radio novela cap.3 - Domitila de chungara

And as scandal serves to burn itself out

to establish its perfume, so the heroic

Bolivian revolution had to suffer the profound depths

of April 9, 10, and 11,

1952.

In 1952, the Bolivian workers and miners

had made the revolution;

they had put Víctor Paz Estenssoro in the presidency.

The mines had been nationalized,

but Simón Patiño wasn't worried

about that. "

They're going to expropriate our mines. Excellent!

The price of tin is high. Putting

our machinery to the test, obsolete for the

tin barons, was a lucrative business."

A year later, the decree to compensate them came out.

The American government made the

loan. Betrayal of the

revolutionary government. Paz Estenssoro has

betrayed the MDC. What

have we fought for? So that the

mines change owners and we

remain under the boot of

Domitila. The rebellion of the Bolivian miners.

Many women miners.

Heikki. Tomorrow, the same. Musicians and

guitarist. I am your mother

of the struggles of joy,

chapter 3, love in the ditch, because You

hit my sister? I'm

going to call the maid. Who, having grown up with

Ezequiel alone and with four girls, felt

the need to marry again? But

with his second wife,

Domitila's life became unbearable. Every

day there were shouts, fights with the

stepmother, and more beatings. Until,

reviewing here, the new woman... well, of course,

your new woman was hitting my

sister, but we're also

getting to them, and dads, and we got into a fight.

She hit me, and I defended myself, so

now I'm going to hit you much worse,

Dad. If you wait for me, I'm going to keep

paying your wife.

The seed is causing scandals in

the town, correcting your daughter Ezequiel.

But rejoice, for you, once you

told me you wanted rebellious daughters and

brave fighting women, I don't. Well,

if you're so brave, you're going to have to deal

with me. Now you're going to know what

hurts. With the boy, you escaped.

[Music] I

escaped from home running, and then

a policeman passed by, one of those who

walk at night picking up couples,

taking little boys, when he hit me in the

street I shine a flashlight on you today.

What are you doing here,

officer? What are you doing

here? It's already

night. I

think you're Don Ezequiel's daughter.

Yes, officer. But what happened to you? It's really

bad. My dad hit me because of his

new woman. She's a lot, but you have to

go back home as soon as possible. No, no, he's

very angry. You don't have to leave. Come on, I'll go with you.

Don Ezequiel has four daughters here, and the partner. How are you going to throw him out

at night?

Man, his lover.

[Music]

Nobody makes fun of my daughter or me. Who are

you?

But where are you? Look at me, I'm the

night watchman, the mining policeman. Damn it, get

out of my house! Go away, Ezequiel!

In a lot of anger, he went to get a

shotgun he had in the house.

You'll find out where the devils come from.

René ran after him.

Domitila

[Music]

Well, if you're feeling bad,

with Reina and Domitila they ran until they

reached a field.

The two fell into a ditch. There they

hid and spent the night.

Well, as they say, there's no evil that doesn't come from love. The

next day, René the policeman

took her to his mother's house, who would later become her

husband. Domitila was 20 years old. 2006.

Let's go to Siglo 20, that's where we're going to live. I

'm from that district too. You see, if

we go, you know what's over with

the police? Now I just have to

look for work at the mine.

Adeney. They had put us up in the

house of a man I knew. I was

expecting my first child, and it turns out

this man is retiring from the company, and

then the security guards come to kick out those of us who did

n't have the right to occupy that

room, saying you have to leave

immediately. Please wait until

my husband arrives. How can you throw me out like this?

Please, ma'am, you're leaving because you're

leaving, there's nothing more to say. The security guards

took all their things and left them in

the street

where Federico Escobar, the workers' control

of the aid, was.

[Music]

Good morning, Mrs. Alycia, good morning.

I'm looking for your husband, Mr.

Federico. Come in, comrade.

Thank you very much. I'll let him know right away.

