IN STEREO

What more can I tell you about my youth… even though I still feel young! Actually, after leaving school, for some type of economic necessity I started to work. That’s how I have stayed working here. I also saw the problem, the need to attend to people. And in the place that I worked, I was slowly moving up – I was given some responsibilities. And my dad always told me, sometime before he passed away – because really, I was left an orphan at 13 by my father – if you ever have the opportunity to work with mining people, you have to be supportive, you have to be understanding. You have to try to provide the best care, because that is what we need: some affection and understanding. – Luis

I was in the rural area [and] I was in school for [only] three years. There were no more possibilities. Why? Because there was no road in the whole area, and we had nowhere else to go. And teachers? There were none. I came to the city from the countryside in ‘69. I came on foot, as I was young: 14 years old. I came to work in the city. Not in the mine, yet: I went into the military to serve my country and later to the mine. I worked in mining from 1978 until 2006 or 2007. So I worked there in my cooperative for almost thirty years without going anywhere. For all that time, I never stopped working, no matter what. Some compadres left the country; we were still here in the cooperative. And at some point, I became a leader. Later on, I retired, and now I’m the president of the Association [of Ex Miners]. As it was our work, we are helping here. – Don Francisco