Cantos Cautivos
To Sing by Improvising (Pa’ cantar de un improviso)
- Music piece by:Violeta Parra
- Testimony by:Claudio Enrique Durán Pardo (Kila Chico)
- Experience in:
We made a Venezuelan cuatro from a large plank of wood attached to one of the walls of the "ranch" where we ate.
I had wanted a Venezuelan cuatroLatin American string instrument of the guitar family. National instrument of Venezuela and Puerto Rico. ever since Violeta Parra had taught us that Latin American music has no boundaries; she played the cuatro in her songs in a masterly way, which I wanted to imitate. Her children, Ángel Parra and Isabel Parra, had recorded a song in 1970, very charming and catchy, and we wanted to do it: "Pa’ cantar de un improviso" (To sing by improvising). To do so without a cuatro would not be the same.
After much work, help and dedication we built a cuatro from that plank of wood, with the assistance of another prisoner who had some experience as a luthier. So we finally had a brand new, captivating and captive cuatro, to sing to the three hundred souls of Puchuncaví.
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Published on: 23 December 2014
good talent is needed,
memory and understanding,
the strength of a fierce fighting rooster.
In what hail storm
must words flourish,
Even the devil would be astonished
with so many beautiful reasons
as in the conversations
between St. Peter and St. Paul.
Being the first time
that I sing in this house,
Glory to the Father, glory to the Son,
glory to the Holy Ghost.
You're petite and pretty,
Too bad you're so crazy,
You’re like an old guitar
anyone who wants can play you.
Yesterday when I wanted you
you seemed like a bright star
and now that I don’t love you,
Geez, what a ferocious beast!
A friend’s wife
must be loved
because helping her to love,
is an act of charity.
I like to sing with all my strength
and that people hear my voice
so that in hell they know
that on earth there is a singer.
I'm leaving, now I’m going,
I leave you with a song,
I leave you in tears.
Related testimonies:
- The Black King (El rey negro) Sergio Vesely, Campamento de Prisioneros Melinka, Puchuncaví, 1975
One cold winter night of 1975, the small clinic of Melinka, in the Puchuncaví Detention Camp, became the setting for a touching story.
- Run Run Went up North (Run Run se fue pa'l norte) Ernesto Parra Navarrete, Campamento de Prisioneros, Estadio Nacional, 9 November 1973
Run Run... On the big pitch, mild summer weather was in the air.
- National Anthem of Chile Boris Chornik Aberbuch, Campamento de Prisioneros Melinka, Puchuncaví, March 1975
The Puchuncaví detention camp’s daily routine included mandatory participation in the ceremonies of raising and taking down the Chilean flag on the flagpole at the entrance to the camp.
- Dreams of my Imprisonment (Sueños de mi encierro) Mario Patricio Cordero Cedraschi, Cárcel de Valparaíso, Winter of 1975
I’d spent two years in prison and there was no end in sight for my time in jail. I observed during visiting hours that many prisoners had children, a wife, family.
- Ode to Joy (Himno a la alegría) Luis Madariaga, Cárcel de Valparaíso, 1974 - 1976
In prison, we would sing the 'Ode to Joy' when a comrade was released or sent to exile.
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