Music piece by:

Violeta Parra

Testimony by:

Felipe Chiang Martínez

Experience in:

Regimiento de Infantería Motorizada Nº 23, Copiapó, October-December 1973

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I was born in Vallenar, but I have lived in Copiapó practically all my life. At the age of 18, I started working in the mines and also began my political activity.

I worked for companies and later joined the Copiapó Municipality, working on the rubbish truck. Then, I joined the municipal staff, doing administrative work until 1971 or 72. Then I worked in the Municipality of Pueblo Hundido (now Diego de Almagro) as Municipal Secretary.

I was arrested on 5 October '73. That day, I had gone to visit my mother, and when I got off the bus, two officers arrested me. They took me to the Carabineros Prefecture and then transferred me to the Copiapó Regiment.

I was also detained in Carabineros barracks in Copiapó, Diego Almagro and Chañaral, and later under house arrest. In total, I was imprisoned for more or less seven years.

When I was arrested, I had a small radio receiver among my belongings. I don't know where the hell I put it because they didn't take it away from me.

In the Regiment's shed, we used to turn on the radio to keep ourselves informed. When we heard something of interest, we would say to the other prisoners, ‘look, come and listen, they are playing this’.

When we heard ‘Gracias a la vida’ (Thanks to Life) by Violeta Parra, we would hum it. It was historic for any radio station at that time to broadcast such a song, because her songs and those of other artists on the DICAP(Discoteca del Cantar Popular). Chilean record label dedicated to disseminating music with social content, especially Chilean New Song. label were totally banned.

I had almost all the DICAP records. The dictatorship ordered the destruction of all these materials. While I was detained, they raided my house and also that of my parents. All the records I had disappeared. I don't think the military smashed them to pieces but stole them.

In the Regiment, when we listened to the programme ‘Escucha Chile’ (Listen Chile) on Radio Moscow, we also sometimes heard‘Arriba en la cordillera’ (Up in the Mountains) by Patricio Manns, ‘Venceremos’ (We Shall Prevail) and ‘Que la tortilla se vuelva’ (May the Omelette Flip Over) by Quilapayún, and other songs that were sung during the Spanish Civil War.

On that programme, I heard the news of my own arrest. Sometimes, songs by Los del Chañar were played. It was nice to listen to this group because they are from Copiapó.

There was another prisoner who had a radio receiver. He and I would turn on both receivers at the same time and put a third prisoner on guard duty. When an officer appeared, we would turn off the radio receivers. We were never caught, but there was a non-commissioned officer in the Army who knew because one day he told us: ‘I'm not going to cause trouble for you, but be careful’.

The only peace of mind we could have in the face of the pain we felt, for example, when we learnt that our comrades had been killed by the Caravan of DeathArmy operation which, after the 1973 coup, extrajudicially executed dozens of political prisoners in different cities of the country. at the southern exit of Copiapó, was that someone had a radio receiver and that from time to time some daring broadcaster could put on one of our songs before getting caught.