the male prisoners.

  • Ode to Joy (Himno a la alegría)  Renato Alvarado Vidal, Campamento de Prisioneros Cuatro Álamos, 1975

    Once upon a time, there was a good little wolf. … No. That’s another story.

  • 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.

  • Casida of the Dark Pigeons (Casida de las palomas oscuras)  Luis Alfredo Muñoz González, Campamento de Prisioneros Cuatro Álamos, February - March 1975

    According to scientists, memory and music processing are situated in a deep, ancestral part of the brain, where it is zealously guarded.

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