Poder elegir

When you immerse yourself in Poder elegir, you encounter a sound piece that spans 8 minutes, making it the longest studio recording by Los Prisioneros. This song, which closes the 1987 album La cultura de la basura, is not just a long track but a bold statement. Its message directly targets the conformity they perceived in part of Chilean society under the military dictatorship.

The lyrics of Poder elegir aim to open eyes to the atrocities committed by the regime, events that many citizens would only understand more clearly after the dictatorship ended and the Informe Rettig was published in 1991. The music for this piece was composed by Jorge González. The album La cultura de la basura, originally released on December 3, 1987, had various editions, including a Latin American one in 1988 that featured the single We are sudamerican rockers and presented remixes or new versions of the songs. The American band Downtown Boys even recorded a cover of this track on their 2015 album Full Communism.