Amalia Rosa

Music piece by:
Tino Carrasco
Testimony by:
Luis Cifuentes Seves
Experience in:
Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, November 1973 - February 1974

Los de Chacabuco, a band founded and conducted by Ángel Parra, performed this Venezuelan folk song, in the style of a joropoVenezuelan dance. Singing is accompanied by a harp or a cuatro and maracas., singing it at the weekly prison camp show. I dare say it was one of the favourite songs of the audience, comprised of political prisoners.

This song can be found in Alberto Corvalán’s clandestine recording of the farewell show for Angel. On the recording, it is called "Canción de Venezuela".


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Published on: 19 February 2015

Clandestine recording made by political prisoners in Chacabuco in 1974.

From Maracaibo departed
two doves flying
to La Guaira they’ll return
to La Guaira they’ll return
but to Maracaibo when?

[Chorus]
María gave me a ribbon
and Rosa took it away from me
Amalia fought with her
because Juana, because Juana was angered.
Now I’ve angered all four
and that is what I want.

Amalia, Amalia, Amalia
Amalia, Amalia Rosa
that’s the one I take with me
that’s the one I take with me
because she is the loveliest of them all.

Girl, take this dagger
and open my side
so you can see my heart
so you can see my heart
reflecting an image of yours.

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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