Melody by Jorge Peña Hen

Music piece by:
Jorge Peña Hen
Testimony by:
Eliseo González
Experience in:
Cárcel de la Serena, October 1973

Jorge Peña Hen(1928-1973) Conductor, composer and pedagogue. was in solitary confinement that day. I don’t know how, but someone brought him matches. With his saliva, he made ink from the phosphorus tips, which he then used to write a score of music on a scrap of paper.

That music managed to find its way to the outside before Jorge's murder.

We were very all very sad and had tearful eyes. I told my fellow prisoners, 'I’m going to teach you to sing'.

That is known as resilience, and it refers to the capacity to raise yourself up from a bad situation.

At first, we had a few small clandestine radios, later a television. The radios belonged to the group and we would listen to music. We would listen to whatever was on.

Keep in mind that the prisoners included farmworkers, miners and intellectuals. So if you put on classical music for an old guy from the hills, he would say 'What’s that?' Or, if you played corridosMexican narrative song and poetry form often with themes of struggle and oppression. for the intellectuals or pseudo-intellectuals, they might not like it much.

In Corridor Two (known as 'the cancer ward' because that’s where all of us who had been tortured were held) we did not listen to music.

We celebrated Christmas 1973 with comrades who played the guitar and with members of a band called Toque de Queda (Curfew) who were in prison for a month.

They had been arrested while posing for photos for the cover of their new record. The place where they were arrested was adjacent to the petroleum tanks in the port district, near the ships in Guayacán or La Herradura Bay.

They performed songs from their own repertoire and also covers. They made up a song called '210' in honour of a common prisoner whose two surnames were Diez Diez (Ten Ten).

Victims remembered in this testimony:

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Published on: 26 April 2016

Unfinished melody written by Peña Hen with a burnt match shortly before his assassination. Recorded by Katia Chornik in 2018. Manuscript: Peña Camarda archive.

Related testimonies:

  • What Will the Holy Father Say (Qué dirá el Santo Padre)  María Cecilia Marchant Rubilar, Cárcel de Mujeres Buen Pastor, La Serena, September 1973 - January 1974

    We sang songs that were popular at the time. We’d sing 'What will the Holy Father say', especially the part that says 'What will the Holy Father who lives in Rome say ... they are slitting the throat of his dove...' quite often, for example when someone was taken off to Regimiento Arica, which was a torture centre.

  • Dona Nobis Pacem  Lucía Chirinos, Cárcel de Mujeres Buen Pastor, La Serena, October 1973 - April 1974

    Music was always present in my family. My dad played the violin and my mum the piano. When I was a child, my mum sent us to dance and piano lessons.

  • Three Mountaineers (Eran tres alpinos)  María Cecilia Marchant Rubilar, Cárcel de Mujeres Buen Pastor, La Serena, September 1973 - January 1974

    We adapted this song and produced a play based on it. Each of us played one of the characters. We spent a lot of time on this.

  • The Little Fence (La rejita)  María Cecilia Marchant Rubilar, Cárcel de Mujeres Buen Pastor, La Serena, September 1973 - January 1974

    We always sang this song when we were taken to Regimiento Arica. That was a torture centre.

  • We Shall Prevail (Venceremos)  Lucía Chirinos, Cárcel de Mujeres Buen Pastor, La Serena, October 1973 - April 1974

    The parish priest at Buen Pastor played the accordion. He played so beautifully. Because I played the piano, I asked him if I could borrow it. 'I'll lend it to you' he said.

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