From the Mines to the Streets: A Bolivian Activist’s Life

Chapter 4. Joining the State Company

Chapter 4 Joining the State Company Getting a Job Once the new government gained control of the Valle Alto [Cochabamba’s upper valley], my discharge papers arrived, and I headed home. I was happy to leave the barracks. Military service had allowed me to learn a little bit more about the world outside the mine. Both in my own eyes and those of the community, I was now an adult. Before joining the army, I had kept up contact with my family’s communities, and when I went to fiestas there, I met people of my age who had already completed their military service.They had always looked at me and my friends as if we were still children. Sometimes we saw old men who hadn’t served when they were young, and people always made fun of them. Just knowing I would never suffer such treatment made me feel good, and I returned home with my head held high. With my new maturity came a new attitude toward work. I no longer wanted to labor as a juk’u or even for a venerista, because I realized that formal work in the state company was much better. I had seen other ways of life and was determined to move up in the world.And I had the essential prerequisite for a state job, which was the military service booklet. Workers in Siglo XX were hired through the union, so I went off to speak to Don Gilberto Bernal, the permanent secretary. “Yes, we are signing people up, but you need to make the arrangements with compañero Federico Escobar, the worker control representative,” he said, pointing to a nearby door. This reflected that a certain level of worker control still existed in the mine despite the Barrientos coup. At that time, the MNR and the Catholic Church had joined forces to keep the communists from fully controlling the union.Irineo Pimentel,the general secretary, had their support, and it was no secret that he was there to contest power with Federico Escobar.To reduce tensions and infighting, 62 Federico invited Pimentel, who had a separate but adjoining office, to combine efforts.One concrete measure of their collaboration was that they cut a hole in the wall connecting their offices, which served to increase symbolic, as much as material, cooperation. However, each maintained his own list of unemployed workers, which allowed them to build separate bases of support within the union.I first went to Gilberto Bernal,as I knew that he worked with Escobar, who I thought better represented miners’ interests and who I knew was more popular than Pimentel. At Escobar’s office, six men were seated in a line of chairs against the wall waiting their turn to talk to him. I listened curiously as the workers asked for advice or support on work or family problems, and Escobar paid careful attention to their entreaties,answering each one with authority and confidence.When my turn came, I enthusiastically blurted,“I want you to add my name to the list of miners looking for work.” He just stared at me. “I’m sorry. We’re not signing anyone else up because there simply isn’t enough work. Besides, you’re young, not like the Mining union march when Federico returned, 1961. From the private collection of Félix Muruchi. 63 other compañero who was just here,” he said, pointing to an empty chair. “He has six children, so his needs are clearly greater.We have to find him work first.” I stood there, dumbfounded and fixed on the spot, because it never occurred to me he would refuse my request. I plaintively responded,“But I’ve just completed my military service.”Something in my manner affected Escobar, and he looked at me long and hard. Then he picked up a piece of paper, where he wrote down my name and said,“Take this to the secretary, she’ll add your name to the list.” There were about 640 people ahead of me, but because I lived at home and my father supported me, I had lots of time to go to the union hall every day, where, with 500 other unemployed men, I waited patiently for the newest list to be posted. Even though I realized I would not be hired immediately,I had to show up every day.If I missed a roll call...