Cantos Cautivos
After the War (Después de la guerra)
- Music piece by:Sandro
- Testimony by:Nelly Andrade Alcaino
- Experience in:
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.
There were 15 women in our room. We began proposing songs. One person tried to invent a song that included a line that went something like: “my little bright-eyed lieutenant”, which the rest of the group vetoed.
Then we thought of the song "Libre" ("Free", popularised by Nino Bravo), which the group also vetoed: we were locked in the room day and night, allowed out only a couple of times a day to go to the bathroom.
Then I remembered Sandro’s song "Después de la guerra" and made the following argument: “All of us are prisoners of war, so everyone can relate to this song”. I recited the words and everyone agreed to sing it, so we rehearsed it all day long.
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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Published on: 07 January 2015
As you can see, now I’m back
I came to meet your eyes
that are only vestiges of suffering.
Do you know how hard the war was?
I saw so much evil, so much pain
that today it feels like a dream to be telling
about the miserable things of that horrible hell.
I have the vodka near my lips
for you and for me I toast,
meanwhile the gypsies keep singing that melody
That today I hear once again:
La la la laila la la lara la la la ra la ra la…
But your eyes don’t look at me like they used to
because the hard life changed them.
All the tenderness they radiated
became sadness and animosity.
May the gypsies keep on singing
because this song helps me forget.
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.
- 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.
- To Sing by Improvising (Pa’ cantar de un improviso) Claudio Enrique Durán Pardo (Kila Chico), Campamento de Prisioneros Melinka, Puchuncaví, June 1975
We made a Venezuelan cuatro from a large plank of wood attached to one of the walls of the "ranch" where we ate.
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