A Million Friends (Un millón de amigos)

Music piece by:
Roberto Carlos
Testimony by:
Pedro Mella Contreras
Experience in:
Recinto CNI calle Pérez Rosales 764, Valdivia, September 1986

I was arrested when I was 32 years old, along with approximately 23 other people.

I was imprisoned in Valdivia and also in Santiago, for four years in total.

I spent seven days in the CNI(National Information Centre) Secret police of Pinochet’s dictatorship between 1977 and 1990. detention centre of Valdivia. Among all the atrocities that the agents did to us, they played music while they were torturing us.

They played a lot of songs but ‘A million friends’ is the only one I remember.

The experience of being tortured with that song left a strong mark on me. The song was in fashion at that time.

After being released, when “A million friends” was played on the radio, I didn't want to listen to it.


Tags:

Published on: 28 September 2019

I just want to see the fields
I just want to sing my song
but I don’t want to sing on my own
I want a choir of little birds.

I want to take this friendly song
to who might need it
I want to have a million friends
so I can sing louder
I want to have a million friends
so I can sing louder.

I just want a strong wind
to take my boat north
and during the trip I will fish
so I can split the catch when I land.

I want to make the peace of the future
I want to have an abode without walls
I want my son to walk on firm ground
singing out loud, smiling free.

I want love always in my life
feel the warmth of a friendly hand
I want my brother to always be smiling
see him cry but from happiness.

Come with me to see the fields
sing my song with me
but I don’t want to sing on my own
I want a choir of little birds.

I want to take this friendly song
to who might need it
I want to have a million friends
so I can sing louder
I want to have a million friends
so I can sing louder.

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 Brief Space Where You Are Absent (El breve espacio en que no estás)  Pedro Mella Contreras, Penitenciaría de Santiago (Centro de Detención Preventiva Santiago Sur), April 1987

    In the Penitentiary, we listened to the song 'The Brief Space Where You Are Absent' on the radio stations Aurora and Nuevo Mundo.

  • 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.

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