I am a Cultural worker
Soy un trabajador cultural

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En escocia he sido un trabajador cultural envuelto en muchas actividades culturales y sociales. Lo hago con musica, con poesia, solidaridad, escribiendo y compromiso politico. He investigado y escrito mucho sobre el tema de los refugiados politicos chilenos en escocia. En el 2011, el Consejo Escoces para los Refugiados y el Alto Comisionado de las Naciones Unidas para los Refugiados me pidio que los asistiera en las conmemoraciones del 60 anirversario de esta organisacion de las Naciones Unidas.

Por qué?

Muy malo hubiera sido si desde mi llegada a este pais en Septiembre de 1974 hubiera hecho nada sabiendo tan bien que durante la dictadura de Pinochet las torturas y los asesinatos estaban a la orden del dia. Mi trabajo lo he hecho en memoria de todos los chilenos y chilenas que perdieron sus vidas y los chilenos que vinieron exiliados a Escocia. Muertes injustas y exilio son dos causales que ningun chileno nunca debe olvidar.

Mi historia personal irremediablemente se entrelaza con la reciente historia política y cultural de Chile de los últimos cincuenta años: la época de la Democracia Cristiana en el poder, la época de Allende, los refugiados políticos que produjo la dictadura de Pinochet. Muchos refugiados chilenos llegaron a Escocia entre los últimos dos meses de 1974 y yo, fui uno de los primeros en llegar a Glasgow desde Londres, en un bus y junto a un grupo de hombres, mujeres y niños. Después de esta fecha continuaron llegando chilenos. Llegaba de todo. Gente que había sido detenida y torturada y otras, como yo, llegado por ayuda de la ACNUR de países limítrofes con Chile como el Perú y Argentina. Caras tristes e incertidumbre marcaron esas vidas nuestras en esos momentos muy especiales. Algunos refugiados llegaron para perderse en el silencio del exilio, sus dramas, sus estudios, sus trabajos domésticos y sus pensamientos y muchos llegaron para estudiar, trabajar, pensar en sus dramas y hacer solidaridad con nuestro pueblo. Yo fui uno de ellos. No tuve dramas en Chile pero por ningún motivo, en mi estado de refugiado, estuve ausente del trabajo solidario con Chile en Escocia y lo hice con lo que podía hacer. Con música: mi guitarra Tizona, mi voz, mis canciones, las de Violeta Parra, Víctor Jara, Patricio Manns, el folclore chileno y latinoamericano.

Hablando de música: Siempre me gustó cantar y como aprendí a tocar la guitarra y a hacer canciones desde muy joven, esto me ayudó para mi desarrollo personal y la experiencia del exilio me ayudó a formalizar mis habilidades musicales. La dictadura de Pinochet dejó fuera de Chile a una infinidad de músicos profesionales relacionados con la nueva canción Chilena. Sin embargo, en el exilio también hubo mucha gente que se dedicó a hacer música por la casualidad del exilio. Entre ellos me encuentro yo y en Escocia el pais que me toco vivir. Yo en Chile tocaba un poco de guitarra y había estado varias veces en radio cantando mis canciones. Tipos como yo eran lo que se necesitaban, en los 70s y los 80s, en cualquier lugar del mundo, para ayudar a promover, en el extranjero, las campañas de solidaridad con Chile cantado y tocando las canciones de: Víctor Jara, Violeta Parra, Los Inti Illimani, Los Quilapayún etc.

En mi caso no solo hacia esto sino que, trabajaba duro ayudando a organizar conciertos en Escocia de grupos tan variados como Los Inti Illimani, Conjunto Raíz, Karaxú, Santiago del Nuevo Extremo, Los Parras, etc. Hacer música me ayudó a aportar con un grano de arena a la restauración de la democracia en Chile. Nunca hay que olvidar que el día 11 de Septiembre de 1973 los chilenos nos despertamos con un sangriento invasor, que no venia de Rusia o de Cuba, sino de los cuarteles de las Fuerzas Armadas de Chile, apoyados por la burguesía y el Gobierno de Estados Unidos. Sus enemigos éramos nosotros chilenos y extranjeros: seres de carne y de hueso, seres con familias y con sentimientos profundos hacia un tipo de sociedad más justa. Éramos, en su mayoría, gente de clase obrera, campesina, minera, gente pobre con grandes ilusiones por el gobierno de Salvador Allende.

