Pongo en tus manos abiertas

Pongo en tus manos abiertas ("I Put Into Your Open Hands") is an album recorded by Víctor Jara with the musicians from Quilapayún in June, 1969. It was the third album released by the DICAP record label.

Luis Emilio Recabarren
The name given to the album is the opening line to Jara's homage to the founder of the Chilean labour movement and Communist Party of Chile, Luis Emilio Recabarren:

Che and Camilo Torres
The album includes recordings of songs written by Jara and songs that Jara interprets of other Latin American Nueva Canción (New Song) singer-songwriters, such as the Uruguayan Daniel Viglietti and the Argentine Atahualpa Yupanqui that were highly influential to artists of the Nueva Canción Chilena (New Chilean Song) movement.

There is a song in tribute to Che Guevara and a song about the revolutionary Colombian priest and one of the first martyrs of the Liberation theology movement, Camilo Torres.

Preguntas por Puerto Montt
This albums also contains a song written by Jara commenting on a massacre that occurred in the city of Puerto Montt in Chile in 1969. In it, Jara condemns the then Christian Democrat Minister of the Interior Edmundo Pérez Zujovic for the death of 11 men, women, and children during the massacre of Puerto Montt.

In the early morning of March the 9th, 1969 the wealthy businessman and Interior Minister, Pérez Zujovic, authorized 250 armed police to attack and open fire on 91 homeless peasant families who were occupying private wastelands in the remote part of Puerto Montt. Tear gas grenades, dogs and machine gun fire were used to terrorize and evict the impoverished peasant squatters. Many of the peasants suffered shot wounds, many were killed, including a 9-month-old child.

Te Recuerdo Amanda
The album contained one of Víctor Jara most famous and beautiful songs, "Te recuerdo Amanda" ("I remember you Amanda"), which has been adapted to various languages and interpreted by various artists from all over the world such as Joan Baez, Robert Wyatt, Raimon and Cornelis Vreeswijk.

Liner notes
I PUT IN YOUR OPEN HANDS… Laughter and blows, Hope and protest. A shout emerges crossing the large expanse of our territory. It is the peasant nailing a plough on the land, the worker filling the air with protest on May Day, the student and his word in street battles, the youth, that for being young, cannot but look forward into the future. And all this is present in the youth that struggles and in the song of protest. The new song of Victor Jara unites, from his position as activist of the people’s cause, the spirit of the young generation of our land, the lengthy tradition of the workers struggles the awaken conscious of the artist which is identified more than compromised with the people. During these days in which the Communist Youth gather for their VI Congress to reassert their decision to receive the message which places in their “OPEN HANDS” the visionary father of the New Homeland, Luis Emilio Recabarren. We also place in the open hands of all the Chilean youth These songs that speak to us about our convictions, our hopes of ourselves.

—Santiago, June 1969

Track listing

 * 1) "A Luis Emilio Recabarren" (To Luis Emilio Recabarren) (Víctor Jara) 2:49
 * 2) "A desalambrar" (Tear down the fences) (Daniel Viglietti) 1:36
 * 3) "Duerme, duerme, negrito" (Sleep little black child) (Traditional, Adapt: Atahualpa Yupanqui) 2:49
 * 4) "Juan sin Tierra" (Landless Juan) (Jorge Saldaña) 3:09f
 * 5) "Preguntas por Puerto Montt" (Questions about Puerto Montt) (Víctor Jara) 2:39
 * 6) "Móvil Oil Special" (Víctor Jara) 2:46
 * 7) "Cruz de Luz, Camilo Torres" (Cross of Light, Camilo Torres) (Daniel Viglietti) 3:04
 * 8) "El martillo" (If I had a hammer) (Lee Hays/Pete Seeger – Adapt: Víctor Jara)
 * 9) "Te recuerdo Amanda" (I remember you Amanda) (Víctor Jara) 2:33
 * 10) "Zamba del Che" (Zamba song for "Che") (Rubén Ortiz Fernández) 3:39
 * 11) "Ya parte el galgo terrible" (The ferocious greyhounds attack) (Pablo Neruda – Sergio Ortega) 1:50
 * 12) "A Cochabamba me voy"  (I am going to Cochabamba) (Víctor Jara) 2:26

Extended 2001 Reissue
The reissue of Pongo en tus manos abiertas historic recording by Warner in March 2001 was extended with 6 bonus tracks:
 * 13. “Plegaria a un Labrador” (Prayer to a laborer) [Single version with Quilapayún] (Víctor Jara) 3:02
 * 14. “Cueca de Joaquín Murieta” (from Fulgor y Muerte de Joaquín Murieta LP) (Pablo Neruda – Sergio Ortega) – 1:36
 * 15. “Tonada para guitarra” (live at the Peña de los Parra, 1970) (Víctor Jara) 1:14
 * 16.  “Te recuerdo Amanda” (live at the Peña de los Parra, 1970) (Víctor Jara) 3:06
 * 17.  “Plegaria a un Labrador”  (live at the Peña de los Parra, 1970) (Víctor Jara -  Patricio Castillo) 3:32
 * 18.  “El arado” (The plough) (live, 1970) (Víctor Jara) 3:48

References and other sources
Jara, Joan. (1983). Victor: An Unfinished Song. Jonathan Cape Ltd. ISBN 0-224-01880-9