Cantos Cautivos
The Paper Boat (El barco de papel)
- Music piece by:Julio Numhauser, popularised by the band Amerindios
- Testimony by:José Selín Carrasco Vargas
- Experience in:
While we were imprisoned in Melinka, this song was sung every time that one of us was released. I remember a fellow prisoner nicknamed Bigote Molina (Moustache Molina) singing the song when we were going to Tres Álamos, from where we would be released a few days later.
It was exciting to hear the song when we said goodbye to someone, and even more when it was our turn.
We would change the lyrics of the song to “se va, se va, se va a la libertad” ("going away, going away, going away to freedom").
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Published on: 23 September 2017
on the sea of hope
carrying a bunch of dreams
and children can’t reach it.
Going away, going away, going away, never to come back
going away, going away, going away, never to come back.
One passenger is a doctor
a soldier is the captain
a bourgeois is the cannon operator
and the queen is made of tar.
Going away, going away, going away, never to come back
going away, going away, going away, never to come back.
A worker climbs aboard the ship
an artist, a teacher
and also that little girl
who stayed behind on the shore.
Going away, going away, going away, and will come back
going away, going away, going away, and will come back.
Climb aboard the boat, sailor
they don’t come to fight
they are all comrades
of peace and equality.
Going away, going away, and will come back
going away, going away, towards freedom.
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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