I am a singer/songwriter/musician

I am a self-taught musician and singer. I play Spanish guitar, Bolivian charango, Venezuelan Cuatro, Colombian Triple and a bit of Bolivian Quena. I have written more than 50 songs. I have been singing in Scotland for more than 30 years, becoming perhaps the oldest Latin-American performer in Scotland. I always sing in Spanish. My music and style have been inspired by the great Chilean folklorists, Violeta Parra, Victor Jara and by the "New Song" movement of the Americas of the 60s and 70s. My music also has been shaped by important events in recent Chilean history: The Presidency of Salvador Allende (1970-1973) and the Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990). As I have been widely exposed to the Scottish folk scene I have also been influenced by Scotland musical culture.

I have performed all over Scotland, Britain and abroad - in Chile, Peru, Canada, Italy and Sweden. I have performed many times in live shows for BBC radio ("Travelling Folk", "The Usual Suspects", Burns Supper celebrations, etc.) In December 2003 I featured for a half hour BBC radio programme called The World on our Streets". "Arredondo has the kind of voice that could chant the Santiago telephone directory and still tug the listener". Alastair Clark, The Scotsman.

Solidarity work: Chilean earthquake 27th of February 2010.
On the 1st of May we Chiledonia 8.8, a small group of people of a variety of nationalities, organized successfully CHILE IN NEED, a huge event at the Tollcross Community Centre in Edinburgh. The aim was to raise some funds to be send to those people who suffered the full impact of the earthquake in our country. Thousands of people lost their homes and were exposed to a climate very similar to Scotland: cold, wet and windy. Many lost their jobs. I sent a letter to the Harry Potter's writer J.K Rowling requesting her kindly to donate one of her book, with her signature on it, to raffle it along with other objects on the night of our event. My request was flatly declined and I have many reasons to be sad and disappointed. Below, the letter I received from her Public Assistant.

Un gran NO! de J.K Rowling creadora de Harry Potter's - a mi pedido de regalarnos un libro suyo autografiado para rifar en concierto para ayudar a los terremoteados en Chile.

CHILE IN NEED video
realizado por mi amigo venezolano Pedro Rivera.

write poetry and I promote the poetry of others
As I am a keen reader of Chilean poetry I have always encouraged poetry and the works of poet Pablo Neruda has been a constant feature in my cultural activities. I have always involved Scottish poets in my work and in many occasions I have been invited to take part, as a musician, in poetry events. In recent years I began to write my own poetry and although nothing has been published yet I have been invited, as a poet, to take part in poetry events in Scotland and Sweden. Some of my poems have been translated into English and I have translated other's people poems from the English into Spanish.

I promote other people's music
The songs and music of Chileans songwriters Violeta Parra, Victor Jara, Patricio Manns, and of the Chilean band Inti-illimani have always been part of my repertoire. I also sung songs by Argentinean Atahualpa Yupanqui, Leon Gieco, Mercedes Sosa. I also sing Chilean traditional songs and songs from the Latin American repertoire. Also sing songs from what we call in Chile "El repertorio popular" ("the "Popular Repertoire"): boleros, tangos, Peruvian waltzes, and love songs. I have always encouraged to have in my cultural activities Scottish musicians and singers.

I give concerts of my own songs
From time to time I organise my own concerts. I write songs and I want them to be heard. I am normally accompanied by the classical guitarist Galo Ceron..

