Of lost sons, husbands and fathers |
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Of lost sons, husbands and fathers |
Eva Hernandez, 72, is mourning her son, Estavislado Bustos Hernandez, a miner who was killed on Jan. 23 when a pocito, or small unsafe mine, flooded in Barroteran, Coahuila, Mexico.
where coal is mined to feed the country's hungry electric-generating plants. The area around Barroteran, in the state of Coahuila, is home to hundreds of these "pocitos." When large mining companies abandanon an area because the remaining coal is of low quality and is too hard to get to, independent miners take over.
But their operations, which consist of pit mines, dug like wells, up to 100 feet straight down, often lack ventilation and secondary escape routes.
Dozens of Mexican miners have died in these pocitos in the last year. Some have died in gas explosions, while others have died in floods.
But the surviving miners keep working, because, other than finding work as illegal immigrants in the U.S., there is no other work, they say.
The families that the dead leave behind are left mourning for these faithful men, who were their husbands, sons and fathers.
Above, Blanca Margarita Arias thinks of the three sons that she lost when a pocito, a small unsafe mine, flooded in Barroteran, Coahuila, Mexico, on Jan. 23, 2002. Garza's husband, Juan Angel Garza, was the foreman at the site..
| They can find work illegally in the U.S., or they can work in the mines |
| Norma Alicia Piedra sits with her daughter, Maria Isabel, 4, in her bedroom in the coal mining town of Barroteran, Coahuila, Mexico, on Thursday, Feb. 21, 2002. Piedra's husband, Juan Luis Garza, was killed on Jan. 23 when a pocito, or unsafe small mine, flooded. |
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©2002 Billy Calzada