Hope does not die.
But it can fade until it’s transformed and reborn.
This is what happened that overcast winter day, when it was trampled by the soldiers in uniform. Run over by the tanks. Gunned down by the machine guns. Overcome by the whining turbines of the planes that descended on the city.
Chile’s democratically elected president Salvador Allende promised to fight.
“I will not resign,” he told the country in his final address, as bombs fell.
Allende was one of thousands of victims killed or rounded up.
Sports stadiums converted into detention, torture, and execution centers.
This is where Victor Jara was taken.
His songs were the soundtrack of Allende’s revolution. His… the voice of hope.
He was crammed alongside thousands others, into the Estadio Chile.
There he was beaten. Starved. Tortured.
But amid the suffering and chaos, Victor Jara found a paper and pencil.
He wrote his last words. A poem titled “Estadio Chile.”
He writes words of truth. Of pain and suffering. But also the resolve to live and relive.
The blood of the companion President
Is stronger than bombs and the shrapnel.
And our fist will fight again.
How badly I sing
when I have to sing in terror.
Terror like the one I live, terror like the one I die.
To see myself among so, so many moments of infinity
in which silence and the screams are the goals of this song.
What I have never seen, what I have felt and what I feel
will birth another moment.
Victor Jara was killed hours later.
His poem was found, copied, and smuggled out. Its lines have far outlived the tragedy that was the US-backed September 11, 1973, Chilean coup.
Today, the Chile Stadium is renamed Victor Jara Stadium.
Colorful murals of Victor Jara adorn the walls out front. Inside, near the rafters, is a small museum in honor of the iconic singer.
Down in the seats, a single printed copy of Victor Jara’s last poem is taped to the front of a row of worn green wooden bleachers.
One simple black and white page, reminding visitors of the horrors that happened here…
The resolve to fight and live on.
And the hope that would not die.
This is the first episode of Stories of Resistance.
Stories of Resistance is a new project brought to you by The Real News and Global Exchange. Each week, we’ll bring you stories of resistance like this. Inspiration for dark times, then and now.
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Written and produced by Michael Fox.
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Michael and The Real News’s exclusive podcast series on US intervention in Latin America, Under the Shadow, see:
Under the Shadow on TRNN.
For more background on Victor Jara, see:
Historic Verdict holds Florida resident liable for Victor Jara’s murder
Who killed Victor Jara?
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