Working-class masculinity, middle-class morality, and labor politics in the Chilean copper mines

Journal of Social History

Volumn 30, Issue 2, 1996, Pages 435-463

  Klubock, Thomas Miller ^a  

^a Department of History ^*  (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0030525163     PISSN: 00224529     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/jsh/30.2.435     Document Type: Article

References (117)

1. Beatrix Campbell, Wigan Pier Revisited: Poverty and Politics in the Eighties (London, 1984), p.94.
2. See, for example, Hernán Ramírez Necochea, Historia del Movimiento Obrero en Chile: Siglo XIX (Santiago, 1956); James Petras and Maurice Zeitlin, El Radicalismo Político de la Clase Trabajadora Chilena (Buenos Aires, 1969); Jorge Barría, El Movimiento Obrero en Chile (Santiago, 1971); Charles Bergquist, Labor in Latin America (Stanford, 1986). For a critique of the traditional Chilean labor historiography's emphasis on miners see Peter de Shazo, Urban Workers and Labor Unions in Chile, 1902-1927 (Madison, 1983).
3. See, for example, Hernán Ramírez Necochea, Historia del Movimiento Obrero en Chile: Siglo XIX (Santiago, 1956); James Petras and Maurice Zeitlin, El Radicalismo Político de la Clase Trabajadora Chilena (Buenos Aires, 1969); Jorge Barría, El Movimiento Obrero en Chile (Santiago, 1971); Charles Bergquist, Labor in Latin America (Stanford, 1986). For a critique of the traditional Chilean labor historiography's emphasis on miners see Peter de Shazo, Urban Workers and Labor Unions in Chile, 1902-1927 (Madison, 1983).
4. See, for example, Hernán Ramírez Necochea, Historia del Movimiento Obrero en Chile: Siglo XIX (Santiago, 1956); James Petras and Maurice Zeitlin, El Radicalismo Político de la Clase Trabajadora Chilena (Buenos Aires, 1969); Jorge Barría, El Movimiento Obrero en Chile (Santiago, 1971); Charles Bergquist, Labor in Latin America (Stanford, 1986). For a critique of the traditional Chilean labor historiography's emphasis on miners see Peter de Shazo, Urban Workers and Labor Unions in Chile, 1902-1927 (Madison, 1983).
5. See, for example, Hernán Ramírez Necochea, Historia del Movimiento Obrero en Chile: Siglo XIX (Santiago, 1956); James Petras and Maurice Zeitlin, El Radicalismo Político de la Clase Trabajadora Chilena (Buenos Aires, 1969); Jorge Barría, El Movimiento Obrero en Chile (Santiago, 1971); Charles Bergquist, Labor in Latin America (Stanford, 1986). For a critique of the traditional Chilean labor historiography's emphasis on miners see Peter de Shazo, Urban Workers and Labor Unions in Chile, 1902-1927 (Madison, 1983).
6. See, for example, Hernán Ramírez Necochea, Historia del Movimiento Obrero en Chile: Siglo XIX (Santiago, 1956); James Petras and Maurice Zeitlin, El Radicalismo Político de la Clase Trabajadora Chilena (Buenos Aires, 1969); Jorge Barría, El Movimiento Obrero en Chile (Santiago, 1971); Charles Bergquist, Labor in Latin America (Stanford, 1986). For a critique of the traditional Chilean labor historiography's emphasis on miners see Peter de Shazo, Urban Workers and Labor Unions in Chile, 1902-1927 (Madison, 1983).
7. For pioneering studies of working-class masculinity in the United States see Ava Baron, "An 'Other' Side of Gender Antagonism at Work: Men, Boys, and the Remasculinization of Printers' Work, 1830-1920," pp. 47-69; Mary H. Blewett, "Manhood and the Market: The Politics of Gender and Class Among the Textile Workers of Fall River, Massachusetts," pp. 92-113; Nancy Hewitt, "'The Voice of Virile Labor': Labor Militancy, Community Solidarity, and Gender Identity Among Tampa's Latin Workers, 1880-1921," pp. 142-167, in Ava Baron ed. Work Engendered: Toward a New History of American Labor (Ithaca, 1991).
