Cantos Cautivos
National Anthem of Chile
- Music piece by:Eusebio Lillo and Ramón Carnicer
- Testimony by:Sergio Vesely
- Experience in:
The Puchuncaví Prisoners Camp had a daily routine similar to that of military regiments. In a ridiculous ceremony, the flag was raised every morning at dawn and then it was taken down at nightfall.
We would arrive marching and singing military songs to the place where the flagpole was located and, when the order was given, it was our duty to sing the National Anthem.
This was unpleasant in itself because no prisoner would have wanted to have anthems in common with those people.
But, looking at it with different eyes, it also was amusing, because it gave us another chance to sing at the top of our voices the line that goes: “Que o la tumba serás de los libres, o el asilo contra la opresión” (May you be the grave of the free or the refuge from oppression).
We greatly enjoyed placing great emphasis on that part of the song. It must have been the only act of open subversion that the military could never punish us for, even though surely many must have wanted to.
It would have been hard for a rank-and-file soldier to justify mistreating political prisoners to his boss for an enthusiastic rendition of the National Anthem.
Tags:
Published on: 25 September 2015
pure breezes cross over you too
and your field of embroidered flowers
is the happy copy of Eden.
Majestic is the white mountain
that the Lord gave you for bulwark
and that sea that serenely bathes you
promises the splendour to come.
[Your names, courageous soldiers
who have been the pillar of Chile
are engraved on our breasts
Sweet Fatherland, receive the vows
which Chileans swore on your altar.
May you be the tomb of the free
or their refuge against oppression.
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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