IN STEREO

It’s a shame, this. it’s not the miners who are doing it. My own cooperative works at 4400 metres. They make me mad when they say, “Work at 4400 metres is making the mountain sink.” No, it’s those working with machinery. Those cooperatives can slow down, and the mountain can stand. Inside, where the mine shafts are empty, this is called ‘rajo’. In the years with the COMIBOL company, they exploited it to keep pumping out mineral, and others say they used dynamite too; they blew it up. So those voids have been made. They’re a little fragile, so that part is sinking. That’s why the engineer doesn’t understand nothing. He says the miners are doing it; the miners are moving it. No, it is moving because we came in like this before.

We must put support beams up. Now in the place where my colleagues are working, they are putting up beams there. Everyone has to do it. Right now, I’m healthy so I can go. This morning, I said, “I have beams here, comrade, take them for the wall at least. Those are thick, it is going to hold still.” They carried a truckful of beams. They have a service life, about two years. Little by little, the beam gets older. It breaks apart; it falls, too. So before it falls, you have to reinforce it. You have to put it up when the beam is almost broken. They have to put beams in the mines. When it is supported with beams, it is going to be secure; it is going to hold. Because there are always some voids. Almost at the peak, it is no longer working. For that reason, it is already settling. – Doña Julia