444 results where found for «The Man Who Transformed into an Animal»


The Woman from Huillinco (La Huillincana)

Music piece by:
Liborio Bórquez Guzmán, popularised by Héctor Pavez
Testimony by:
Rubén Torres Ávila
« When I was in the last year of secondary school at the Liceo 8 in Santiago, I suggested to a teacher to do an interview with a prisoner of the youth detention centre Blas Cañas. After the interview, I offered the prison’s governor to take the school’s folk group to present a show to the inmates. »
[...]
« From the group of students, Susana, who was my girlfriend, danced with an inmate. This act was transgressive. »
[Read full testimony]

Swan Lake

Music piece by:
Piotr Ilich Tchaikovski
Testimony by:
Carmen Espinoza Alegría
Experience in:
Colonia Dignidad, April 1975
« When we arrived at Colonia Dignidad, they threw us into a shed. I despaired, took off my hood and a guard gave me a slap so hard that I fell to the ground. This was my arrival at the Colonia. »
[...]
« Then, they began the interrogations. I remember there was a guard acting as a doctor who controlled how much electricity we could stand. »
[Read full testimony]

Melody by Jorge Peña Hen

Music piece by:
Jorge Peña Hen
Testimony by:
María Fedora Peña
Experience in:
Cárcel de la Serena, October 1973
« 'Look here, Maria Fedora. I’ve brought you a treasure', it was the voice of my brother Juan Cristián as he crossed the doorway of our mother’s house one morning in January 1983. »
[...]
« Furrowed brow, piercing gaze, ears alert to the message from his creative mind, translating the feelings of his soul into a melody, with the composure and determination to create beauty above and beyond the slander and betrayal, beyond the uncertainty of what tomorrow will bring. »
[Read full testimony]

How We Resemble Each Other (En qué nos parecemos)

Music piece by:
Unknown. Popularised by Quilapayún
Testimony by:
Luis Cifuentes Seves
Experience in:
« During the 1960s, the group Quilapayún popularised this old Spanish song in Chile. Víctor Canto and I performed it as a duet in Santiago’s National Stadium, which had been converted into a concentration, torture and extermination camp. »
[Read full testimony]

Dreams of my Imprisonment (Sueños de mi encierro)

Music piece by:
Mario Patricio Cordero Cedraschi
Testimony by:
Mario Patricio Cordero Cedraschi
Experience in:
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. »
[...]
« This concern became a nightmare and led to these verses that turned into a song and filled the last page of my prison songbook, where I’d written down a number of ballads sung by other prisoners. »
[Read full testimony]

Ode to Joy (Himno a la alegría)

Music piece by:
original by Friedrich von Schiller (lyrics) and Ludwig van Beethoven (music). Free version in Spanish by Amado Regueiro Rodríguez, aka Orbe (lyrics) y Waldo de los Ríos (music), popularised in Chile by Miguel Ríos.
Testimony by:
Amelia Negrón
Experience in:
« Preparations for that Wednesday night became more intense. It would be a different night. We women prisoners had secretly organised ourselves, but more importantly, we had also coordinated with the male prisoners. »
[...]
« But that’s how it was. Some continued in prison while other others returned to their homes or were sent into exile. Few women, very few, ever returned. We prepared the New Year’s Eve dinner in advance. We had to be ready for the chosen hour: midnight - not a minute more, nor a minute less. »
[Read full testimony]

The Paper Boat (El barco de papel)

Music piece by:
Julio Numhauser, popularised by the band Amerindios
Testimony by:
Carlos Muñoz
Experience in:
« One of the most important songs in the detention centres. Impossible to count how many times we sang it. Every time someone was released from a detention camp or there was credible information that a person would be sent into exile, a gigantic chorus would sing this song, in a powerful unison. No one could possibly forget it. Especially significant at Tres Álamos, as this was the “exit” camp. »
[Read full testimony]

The Valley Swallow (La golondrina del valle)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
« One of the most amazing experiences I had during my six months in the Puchuncaví Prison Camp was to see the metamorphosis of the barbed wire fence into a huge musical score. »
[Read full testimony]

Captain, our Destiny is a Wandering Island (Capitán, el rumbo es una isla errante)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
« This song was dedicated to Óscar Castro, whom I was lucky enough to meet in 1975, in Puchuncaví. With his experience in theatre – Óscar was already a fairly well-known actor before his arrest – he threw himself into the cultural work we had organised, in what was then called “Camp Melinka” where the prisoners presented a show every Friday. »
[Read full testimony]

Song of a Middle-Class Man (Canción de un hombre medio)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
Experience in:
« In our political discussions, we always spoke disdainfully of the middle class. In the view of the Marxist ideologues in prison, that sector of society supported the dictatorship and it was necessary to reverse that trend. »
[...]
« The daily regime at Valparaíso Jail obliged you to spend most of the day locked in your cell. If I was lucky to have a guitar to keep me company, I could transform that reclusion into fleeting freedom that lasted until the prison guard opened the latch the next morning. Something of the sort must have happened the night I wrote this song. »
[Read full testimony]