Cantos Cautivos

(Captive Songs)

Music was often written, sung and heard in political detention and torture centres in Chile during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).

For many political prisoners, to write, play or listen to music were ways to register, process, remember, forget or transcend difficult experiences.

Music helped them to maintain a sense of normality, it was a tool to preserve dignity and hope, to have fun and communicate with other inmates and with the outside world.

The repressive system also employed music as a form of domination and indoctrination, and in connection with torture and other types of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

The memory of these experiences is an important fragment of the lives of those who resisted, fought and shared their stories for this project.

We invite you to explore and share these experiences.

About the project

Portrait of Manuel Flores
Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco
Watercolour by Francisco Aedo

Explore

Testimonies can be explored by detention centre, witness or victim, via the menu, the search box or tags.

Your memories on music in detention are part of our collective memory. Share them via a text or audio.

Featured

Forthcoming and recent talks

Donation ceremony of the Cantos Cautivos project to the Archivo Nacional de Chile. Miraflores 50, Santiago, Chile, Salón Ricardo Donoso, 24 July 2025.
"Cantos Cautivos: ensuring the long-term sustainability of a musical archive", presentation at the annual conference of the Royal Music Association, University of Southampton, 10-12 September 2025.

Last call to participate in the Cantos Cautivos project

From July 2025, Cantos Cautivos will stop receiving testimonies and will become part of the National Memory Archive, hosted by Chile's National Archive. If you are interested in participating, read the details here.

Cantos Cautivos in the media, on the 50the anniversary of the coup

On the occasion of the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the coup in September 2023, members of our team were interviewed by The Guardian (United Kingdom) and Excelsior (Mexico). We invite you to read these and other media articles about Cantos Cautivos here.

A flor de piel (Viña del Mar, 2022)

Carmen Espinoza and César were arrested and tortured in Colonia Dignidad in April 1975. Each had a different experience, but something united them: music. Watch an excerpt of the interview and explore other stories about Colonia Colonia Dignidad in Cantos Cautivos.

The Oxford Research Encyclopedia highlights Cantos Cautivos

An entry on digital resources by Danielle Barefoot notes that our project "serves as a sonic living-museum and offers essential content for survivors, researchers, and teachers." Read it here.

Short Video Tamo Daleko (Punta Arenas / Dawson Island, 2018)

Part of the Fragments of Memory series of the Central Univ. of Chile's Audiovisual Laboratory, this video explores the song “Tamo Daleko”, adapted and used as a symbol of resistance by political prisoners. Watch the video here and see other testimonies about “Tamo Daleko” in Cantos Cautivos.

Ed Vulliamy launches his book, When Words Fail: A Life with Music, War and Peace

The author, journalist of The Guardian and The Observer, with his band at the launch in London in Sept 2018. The book contains a chapter on Cantos Cautivos. Photo: Daniel Díaz.

Cantos Cautivos at the British Museum

The British Museum's exhibition I Object, Ian Hislop's search for dissent (Sept 2018-Jan 2019) included the recording of "Doctorcitos", collected by the Cantos Cautivos team.

Reconstruction of "Filistoque's Cueca", written by Víctor Canto in Chacabuco camp

Forty-four years later, the work has been reconstructed and recorded for the first time by MACOMBA, a group directed by Marcelo Coulon (Inti-Illimani) and formed in honour of the detained-disappeared Marcelo Concha Bascuñán. Listen to the recording and read the testimony here.