Mr. Federico Escobar arrived today, and I was

hoping to find a good leader.

Bravo, used to giving orders, but he wasn't

the opposite; a good, simple man, he

even gave us food at his house, Don

Federico. This lady has been kicked out of

her home, like, leaving her alone, how

can you?

Federico Escobar was very upset, he asked

the union for transportation and went to

Cancanilla where the

company's social welfare office was located.

You security guards have given a

pregnant woman a place to stay, what do you think? Is

n't her husband a

company employee? Does he have the right to be in

this house? We were given that

order, comrade Federico. Right now, today, right now,

open the

room and put everything back in its

place. The lady isn't going to be

cleaning up this mess you've made.

And you, Doña Domitila, comrade

Federico, go rest. Do you

think people aren't human? That's how you

started your married life, René and

Domitila, but soon you won't be

alone with me anymore. My sisters are

abandoned, I have to take them in,

René, but I expect nine of them to work and

help around the house.

[Music]

It's a Our first child

is a little boy,

how cute! What are we going to do with your

sisters? Boom! And we already have... look at our little

wand! And that... more obligations. I hope a

little... I'll wait a little... it's just that

I haven't gotten tired of your

sisters, Dom, and I have no

obligation to support them anymore.

My sisters were looking for

work, but it was very difficult to find,

to the point of scarcity. We would say that

we shared a single pair of shoes among

all of us. We took turns wearing them when

we went out on the street. In

2020, four companions,

René, had started working in the mine.

The work of a miner is extremely

exhausting. Those who haven't seen it can't even

imagine it:

entering through those tunnels,

dark pits, the lack of air, the stench

of the company,

and the dim light of the little lamp on the

helmet. The guard had to break the rock with a

hammer and a drill. The

unbearable heat in the deep levels,

the dynamite, the dynamite dust, and the

cave-in that doesn't warn you.

Eight hours without rest, extracting the

ore. How do they endure it,

poking, chewing coca with lye,

coca leaves that... They make you forget the hunger.

Barely 35 years is the average lifespan of

a miner, and then they're already sick with

mine sickness, silicosis. They start

vomiting black and purple blood, their

mouths fill with blood, and finally,

lung damage occurs, and they die.

[Music]

One day, Federico Escobar explained to the

union why the miners who

produce the country's wealth live so

miserably.

Listen carefully. How does he project it?

Here in the 20th century, we are

10,000 workers. We

extract 300-400 tons of

tin every month. Now look at this

sheet of paper.

Let's say it represents that wealth

we produce each month.

How is that wealth distributed? Tell me, comrade

Federico, but you explain it to us.

You know very well about that; we do

n't. Come, I'm going to cut the sheet

of paper into five equal parts. Like this, five parts.

Of these five parts,

comrades, four go to the

foreign capitalist. That's their

profit. And what's left for Bolivia? Maybe one-fifth.

And of this fifth, the

government gets half for gas, half for

transportation, customs, and

export duties. to England and the US, and all

we have left is that little piece, and imagine, from

that little piece the government takes again

for the salaries of its ministers,

for the army, the soldiers who beat us senseless, who

massacre us, and even

for their flowers, and for the others, for our

comrade Federico, there's nothing left. Wait, wait, wait,

comrades, and from

that leftover piece of paper, the government takes

another part for social security, for

their trips, and that's how it is, for Don

Federico, that's how they take and keep taking, in the

end, from this fair little piece of paper

that's left over, from this tiny little piece,

they pay the salaries of the ten thousand workers,

ten thousand workers who are the ones who

extracted the tin from the mine. That's how

Don Federico Escobar

Zapata, that great leader, explained it, and he made us

understand that we are not poor

but impoverished, that the boys are not

rich but thieves, and that Bolivia

cannot continue as it is.

Domitila, a production of the

Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, radiates

passionate lists and passionate people

of the many

[Music]

And as the scandal continues to escalate, it will escalate

to super-high levels.