National Anthem of Chile

Music piece by:
Eusebio Lillo and Ramón Carnicer
Testimony by:
Joaquín Real Hermosilla
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Las Bandurrias, actual Regimiento Bulnes, Coyhaique, September 1973

Some 30 leaders and activists from the Popular Unity parties were arrested in Coyhaique and confined in Las Bandurrias, fifteen kilometres from the city, in a compound used as a veterinary clinic for horses.

We prisoners were ‘voluntarily’ assigned to unload hay, dig watering holes, sow potatoes, build a canal and look after the foals. These tasks were hard and quite risky, especially since the lieutenant had threatened that if one animal died, two prisoners would lose their lives.

After six months, some prisoners were sent to various parts of the country. Others were sent to Coyhaique Prison, and a few were released, albeit with restrictions.

The first encounter with music took place in the gymnasium of Las Bandurrias on 14 September, when a considerable number of detainees were gathered.

Among the many tortures, mistreatments and humiliations, we were forced to sing along to the vinyl records that the agents had seized from Radio Mañihuales, near Puerto Aysén.

Songs such as ‘Venceremos’ (We Shall Be Victorious), ‘El pueblo unido jamás será vencido’ (The People United Will Never Be Defeated), ‘Plegaria a un labrador’ (Prayer to a Labourer), and others were chosen. If a prisoner did not sing or forgot the lyrics, the agents would beat him violently with their fists and feet or with their rifle butts.

The torturers were furious with Clodomiro, ‘Clorito’, who was forced to sing the National Anthem. Out of nervousness and fear, he did not remember the first verse that is normally sung (‘Pure Chile is your blue sky...’) and began to recite another stanza, which is normally not sung:

The bloody fight has ceased
and yesterday's invader is now our brother
three centuries we washed the affront
fighting in the field of honour.

Clorito did not manage to continue because the uniformed men came upon him. Surely none of them knew that what Clorito recited was part of the National Anthem.

Clorito received all kinds of blows and was wounded in the arm with a bayonet. He was left in a very bad condition. He had to be treated by the nurse.


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Published on: 23 June 2025

Pure Chile is your blue sky
pure breezes cross over you too
and your field of embroidered flowers
is the happy copy of Eden.

Majestic is the white mountain
that the Lord gave you for bulwark
and that sea that serenely bathes you
promises the splendour to come.

[Your names, courageous soldiers
who have been the pillar of Chile
are engraved on our breasts
our children will know it too.]The Pinochet regime reinstated this stanza, which had previously been in disuse for a long time. It was removed again when democracy was restored in 1990.

Sweet Fatherland, receive the vows
which Chileans swore on your altar.
May you be the tomb of the free
or their refuge against oppression.




Related testimonies:

  • 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.

  • Free (Libre)  anónimo, Campamento de Prisioneros, Estadio Nacional, September - November 1973

    While waiting in the grandstands to be interrogated for the first, second or more times, we would sing 'Free' to those who were being lined up to be released. 'Free' was a catharsis, a mixture of joy for those who were going and hope for those of us left behind.

  • Free (Libre)  Marianella Ubilla, Campamento Prisioneros Estadio Regional, Christmas 1973

    I was taken prisoner on 23 November 1973, at the University of Concepción. In the Regional Stadium of Concepción, we had to sing the National Anthem every day.

  • 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.

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