IN STEREO

I went in in ‘74 or ‘75. Back then, it was a once in a lifetime experience. I worked on the Candelaria [mine] side. It was about forty degrees or so, and damn, we worked like slaves – sweating slaves. COMIBOL [state miners] worked with electric lamps, us with coal and phosphorus. In those times, there were beta [mineral veins] almost [everywhere]. [The owners] profited – they had fucking sacks. But we worked. They paid us no more than day labourers.

Everything has changed a lot, on the mountain [and] here in the city. Now the mountain is left with nothing. They advance two or three metres per night, but back then, we would advance a metre or two per week. It is the Manquiri company with heavy machinery that is destroying this mountain now. That is a private company. The Manquiri company is everywhere. It’s taking the load from the mountain [and] it’s taking it away. They are finding [mineral] more or less by luck. – Don Lazario