IN STEREO

I arrived [in Potosí when] I was 15 [or] 16 years old. From there, I started working in the mine at 17 – and so far, I’m still there. The first day I worked there, the climate was bad for me [and] I was not used to the coca. Bit by bit, I got used to it. At first, I didn’t think I would stay for a long time. But I made a family [and] I stayed here. Many visitors who arrive here, when they go up in altitude, the weather changes [and] the height affect them. Many of us suffer: my children need to be covered with clothes all the time.

In summer in my [home]town, when my little children go, they all throw their clothes off. There are coves; they are getting into the water and coming out. Here, it’s not like that: if you enter the water and come out, the child is cold. The food we eat here: everyone must try the kalapurka [soup]. I think they have to see how it is done, how we cook with hot stones. That’s why many want to see that. Friends come from Argentina, Chile… when they come, they want to see that. – Pastor