Cantos Cautivos
The Salamander (La salamanca)
- Music piece by:Arturo Dávalos
- Testimony by:Luis Cifuentes Seves
- Experience in:Campamento de Prisioneros Chacabuco, January - February 1974
A salamanca is a type of salamander that lives in caves in northern Argentina. By extension, it also represents the cave. In this song, the lyricist turns the salamanca into a place where a coven of witches gathers.
This song forms part of a cassette recorded in the Chacabuco concentration camp by the band Los de Chacabuco between January and February 1974.
Under the direction of Ernesto Parra, all ten members of the group who appear in the photograph took part. Their aim was to preserve the songs of Ángel Parra, composed while he was a prisoner in the camp, along with songs by other artists.
The cassette was safeguarded and digitalised in 2015.
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Published on: 01 September 2015
Clandestine recording made by political prisoners in Chacabuco in 1974.
filling the moonlit night with the smell of sulfur
he dismounted from his horse and the dance began
his tail marking the beat.
A beau of the island sang his love
to a lady toad dressed in blue.
like charcoal they danced, wearing the flower
that returns the light to the blind.
[Chorus]
Oh tunnel where dawn dies on leaving
salamander of my native hill
and in the moonlit night you may well hear
The demon and the devils sing.
Riding her broom, an old witch crossed
the indigo skies
an owl on her shoulder and a great trident
as she shoots at the Southern Cross.
A bearded armadillo played the fiddle
and a skunk with a tenor voice
tore through the silence with an Indian song
that the demon had taught him to sing.
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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