Katia Chornik. 2025. Music and Political Imprisonment in Pinochet's Chile. Nueva York: Oxford University Press, 161 pp.

Abstract

Katia Chornik’s Music and Political Imprisonment in Pinochet's Chile is a vital and timely addition to the literature on the role played by music in Chilean politics and society from the time of the socialist government of Salvador Allende through the long years of the Pinochet dictatorship. As indicated by its title, the book focuses specifically on how the experiences of political prisoners under the dictatorship were affected by the music they remembered, heard on the radio, made themselves, or were forced to listen to by their captors and torturers. The author is uniquely qualified to write this book as an academically trained researcher; the child of parents who themselves were imprisoned and then exiled for their political activities; and the director of the magnificent Cantos Cautivos project, an expansive online archive of prisoners’ testimonies regarding the conditions of their imprisonment and the songs that impacted them as captives. Indeed, the book serves as a scholarly commentary on that archive1 . Although it is a scholarly book, it has the virtue of being written in a style that non-specialists will find accessible.

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/music-and-political-imprisonment-in-pinochets-chile-9780190052263?q=Chornik&lang=en&cc=us