Coal widows speak out
By Philip Lee, Deputy Director of Programmes, WACC.
María Luisa Almanza Trejo, one of the coal widows, whose husband was killed in 1969 along with 164 other men in the explosion at La Barroterán mine.
More than one hundred years of silent oppression scar the coal-mining region of Coahuila State, in the north-east of Mexico. Recently, with support from WACC, a local NGO called Didaxis has filmed some of the women who have been widowed and left to fend for themselves after mining accidents killed their husbands.
On 19 February 2006, shaft 8 of the Pasta de Conchos mine exploded, leaving 65 miners trapped below ground. The authorities decided to seal the mine without recovering the bodies. Their widows protested, but two years later still nothing had been done and the company closed the mine for good.
Production of the documentary marked the second anniversary of the tragedy and the beginning of a campaign of national and international awareness that seeks to challenge the impunity of the mining companies involved.
Didaxis, with the help of local investigative journalist Sara Lovera, interviewed widows of the Pasta de Conchos and earlier tragedies. The women speak of the remoteness and isolation of where they live and the lack of social amenities: after marriage they hardly go out except to buy food and go to church. The bread-winner in every family is the husband, who is usually a miner and without whom the women have no income.
The women describe the hardship of being widowed with no support from the mining companies and no prospect of any local employment in this impoverished and underdeveloped region of Mexico.
Viudas del Carbón (‘Coal Widows) is a 60-minute documentary that encourages women of all ages to speak about their lives, their families, and the hardships they face. It reveals the resilience with they have faced their loss. Interspersed are comments from the Bishop of Saltillo, Raúl Vera, and Dominican priest Alejandro Castillo, who has worked in the region for 28 years.
The documentary will be shown in local communities in the mining zones, among groups that are trying to help the widows, and those that defend human and workers’ rights. Journalist Sara Lovera has also written a book to accompany the launch of documentary.
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