“For a few seconds, imagine”: An aural experience of six days of terror at the stadium of Chile, 12-17 September 1973

Direct translations from vernacular Chilean Spanish are frequently impossible, especially the language of abuse. Equally important, while hundreds of individuals have left oral testimonies of other detention centres, in the Stadium of Chile their experiences were different. The major short-term destination for the detainees about to be apprehended on 11 September would be the Stadium of Chile. In 1973 the Stadium was a popular venue for smaller-scale concerts, boxing tournaments, ping-pong competitions and basketball. But on 12 September, having spent a night of terror on the campus, the staff and students were stumbling into the stadium that now sounded much more menacing. The Stadium, barracks and prison, where artillery points at the entrances of the sporting complex. The patrols tramp on the pavement of the interior paths allowing the echo of orders, the sounds of greased metal, shouts and discharge of rifles and heavy machine-guns.