Author: Baldomero Lillo
Genre: Spanish, Short stories
Publisher: Edicion Digital
First Published: 1904
Book Description: This is the first published works of the Chilean author Baldomero Lillo. It contains a collection of short stories revolving in the life and perils miners experience in their work life.
Thoughts:
This is meant to be a thought provoking collection of tales.Some were engaging while others felt like the author was trying too hard. As it happens in most story collections, you enjoy a few more than others.
A bit about the author's life will give you an idea of why he is so interested in this plight. Lillo's father traveled to California to participate in the 1848 Gold Rush, but returned with no fortune. The separation and the disappointment surely marked the life of the whole family. He did learn much about mining, and he moved to southern Chile, Lota, to work the coal mines. Baldomero Lillo grew up in these mining communities and worked the mines himself an experience that surely cannot be forgotten easily. Baldomero was exposed to the writings of the French author Émile Zola, who used the philosophy of Positivism and the literary current of Naturalism to try to change the terrible conditions of French coal miners, this point surely was the main attraction for Lillo's towards this French author.
Lillo was able to observe similar conditions in the Chilean mines; I'm sure there are plenty of places in South America and other locations in which people face appalling work conditions as well. But once you see it, its easy to determine yourself to improve the conditions of the workers and what better way to do it than by dramatizing their plight. Lillo wrote many short stories (collected in two major books, Sub Sole and Sub Terra) which sparked the interest of social activists who were appalled by the conditions in the mines.
So far I have only read one of his works Subterra. And I have to admit the work conditions, long hours,and mostly the despair the miners seem to live in with no other possible choice is heart wrenching.The work can be found in English and Spanish, personally I went through it in the original language but I saw a few excerpts of the stories in English and they seem to be ok.So I still recommend them.
The writing is not flowery, its straight to the point and easy to get through. We follow different characters that in itself are not the main focus, they are used to describe how people are living, being dragged onto the same profession that killed their fathers and their fathers before them. Children as young as 8 years old, starting to work for long hours, exposed to gases and dust that makes them grow up frail and weak. We see how strong animals are worked until they are decimated by lack of sunlight and scare food and end up being put down once they are not able to continue working. Both animals and men were subjected to miserable conditions from dusk to dawn and then discarded like trash.
It is one of those stories you can't really say you enjoy, because the feelings they provoke are not inspiring or positive in any way.
I can't say I have a favorite story, some were read in a meh way, others felt like we could have so much more from them if only they were longer. But all of them were designed to be a punch to the gut of the reader.
To give you an idea I'm going to include an Excerpt of one of them.
The Devil's Tunnel -
The excerpt below are the closing paragraphs of Lillo's short story about a miner who loses his life in an accident. His mother, who has lost her husband and two other sons in similar accidents, cannot emotionally deal with his death and dies in a suicidal jump into the mine, personified as a monster who consumes humans.
The body was lifted by the shoulders and feet and was laboriously placed in the waiting stretcher. María de los Angeles, upon seeing that ruddy face and that hair which now seemed drenched in blood, made a superhuman effort to throw herself on the body of her son. But pressed up against the barrier she could only move her arms as an inarticulate soundless cry burst from her throat. Then her muscles relaxed, her arms fell to her side and she stood motionless as if hit by a lightning bolt. The group parted and many faces turned toward the woman who, with her head on her chest, deep in an absolute trance, seemed absorbed in contemplating the abyss open at her feet. No one ever understood how she managed to jump over the barrier or the retaining cables. But many saw her for an instant as her bare legs dangled over empty space and she disappeared, without a sound, into the abyss. A few seconds later, a low and distant sound, almost imperceptible, erupted from the hungry mouth of the pit along with a few puffs of thin vapor: it was the breath of the monster gorged with blood in the depths of his lair.
Not sure which one would be the most impactful, but they are definitely something.
This collection was picked for the challenges:
Around the world challenge: Chile
Read from all the continents
Read more works form Spanish/Latin authors
Read more works in Spanish
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