Cantos Cautivos
143 results where found for «#Description of prison life»
- Music piece by:Sergio Vesely
- Testimony by:Sergio Vesely
- Experience in:
- Tags:
- « This song, written in my cell at the Puchuncaví Prison Camp, speaks to a friend and fellow prisoner; it could be any one of the thousands behind bars. »
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- « Breadcrumbs (migas de pan): These were the raw material we used in the interrogation centres for sculpting little figurines. This activity was important to keep the prisoners' minds occupied. In situations of extreme solitary confinement, when all contact with the outside world had been cut off, prisoners used these figurines to build a tiny bridge of communication with their fellow prisoners. A person in solitary confinement would place the figurine where others could see it, leaving leave a sign life. »
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- Music piece by:Claudio Iturra (lyrics) and Sergio Ortega (music)
- Testimony by:María Cecilia Marchant Rubilar
- Experience in:Cárcel de Mujeres Buen Pastor, La Serena, September 1973 - January 1974
- Tags:
- « I was studying to be a chemistry teacher at the University of Chile in La Serena. I was 21 years old when I was arrested. I think I was picked up due to a specific fact. I was regularly sent copies of the El Rebelde newspaper by train, in order to distribute them in parts of Region IV. »
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- « Music was always present: we were always walking around with a song in our voice. I think it was the only way to cope a little with prison life. »
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- Music piece by:José Agustín Goytisolo (lyrics) and Paco Ibáñez (music)
- Testimony by:Amelia Negrón
- Experience in:Campamento de Prisioneros, Tres Álamos, 1975 and 1976, until the closure of Tres Álamos
- Tags:
- « There were so many of us women prisoners. Despite the circumstances, we had managed to invent our own world, one with our rules, according to what we thought and wanted for ourselves, our families and all the Chilean people. »
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- « They had been made by women who were political prisoners, they would say to each other; they knew our names, knew of our struggle, our resistance against torture, and could not believe that from those confines we had succeeded in conveying our joy of life, to move forward, to silently shout here we are, and we’re still here. And so they bought our goods, for themselves, to give to their daughters, friends and mothers. »
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- Music piece by:All the women present at that moment in Chacabuco
- Testimony by:Mónica García Cuadra
- Experience in:Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, Summer of 1974
- Tags:
- « I am the daughter of a former political prisoner who spent a long time imprisoned at Chacabuco, among other places. I am Monica, a little 9-year-old girl who travelled with a heavy heart full of sadness to visit her father, Gerardo García Salas, held at the Chacabuco concentration camp. I am an only child and in my young life, he is my sole reference point and, in essence, my image of masculinity. »
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- Music piece by:Sergio Vesely
- Testimony by:Sergio Vesely
- Experience in:Cárcel de Valparaíso, 1976
- Tags:
- « This song is dedicated to Graciela Navarro, who managed to make my prisoner's life more beautiful on the days we were allowed to receive visitors. »
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How Can I Describe This to You? (Cómo hacer para darte una idea)
- Music piece by:Sergio Vesely
- Testimony by:Sergio Vesely
- Experience in:Cárcel de Valparaíso, 1976
- Tags:
- « This is one of two songs I wrote in prison for my beloved Graciela. In the song I tried to draw her closer to me, describing my everyday world and my experience of life as a captive. »
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- Music piece by:Sergio Vesely
- Testimony by:Sergio Vesely
- Experience in:
- Tags:
- « I don’t want to exaggerate but Camp Melinka became not only a factory that produced handicrafts and a performance hall but also a university. »
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- « Songs are good for releasing a singer from tempestuous doubts and allowing him to denounce injustice openly, with no qualms. In other words, the way things are painted when we see the world in black and white. Joking aside, the positive medicinal effect of music therapy is undeniable. Beyond the value that a songwriter gives a song or that others may give, I think songwriting was a discovery that helped me, above all, to give meaning to my life as a prisoner. »
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- Music piece by:Liborio Bórquez Guzmán, popularised by Héctor Pavez
- Testimony by:Rubén Torres Ávila
- Experience in:
- Tags:
- « When I was in the last year of secondary school at the Liceo 8 in Santiago, I suggested to a teacher to do an interview with a prisoner of the youth detention centre Blas Cañas. After the interview, I offered the prison’s governor to take the school’s folk group to present a show to the inmates. »
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- « After the show, one of the prisoners offered to sing the cumbia ‘Cortando caña’ a cappella: ‘Cutting cane, buddy, I spend my life.’ »
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- Music piece by:Unknown
- Testimony by:anonymous
- Experience in:Cárcel de Valdivia / Cárcel de Isla Teja, September 1973
- Tags:
- « One time, a group of male and female evangelicals came to Teja Island to preach. They were taken to the visitors’ yard. »
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- « Something very funny happened that stayed with me for the rest of my life. After the music finished one of the evangelicals asked: 'Who wants to receive Jesus Christ as their saviour?' One prisoner replied: 'but what if they put us in prison again?' »
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- Music piece by:Collective creation
- Testimony by:Ignacio Puelma
- Experience in:Campamento de Prisoneros Ritoque, February 1975
- Tags:
- « The sound of the sea was carried over the cabins of the Ritoque Prison Camp by the wind. It was the daily music given to us as a gift by the ocean. »
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- « Despite the shortcomings and the actual fact of being in prison, movement was gushing from everywhere: courses, crafts, sports, debates, chess, theatre, literature, songs… life was throbbing after we’d lived through the worst nightmares. To go back to them was always a possibility, so much so that some of us did have to go back to the torture centres of the DINA. »
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