Love Song (Canción de amor)

Music piece by:
Ángel Parra
Testimony by:
Luis Cifuentes Seves
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, November – December 1973

Ángel Parra organised and directed the band Los de Chacabuco until his release from prison. Angel only conducted the group, and never sang or played an instrument. The exception was his farewell concert, which was the only time he sang at Chacabuco.

One of the songs he performed on that occasion was this one, dedicated to his wife. When Angel was released, Ernesto Parra became the group’s conductor.


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Published on: 12 January 2015

You can kill me if you want
you won’t kill my love
I keep my hope
In capturing you
who once gave your whole self
I shall never forget it
Love.

You can deprive me of the air
I need to live
but you can never take away
the force born in me
when woman, body and soul
in the month of April, you gave me
love.

Deprive me of the Andes mountains
deprive me of the sea
But you can never deprive me
of loving you forevermore
what between two people has been sowed
must be nurtured between two people.
Love.

Related testimonies:

  • Blue Eyes (Ojos azules)  Luis Cifuentes Seves, Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, January – February 1974

    This is the last track on the cassette recorded by the band Los de Chacabuco in the concentration camp; it was digitised in 2015.

  • The Crux of the Matter (La madre del cordero)  Servando Becerra Poblete, Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, 9 November 1973 - 10 November 1974

    I recited this poem in the National Stadium. I continued to do so in the Chacabuco prison camp, earning the nickname of “Venancio” from my fellow prisoners.

  • The Crux of the Matter (La madre del cordero)  Servando Becerra Poblete, Campamento de Prisioneros, Estadio Nacional, 9 November 1973 - 10 November 1974

    I recited this poem in the National Stadium. I continued to do so in the Chacabuco prison camp, earning the nickname of “Venancio” from my fellow prisoners.

  • How We Resemble Each Other (En qué nos parecemos)  Luis Cifuentes Seves, Campamento de Prisioneros, Estadio Nacional, September - November 1973

    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.

  • Chacabuco’s Soul (Alma de Chacabuco)  Luis Cifuentes Seves, Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, November - December 1973

    This is the original version of a composition by Ángel Parra at Chacabuco, as secretly recorded at the prison camp during his farewell concert. The composer’s voice can be heard.

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