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THE CHILEAN MINERS who became celebrities after months trapped underground are now immortalised in a Hollywood film starring Antonio Banderas – but for some, real life has had no happy ending.
Five years on, with movie The 33 hitting screens across the US, men who lived through the ordeal and their families are struggling on with lives of little glamour.
“We have felt abandoned from the start,” said Jessica Cortes, wife of one of the miners, Victor Zamora.
“I have lived through these anxious years with him day after day, seeing how he gets depressed at not finding a job and at feeling cheated,” she said.
The miners’ tale of survival warmed hearts worldwide. For the media, it was a tale of friendship and triumph in adversity. But squabbles and contrasting fortunes have since divided the heroic 33.
Some went on to build successful lives, including Luis Urzua, the foreman of the group working in the San Jose copper mine when it collapsed.
Urzua says he and some of his companions have managed to get work with big mining groups and are better off now than before the accident.
But others struggle to find work and say they have been cheated out of the Hollywood dollars being made from their story.
“They have been seriously affected as workers,” said Alberto Iturra, a psychologist who treated the miners.
“They think that at any moment they are going to be laid off and stop working, or worse, that they will be unable to cope with the stress.”
Homeless, poor
With two children aged four and nine, Zamora is as poor now as he was before the mining accident. He lives in social housing off odd jobs and a state allowance of $450 (€415) a month, awarded to the eldest of the 33 miners.
In March a fresh disaster hit his family: a storm destroyed their home and left them in the street.
In The 33, Banderas stars as the charismatic Mario Sepulveda, who acted as one of the leaders of the group, helping to keep their spirits up until they were rescued in October 2010.
Sepulveda is among those who have prospered since climbing out of the mine: he has launched a construction business and a charitable foundation.
But others in the group have not benefited from the fame their ordeal brought them, and are bitter at the way they have been treated.
“Each of them has his own story; each had his own experience,” said Sepulveda.
Disputes have broken out, in particular, about contracts for managing the rights to their story.
Urzua was among several miners who attended a premiere of The 33 in Hollywood this week, ahead of its general US release on Friday.
Film earnings lost
The movie has been rolled out across Latin America since August and heads to Asia and Europe over the coming months.
The ex-foreman has also led a group of nine miners who sued their lawyers this month, accusing them of cheating them out of money from the rights to their story, including earnings from the film.
Sepulveda took issue with his comrades’ lawsuit, saying they were being “led astray by people who haven’t read the contracts properly.”
But Victor Zamora insisted: “The division we have within the group is because of what the lawyers have done to us.”
After emerging from the mine before the cameras of the world’s media, the miners traveled around the world telling their story.
Each of them received a gift of $7,000 (€6,500) from Leonardo Farkas, an eccentric Chilean mining entrepreneur.
One of them even found love waiting for him in the light at the top of the mineshaft.
A German woman watching the drama on television fell in love with miner Daniel Herrera and contacted him online. They are now married and living together in Chile.
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Kenny has a nice EU commissioner role awaiting him in Brussels, which is his 30 pieces of silver for not burning the bondholders but burdened the Irish taxpayers with debt.
@Permo Dermo: that wasn’t him. Blame that lying bast@rd Brian Cowan for that
@jason bourne: Actually jason it was Enda “its not our debt” that put us on the rack,
@Permo Dermo:
Please. The people who burdened the Irish taxpayers with debt were the public sector unions, who’s refusal to give an inch on their bloated pay and pensions during the recession led to a €20 billion annual deficit, every year. The bank bailout was small change compared to that.
@Fred Jensen: €20 > €64?? oh ya I forgot you’re probably using leprechaun economics.
@Fred Jensen: You are some moron aren’t you if you believe that. Aside from the incontrovertible fact that every public sector employee took a fairly hefty pay cut, one which is only now beginning to be only slightly undone, and had a public sector only pension levy applied, how could anyone forget that it was the failure of private sector organisations – banks and property developers among others – that caused the recession and economic collapse. Don’t be so daft
@Fred Jensen: Fred would you ever cop on to yourself.
Why wasn’t tosser listed.
Well this gombeen ever exit the stage.he sold out his own people in favour of the EU,has to be the most embarrassing leader ever
The sheer arrogance of the man, did the same when it came to announcing the date of the last General Election, flip-flopping around for months, unwilling to inform the Irish people when they would be allowed to cast their vote, forgetting that he is nothing more than a PUBLIC SERVANT. Should be in jail for treason.
Surely Seannachi-in-chief. I know a homeless fella on a bench in merrion square with a pint in each hand who will second him for the role, as soon as he’s finished phoning everyone to tell them how much extra water is in his taps thanks to fine gael.
He wasn’t good enough to be taoiseach never mind any of the other jobs. The fact that the EU people see him as a soft touch to advance their own objectives (hence all the EU praise) will rule him out for all of those jobs. I can’t remember one important decision he’s made in the 6 years he’s been taoiseach, except that announcement for the immigrant vote referendum a few months back which will mean nothing to most of us.
@Adrian: The Aqueduct?
“Recently, there has been speculation that Kenny should be kept on as Brexit minister.”
Why would we want “its not our debt” any were near important discussions…..
40 years as a TD, stayed under the radar for 30 odd years collecting his wages and then spent the past few years keeping his masters in Brussels happy to make sure he gets a plum job in Europe. He’s done very well for “himself” and will be looked after while phase two austerity continues to be implemented under stealth taxes and lack of investment in public services. That’s his legacy and as long as the Irish people continue to FF/FG, many more entitled TD’s will enrich themselves on the back of the gullible Irish voter.
While he collects his Taoiseach’s massive pension pot and then the 100k lump sum and the 30k a year teachers pension, he can think about it.
Prison cell
@Jonathan Yeo: so it’s a crime to save a country from economic ruins?
@Negan: lol
@Negan: what planet are you on, I’d like to visit for a few hours.
What about absolute waster?
Quentin Tarantino is looking for a new gimp for Pulp Fiction 2
Would his incompetence be put up with anywhere else.
@William Clay: Only in the EU…..
He could get a job working for Dinny?
Like Cowan did.
Who would have him the circus wouldn’t take him!!
@vinnie Monaghan. Cos he already holds that job title.
He should be booted out of politics.
Why doesn’t he volunteer and dosomething worthwhile ? Why a job with a big salary and yet another pension?
A bog in his beloved mayo,,bury him in it
@Shane O Malley: Shane with a name like O Malley at u sure u wouldn’t like to be buried with him.
@Shane O Malley: Yes he should go back to mayo & cut turf, at least he would be doing something constructive & not costing the taxpayer more money
Backbencher?
@Dylan McKane: backstabber you mean surely
Go back teaching-ar u. Joking-he couldn’t teach a donkey.He will b over in the canaries rubbing the sun cream onto Finnullas back.
Enda wants the private lick arse job to Merkel.
have your say