IN STEREO

I worked inside the mine along with my brothers, choosing from their load that they were throwing away. It was cold, very cold; that’s why I went inside to work. After that, I became accustomed to working inside the mine. I’ve always worked inside the mine, earning without it being enough. I worked alongside Doña Isabel – she was my ‘chasquiri’. I would pound the rock and she took it out. We knew how to work together like that. I used to pound the rock, to see if we had metal or not. We would take it out little by little. After hitting the rock, I prepared the load. She took it out – that’s what a chasquiri is. It’s the person who loads it up and takes the wheelbarrow. We do that in the tunnel. We worked in the mine because we suffered misfortune.

Now we are divided with the Cooperative Miners’ Federation, because they no longer want to see palliris. The story of palliris is that we even worked with a hammer. At the beginning, we worked like that – it wasn’t always clearing. We took mineral out from inside the mine in a metal cart; we took out the load; we threw it. That’s the palliri woman. So they want to erase that story of their female comrades here. So we are proud of the Palliris’ Association, that is, to respect how we have worked. That’s our story, but there are still [others] we hardly remember, too. We’re old ladies: Doña Isabel is the oldest, then I’m the only one a little younger – and I’m tired, too. – Doña Julia