176 results where found for «Priests and Soldiers (Curas y milicos)»


Priests and Soldiers (Curas y milicos)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
« 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. »
[...]
« Priests and Soldiers (Curas y milicos) »
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Lament for the Death of Augusto the Dog (Lamento a la muerte del perro Augusto)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
« Augusto the dog (not to be confused with the journalist Augusto Olivares, affectionately nicknamed 'Augusto the Dog', who was murdered in the Presidential Palace on 11 September 1973), was the mascot of the political prisoners held at the Ritoque concentration camp, and accompanied his master when the military junta decided to close that prison and transfer the inmates to the neighbouring Puchuncaví concentration camp. »
[...]
« In vain we tried to tie him up and keep him in one of the cells. Augusto was accustomed to his freedom and wouldn’t succumb to such indignation. But his wild spirit sensed the danger and the four-legged beast infuriated the soldiers, who from then on only wanted to find and kill him. »
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Song of the Seed and the Plant (Canción de la semilla y la planta)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
« The history of the seed and the plant, of which this song forms part, was performed as a play to entertain our audience of children during a family visit to the prison. Imagination had no limits when it came to kindling a small flame of hope in our hearts. »
[...]
« With the scarce resources available to us, we made costumes and dressed up as a jester, a gardener, a sun, and clowns, and thus attired we came out to meet our loved ones that day, much to the surprise of the soldiers, who watched us from a distance not understanding what was going on. »
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King Ñaca Ñaca (El rey Ñaca Ñaca)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
« 'Ñaca-ñaca' was an interjection we used at Camp Melinka whenever we wanted to signal and poke fun at any dark thought that might cross our minds. That may be why it seemed the ideal name to give to the paper maché puppet that played the role of the mean king in the puppet stories we performed to entertain the children who came to visit their captive fathers. »
[...]
« In this play, Ñaca-Ñaca’s guards – his soldiers – were the Puínes, which directly alluded to the barbed wire. It would have been difficult to make it any clearer: what we were doing was a staged and metaphorical enactment of our own story. And we did it with a good measure of optimism, as shown in the fact that at the end Ñaca-Ñaca loses his voice – that is, his power - and he loses his mind. Thus the captives become free. »
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Why does the afternoon cry (Por qué llora la tarde)

Music piece by:
Antônio Marcos. Popularised in Chile by Claudio Reyes
Testimony by:
Carolina Videla
Experience in:
« My prison term happened during the last year of the dictatorship after the No vote won. I was set free because of 'lack of evidence', after a year and a half in prison. »
[...]
« But in the morning soldiers and policemen arrived and arrested us all, except a comrade’s partner, who was pregnant. »
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Creole Mass – Gloria (Misa criolla - Gloria)

Music piece by:
Ariel Ramírez
Testimony by:
Luis Cifuentes Seves
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, November – December 1973
« As far as I remember (and there may be other versions), Los de Chacabuco band was founded by Ángel Parra in response to a request by the Army chaplain Varela, who asked for assistance for the Mass he celebrated for both prisoners and soldiers. »
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The Black King (El rey negro)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
« One cold winter night of 1975, the small clinic of Melinka, in the Puchuncaví Detention Camp, became the setting for a touching story. »
[...]
« A week later we held a cultural event in the dining room to celebrate the happy event occurrence. On that day I finished writing my song 'The Black King' and I sang it for the first time for an audience comprised of political prisoners and soldiers. »
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Filistoque's Cueca (Cueca del Filistoque)

Music piece by:
Víctor Canto Fuenzalida (lyrics), Efraín Navarro (music)
Testimony by:
Víctor Canto Fuenzalida
Experience in:
« Filistoque is a real-life person in all his mighty height (1.90 metres tall). I always remember him laughing. In Chacabuco, we shared a house for nearly ten months. Around him, you were never allowed to become depressed or get into a stew over our situation. »
[...]
« Some of the guards were more receptive and it was not rare to see Filistoque in lively conversation with them; they were swayed by his happy demeanour to such an extent that he persuaded them that he could teach the soldiers how to march. »
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St John Passion (Pasión según San Juan)

Music piece by:
Ángel Parra; text from the Gospel of Luke
Testimony by:
Luis Cifuentes Seves
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, January - February 1974
« This song is the third track on the cassette recorded in the Chacabuco concentration camp by the band Los de Chacabuco, formed by Ángel Parra and conducted by him until his release. »
[...]
« This song, like the Gospel of Luke, was performed by Los de Chacabuco during the masses offered by the chaplains for the benefit of both prisoners and soldiers. The narrator, as was the case for other religious pieces, was Antonio. »
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After the War (Después de la guerra)

Music piece by:
Sandro
Testimony by:
Nelly Andrade Alcaino
« The military officials in charge of the Tejas Verdes camp made us sing. They gave us just one day to select the songs and rehearse. »
[...]
« When they took us out to the prison yard, we sang it with all our might. There was complete silence when we finished. The military officers looked at each other and then ordered that we be returned to the room. The soldiers in the guard towers came down to ask where we had found that song. »
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