IN STEREO

[When I started work,] I was 17 years old. A lot of my colleagues were that age, and all of them have gone; they’ve passed away. There’s almost no one left of my era. I ate well and took care of myself, that’s why. There were others who didn’t: they went in wherever, even if there was arsenic. They just went in and that was it. They didn’t take care of themselves. They didn’t eat well, either. They drank alcohol as well. Those are the consequences. I’ve been in the mine my whole life. Now I am 58 years old [and] I have retired. Almost – well, all my youth, I lost it in the mine. I left the mine because of disease: the silicosis is advanced. Mine sickness has no cure. I have 50 to 60%. We start with tiredness, don’t we? It’s out of nowhere. I have worked ten years, but I estimate that I’ve [only] reached 60%, because reaching 100%, or more than 70% or 80%, they cannot walk anymore. They don’t get up at all; they are fucked.

I feel [it] when I go up here to the mountain, for example. Now I get tired and other people are fast. I sometimes feel cold. Or there are stronger consequences, like discomfort as if someone hit us. That’s how the lungs feel: painful in the mornings. Fatigue, irritation… Others have a strong cough and cannot sleep all night; they only lay there. With the cough, most become skinny. That affects the body – it becomes weak. It is a fucked-up disease [at] 90% or 100%. My children no longer wanted me to go to the mine. I wanted to go up, but they forbade me. I quit for that reason. I had to return to my place in the countryside. I have everything [there]. I feel healthier, as there is more oxygen. I had tin, silver – enough that I could throw it away. Good health must be taken care of. – Don Lazario