Balderrama

Music piece by:
Manuel José Castilla (lyrics) and Gustavo Leguizamón (music). Popularised by Mercedes Sosa
Testimony by:
Eduardo Ojeda
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Isla Dawson, 1973

We arrived at Camp Compingin on Dawson Island on the afternoon of 11 September(1973) Day when the Chilean armed forces led by Augusto Pinochet overthrew President Salvador Allende.. We knew that we had been arrested that morning, and we knew nothing else yet.

The next day, another group of prisoners arrived. They told us that Salvador Allende(1908-1973) Socialist president of Chile from 1970 to 1973. He was overthrown by Augusto Pinochet’s military forces in 1973. had died. We paid tribute to him around a bonfire. It was deeply meaningful.

We were taken for forced labour to build Río Chico, the other detention camp on Dawson Island. José sang “Balderrama” over and over again. It has the verse “where will we end up if Balderrama closes”. This was the truth because none of us knew where we would end up.


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Published on: 16 October 2015

Along the banks of the canal
when morning breaks
the night comes out singing
from Balderrama.

Inside, everything quakes
the drum beating the baguala
excitement blazes
as sparks fly from the guitar.

Lonely, bright morning star
sprout of dawn
where will we end up
if Balderrama closes.

If you start singing
a coachman will keep you company
and in every glass of wine
the morning star shimmers.

Daybreak samba
Balderrama's lullaby,
it sings at midnight
it weeps at dawn.




Related testimonies:

  • Alfonsina and the Sea (Alfonsina y el mar)  Sergio Vesely, Villa Grimaldi, January 1975

    It was not easy to endure being locked up in one of Villa Grimaldi’s miserable cells, which resembled vertical coffins. It was even harder in the high temperatures of the summer months of the Andes foothills in Peñalolén. I was inside one of those cells, blindfolded, my feet and hands in chains.

  • Let’s Break the Morning (Rompamos la mañana)  María Soledad Ruiz Ovando, Campamento de Prisioneros Isla Dawson, 1973 - 1974

    Music was very important for us (my mother Sylvia, my sister Alejandra and myself) while my dad, Daniel Ruiz Oyarzo, 'el Negro Ruiz', was imprisoned during the dictatorship, when Alejandra was seven and I was four.

  • They Say the Homeland Is (Dicen que la patria es)  Sergio Reyes Soto, Campamento de Prisioneros Isla Dawson, 1973 - 1974

    This song, like so many others, was not at all “captive”. The revolutionary songs we sang behind bars imbued us with a sense of freedom. Rolando Alarcón, and later Quilapayún, introduced “Dicen que la patria es” (or “Canción de soldados”) to Chile.

  • Candombe for José (Candombe para José)  Alejandro Olate, Campamento de Prisioneros Isla Dawson, 1974

    The youngest among us, aged 17 or even 16 years, did the heaviest work on Dawson Island. We had to fell trees, cut them, split them in two, cut them into wedges, and walk the several hundred meters back to the barracks carrying the logs on our shoulders.

  • Go Tell It to the Rain (Ve y díselo a la lluvia)  Eduardo Ojeda, Campamento de Prisioneros Isla Dawson, 1973

    We had a comrade who sang beautifully. He was called Peye and was a student at the State Technical University.

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