La López Pereyra

Music piece by:
Artidorio Cresseri
Testimony by:
Germán Larrabe
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Melinka, Puchuncaví, 1974 - 1976

This zambaTraditional musical genre and dance from Argentina. was the first song we tried to perform in Puchuncaví, with a group made up of prisoners transferred from Chacabuco Detention Camp together with us, newly arrived 'puchuncas'.


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Published on: 05 March 2015

I would like to forget you
I find it impossible, my darling
your image haunts me
yours is my life and my love too
and when I am thoughtful and alone
I think obsessively of the falsehood 
with which you have repaid my love.

If I could have you by my side all day long
I would tell you, my dove, of my hidden loves
but this longing is useless, never, never
I live only to love you
silent and sad, and to weep, to weep.

They've told me that you don't love me
but that's no reason
you deprive me of your gaze
without it I can’t live
and I will go and hide in a forest just to weep
perhaps in my banishment
I can forget your dark eyes.

One calm night
I looked at the blue sky
contemplating the stars
I asked the loveliest of them
if it was she who shone
on your love, my love,
to beg through her
that the merciful God to give me fortitude.

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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