The Rain is Falling (Scende la pioggia)

Music piece by:
The Turtles ('Elenore'), with new lyrics by Gianni Morandi
Testimony by:
Eduardo René Cuevas
Experience in:
Cárcel de Los Ángeles, September 1973

This song was a workhorse for the prisoners. Iván Moscoso sang it, accompanied by a guitar, in a powerful and defiant voice, and the most altruistic among us sung along in the presence of the gendarme guards, in a courtyard that was only for political prisoners.

For me, a prisoner from (the city of) Laja who walked with a cane, it represented a glimmer of hope and being able to say I am still alive, after twice being threatened with death on the very 11 September 1973Day when the Chilean armed forces led by Augusto Pinochet overthrew President Salvador Allende..

Every minute, every day represented a victory of one more day over death and the desire to cling to life. This is part of what thousands of comrades had to live through in different circumstances of their lives.


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Published on: 31 March 2015

You, in your hot bed
I'm on the road in the cold
but that is not what makes me sad.
Here, outside your dreams
love is dying
everyone thinks only of themselves.

The rain is falling, what does it do?
The world is crumbling around me
I'm dying because of love.
I love life more than ever
it only belongs to me
I only want to live it for this.

Enough with the dreaming
now you are sleeping
now I know the pain.
That I felt sorry
is because I'm only now learning
everyone thinks only of themselves.

The rain is falling, what does it do?
The world is crumbling around me
I'm dying because of love.
I love life more than ever
it only belongs to me
I only want to live it for this.

The rain is falling, what does it do?
I love life more than ever.

Related testimonies:

  • We Shall Overcome  Alfonso Padilla Silva, Cárcel de Concepción / Cárcel El Manzano, December 1974

    When the concentration camp that operated for nearly five months at the Regional Stadium of Concepción was closed in early February 1974, hundreds of political prisoners were transferred to the Concepción Prison, a wing of which was turned into a concentration camp.

  • The Soldier (El soldado)  Alfonso Padilla Silva, Campamento Prisioneros Estadio Regional, 25 December 1973

    During Christmas 1973, approximately 660 men and 100 women were held as prisoners in the Concepción Regional Stadium. Concentration camp officials allowed us to celebrate Christmas on the pitch. We were in a corner of the pitch and we used the pole vault pit as a stage.

  • The Little Cigarette (El cigarrito)  Alfonso Padilla Silva, Campamento Prisioneros Estadio Regional, 25 December 1973

    During Christmas 1973, I was one of some 600 men and 100 women prisoners in Concepción Regional Stadium.

  • I’m Not from Here - To my Comrade, my Love (No soy de aquí - A mi compañera)  Alfonso Padilla Silva, Campamento Prisioneros Estadio Regional, 25 December 1973

    The choir of male prisoners sang a piece called 'A mi compañera' (To my comrade, my love) to the music of 'No soy de aquí, ni soy de allá' (I'm not from here, nor from there) by Facundo Cabral.

  • The Great Gigi L’amoroso (Gigi el amoroso)  Eduardo René Cuevas, Regimiento de Infantería Reforzada Nº 3, Los Ángeles (nowadays Regimiento de Infantería Nº 17), October - November 1973

    This song was used while the Military Intelligence Service (SIM) subjected me to cruel torture at a clandestine torture centre in the southern Chilean city of Los Ángeles.

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