Above we see the miners a few hours after their rescue, posing for a picture in the hospital with Chilean President Piñera. The miners went through quite the crazy ordeal and I wanted to express how lengthy the entire process took for them from the collapse to their eventual escape.
In helping to explain and expand on this tragedy I created a timeline to help orient readers to the event.
CLICK HERE FOR THE TIMELINE (SORRY IT WOULDN’T EMBED 🙂 )
(Information also gathered from allvoices.com)
When the miners were finally found alive they had been living on a slice of bread and a single spoonful of tuna a day. Hungry as could be, they asked for provisions to be sent down immediately. Once they finally had some food, the rescuers began sending down many more items.
The miners could also finally communicate with family members which brought them all the joy in the world.
Family and friends of one of miners gather around a screen projecting his image from 2,000 feet below to talk to their imprisoned loved one.
The jubilance of their finding got the miners in a singing spirit. Below they sing the Chilean national anthem! Happiness is here though they will still be trapped for another two months.
Here is an image voted one of the top 100 iconic images of the 21st century on Upworthy.com:
After the tragedy the miners lives changed drastically. After being treated for minor wounds and being checked for trauma and lung damage (there were minor problems but nothing terrible), the miners remained in the spotlight of the country and the world for many weeks. The men were flown around the world to places like Los Angeles and Tel Aviv. They were recognized as CNN heroes and given free clothes and a massive movie deal. There was a big issue with the movie deal in that some of the miners signed questionable contracts that did not allow them to get portions of the movie revenue. There was a big uproar about this. But life calmed down. The miners were an exciting story but have since been almost forgotten. There have also been resulting psychological problems and uncertainties for the miners. Many have returned to work out of financial necessity because the government has not followed through on their promise to care for the miners’ expenses.
“They made us feel like heroes,” said Edison Peña, one of the miners, “In the end, we are selling peanuts. It’s ironic, isn’t it?”
Please check out below my website’s pages that were constructed to elaborate and elucidate more about the Chile Mine Disaster:
Home: Trapped Above and Below: Reflections on the Chile Mine Disaster
1. Who’s Who: Mining Ministers, Media Messengers and Mistresses Oh My
3. Artistic Representations: Personal and Other
4. Chain Reactions: The World’s Responses
5. Works Cited