IN STEREO

There is a very deep and ingrained feeling in the lives of the miners. There are some who do not believe or who have other types of religion that they practice, but between those they have always needed to meet in the middle. They end up compromising because there are many inexplicable things that happen. They can’t profit, those people. Wherever they go, they do not do well. I’m going to tell you all a very pathetic thing about a group of workers of the cooperative. Their father was a good worker, a very self-sacrificing, responsible person, and very experienced in mining: in making the support beams, [and] the entrances of the mines with stone and stuff. Then his sons ended up going with him to the mine. Of course, to protect his children he forbade them from taking the famous ch’alla. Of course, him too: he is not a priest, he is a Catholic – but he always avoided it.

And those dudes complained about everything. At that time, they opened a new mine. It was about six years, and they had a very critical situation – they did not profit. And their father fell ill suddenly, with mine sickness. It has been a good while and since that time he has not gone back up, because the gentleman is very frail. But his sons have had to make the famous ch’alla on Fridays. As a result, they have been raising the output of the same places where their dad worked, the quality too, and they have begun to profit. So they themselves have commented, right? The children say, “Oh no! All this time we have lost because of my dad, because he has not allowed us to do the ch’alla. Now that my dad is not here, of course we do it.” They are going… not very well, but better than the previous situation. – Luis