A RESCUED MINER SPEAKS

By Paco Zamora, Int Press Writer – Thu Oct 14 2010, 4:00pm ET

The following interview is written verbatim from the audio recording

What is your name?

I prefer not to say, I am just happy to be alive.

How do you feel now that you have been rescued?

I’m just happy to see my wife and the children again. It is amazing to see the sunlight and all the wonderful people that give us the support.

Do you feel you have learned anything from this experience?

I learned that the life is short. As the saying in Chile goes, you must milk the cow now or milk the bull later.

In the news reports preceding the rescue, you and your fellow miners often appeared jovial. Was this the true sentiment when the cameras were off?

Well, it was a very hard situation as sometimes you may have a rivalry with someone and now you must see this person all the time for several weeks. Even fighting occurs but this is natural.

There have been rumors of a jailhouse atmosphere among the miners when underground, please expand on this.

It was a very hard thing and I believe one day I will not speak of this. The conditions were of hell. Everyone lose a lot of weight, the guys begin to fight over the food and the woman. One week we run out of the toilet paper and some guys use the rock from inside the mine for cleaning and received bad injury in the private areas. One guy beat up the other guy and use his head to clean his rear area after taking the shit. This was very bad and the guy’s head smell a stink for many days and we all have to suffer this. Many of the guys start to hallucinate and everybody get scared because they say they going to kill you or take you like a woman. One guy say he saw the alien in the darkness, another guy say it was the devil. It was very crazy.

You mentioned a woman but according to reports, there were no female miners.

Well, I don’t want to mention the detail because we all have family but it was like the prison and in the prison these things happen. Somebody make a sacrifice for the team like a good friend would. In a mine, you feel very crazy and your mind is different.

And what about the fighting?

Oh, in the mine everybody fight every day sometimes for fun but mostly for the anger and right to have the girl for the night. Sometimes we play the game, “Culo de Mono Podrido” and everybody start the fight. In this game, one guy say he gonna do a fuck to the wife of another and the other guy answer and everybody fight. It’s a real crazy thing.

SECOND PART OF INTERVIEW NEXT WEEK