Song to the Pampa (Canto a la pampa)

Music piece by:
poem by Francisco Pezoa Astudillo set to music by Quilapayún
Testimony by:
Renato Alvarado
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Cuatro Álamos, February 1975

The first song that we managed to sing was Quilapayún's setting of the poem Canto a la Pampa (Song to the Pampa), by the anarchist poet Francisco Pezoa Astudillo, which recounts one of the bloodiest episodes of the class struggle in Chile: the massacre of the Santa María school in Iquique in December 1907. The prisoners of the large Room 13 of Cuatro Álamos camp sang it complete and as a chorus around February 1975.

Rafael knew most of it, and together we managed to reconstruct the complete lyrics. Singing it, in that place, at that moment, was an impulse that came in handy.

We were still in the vestibule of hell – fortunately apparently on the way out – and our conviction was intact. The imperative of justice that had brought us to where we were continued as our banner.


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Published on: 02 July 2023

Song to the pampaSouth American plains devoid of tree vegetation., the sad land
reprobate cursed land
that never dresses in greenery
not even in the prettiest part of the season.

Where the bird never chirps
where the flower never grew
not even the crystalline buzz
of the meandering stream was heard.

Until one day, as a lament
from the depths of the heart
through the alleys of the camp
an accent of rebellion vibrates.

They were the woes of many chests
it was a roar of rage
the clarion of the rights
of the poor working people.

Blessed victims who came down
from the pampas full of faith
and on their arrival what they heard
was merely a voice of shrapnel.

Eternal injury for the beasts
merciless slaughterers
are stained with workers' blood
as a curse stigma.

I ask revenge for the brave
that shrapnel pulverized
I ask revenge for the orphaned and sad mourner
who remained there.

I ask revenge for that which came
to open the chest of the workers
I ask revenge on behalf of the pampino
who knew how to die there in Iquique.

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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