I founded Latin America Canta en Edimburgo (LACE)
We, Latin Americans, loved singing our songs, and knowing this, I thought that it was a good idea from me to invite members of our Latin American Community in Edinburgh to sing for pleasure. Our reportoire goes from Mexico to Chile and Argentina. We have done already, in a two years period, a good number of public appearances.

I also invited the member of LACE, a wonderful group of dedicated people, to help me to organise the Smallest Latin American Festival in the World. This had been a very interesting an enriching experience for all of us. The Festival had been active in the last two years. Everything had been done with our own effort.

The Smallest Latin American Festival in the Word is a first attempt to put together a modest and meaningful programme to reflect the lives of ordinary Latin Americans living and working in Scotland. As a group, we hope to achieve many interesting things in the future. See Interview ( In Spanish)

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I consider myself an enthusiastic keeper of the history of Chilean exiles in Scotland.
On the 10th of October of 1974 a group of Chilean political exiles left London on a coach for Glasgow. I was one of them. Another small group of Chilean continued their journey the same day towards Edinburgh. We were in Scotland as a direct result of the bloody coup of the 11th of September of 1973 and carried out by General Augusto Pinochet against the democratically elected Socialist Government of Salvador Allende.

Since my arrival I have been busy collecting all type of material related to the Chilean refugees in Scotland and the relationship that existed between them and the Scottish Solidarity Campaign. It is quality material which shows that our experience, as refugees, contrast greatly with those asylum seekers coming today to Scotland for safety.

Based on the material that I have collected through the years, I decided to write my own account about the Chileans refugees in Scotland with a view to preserve our history in the collective memory of this country and Chile. I called this account: "Una Detallada Refexión de mi Exilio y la de Muchos chilenos en Escocia" (A detailed Reflexion about my Exile and that of Many Chileans in Scotland)

I am proud to say that those Chileans, who in this country assembles as political refugees, in the 70s and 80s, have a written account of their experiences. In some ways the Scottish Statistical Accounts provided me with ideas to write about Chileans in Scotland. Extract of this accounts, are found within this web page. See Memories.

In 1998 Chile beat England 2-0 in a friendly football match and I was at Wembley celebrating the victory. I began immediately to write a story about my trip to London. A few months after the football game, General Pinochet left Santiago for London which resulted in his detention here. It was not difficult for me to return to my original story about the football match in order to continue with my London story this time with Pinochet in the middle: the Chileans football stadiums, after all, had been used by General Pinochet to torture and kill his opponents. As a result I wrote, in Spanish: "Detalladas Reflexiones de una Adventura en Londres" which translates into English as a: "Detailed Reflexions of an Adventure to London".

I founded FABULA (For a Better Understanding of Latin America)
FABULA is my cultural umbrella that I use to promote in Scotland anything related to Latin-America. My view is that Scotland is not concerned with Latin-America culture. Through Fabula I try to remedy it. In 2006 Billy Kay invited me to take part in his BBC radio programme "Freedom is a Noble thing" about Lord Cochranne, an admiral, involved in the Chile liberation struggle against the Spanish colonist in the 19th century.

Academic
1997: University of Edinburgh (Faculty of Arts).
Degree obtained: The General Degree: Master of Arts (with merit). I did Hispanic studies and subsidiary subjects: Scottish Ethnology. The History of Western Art, the History of Western Music and Western European History. Sept.. 1993 - June 1994:

The University of Edinburgh (Access course).
1990 - 1993: Employed as a tutor of Latin-American studies at: The Centre of Continuing Education of the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. My programme for this course included the exploration at introductory level of: Pre- Colombian civilizations, Post- Colombian culture, civilizations and history, Latin American literature, theatre, cinema, paintings, music, geography, topography, flora and fauna and current affairs.

Others
Fluent in: Spanish, English and Italian.
I have been a member of "The Performing Royal Society" (P.R.S.), since 1989. I love football, Colo Colo is my Chilean team and Partick Thistle my Scottish team, A Unison Shop Steward at my place f work.