Dona Nobis Pacem

Music piece by:
Text from Agnus Dei (Roman Catholic Mass); music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Testimony by:
Lucía Chirinos
Experience in:
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.

I also learnt at the Evangelical Church and sang on the radio. My husband Mario played the guitar very well and had a wonderful tenor voice. We made a good duo. I could find the second voice for any boleroTerm referring to both the Spanish bolero of the 19th century and the Cuban bolero associated with the trova genre and tradition of itinerant musicians..

In Buen Pastor, I would see the girls with teary eyes. They pretended to be strong but then they would go watch television series. It was an opportunity to cry.

I thought: “I will teach them to sing a bit”. With a few fellow prisoners, we created a choir. We found an old guitar, full of scratches, and although it had poor strings, it still made a sound.

We rehearsed a multitude of songs. At night, my fingertips would hurt so much that I had to dip them in cold water to relieve the pain. It was like a burn.

We rehearsed several religious songs and sang during a mass led by a Jesuit priest. This inspired me to take the Catholic communion for the first time.

I remember that that day we sang the canon 'Dona nobis pacem', which I had taught not only to the prisoners but also to the nuns.

The nuns' choir and ours joined forces. The result was beautiful. We were a novelty. The following Sunday the church was full because people wanted to hear us sing.

I also taught them a very beautiful evangelical march that would lift our spirits. It went: “I’m happy and I’ll tell you why / I know that Jesus Christ saved me / I will always sing about his grace / I know that Jesus Christ saved me”.


Tags:

Published on: 25 September 2016

Dona nobis pacem










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)  Lucía Chirinos, Cárcel de Mujeres Buen Pastor, La Serena, October 1973 - April 1974

    Let’s get going, would say “the lizards”, as we called the policemen, because they dress all in green.

  • 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.

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