8. For pioneering studies of working-class masculinity in the United States see Ava Baron, "An 'Other' Side of Gender Antagonism at Work: Men, Boys, and the Remasculinization of Printers' Work, 1830-1920," pp. 47-69; Mary H. Blewett, "Manhood and the Market: The Politics of Gender and Class Among the Textile Workers of Fall River, Massachusetts," pp. 92-113; Nancy Hewitt, "'The Voice of Virile Labor': Labor Militancy, Community Solidarity, and Gender Identity Among Tampa's Latin Workers, 1880-1921," pp. 142-167, in Ava Baron ed. Work Engendered: Toward a New History of American Labor (Ithaca, 1991).
9. For pioneering studies of working-class masculinity in the United States see Ava Baron, "An 'Other' Side of Gender Antagonism at Work: Men, Boys, and the Remasculinization of Printers' Work, 1830-1920," pp. 47-69; Mary H. Blewett, "Manhood and the Market: The Politics of Gender and Class Among the Textile Workers of Fall River, Massachusetts," pp. 92-113; Nancy Hewitt, "'The Voice of Virile Labor': Labor Militancy, Community Solidarity, and Gender Identity Among Tampa's Latin Workers, 1880-1921," pp. 142-167, in Ava Baron ed. Work Engendered: Toward a New History of American Labor (Ithaca, 1991).
10. In 1917 only 22.4% of the El Teniente work force was permanent, and in 1918, 23.8%, according to a study by Alejandro Fuenzalida Grandon, La vida i el Trabajo en el Mineral "El Teniente" [Santiago, 1919]. In 1922, of the two-thousands worker hired by the infamous enganche, only 9% stayed on in El Teniente to work. (H. Mackenzie Walker to L.E. Grant, 2 May 1923, Archive of the Braden Copper Company, hitherto referred to as ABCC). The transience of the copper labor force was consistent with Chilean workers' long history of migrations. Since the nineteenth century laborers had traveled the country from the agricultural regions of the southern and central valleys to the northern nitrate fields, through ports like Valparaíso and Antofogasta, and to urban centers like Santiago in search of work opportunities. Most workers spent time at a number of different jobs in different sectors of the economy. For studies of the nineteenth and early twentieth century work force and migration see: Gabriel Salazar, Labradores, Peones, y Proletarios (Santiago, 1985) and Arnold Bauer, Chilean Rural Society from the Spanish Conquest to 1930 (Cambridge, 1975).
11. In 1917 only 22.4% of the El Teniente work force was permanent, and in 1918, 23.8%, according to a study by Alejandro Fuenzalida Grandon, La vida i el Trabajo en el Mineral "El Teniente" [Santiago, 1919]. In 1922, of the two-thousands worker hired by the infamous enganche, only 9% stayed on in El Teniente to work. (H. Mackenzie Walker to L.E. Grant, 2 May 1923, Archive of the Braden Copper Company, hitherto referred to as ABCC). The transience of the copper labor force was consistent with Chilean workers' long history of migrations. Since the nineteenth century laborers had traveled the country from the agricultural regions of the southern and central valleys to the northern nitrate fields, through ports like Valparaíso and Antofogasta, and to urban centers like Santiago in search of work opportunities. Most workers spent time at a number of different jobs in different sectors of the economy. For studies of the nineteenth and early twentieth century work force and migration see: Gabriel Salazar, Labradores, Peones, y Proletarios (Santiago, 1985) and Arnold Bauer, Chilean Rural Society from the Spanish Conquest to 1930 (Cambridge, 1975).
12. In 1917 only 22.4% of the El Teniente work force was permanent, and in 1918, 23.8%, according to a study by Alejandro Fuenzalida Grandon, La vida i el Trabajo en el Mineral "El Teniente" [Santiago, 1919]. In 1922, of the two-thousands worker hired by the infamous enganche, only 9% stayed on in El Teniente to work. (H. Mackenzie Walker to L.E. Grant, 2 May 1923, Archive of the Braden Copper Company, hitherto referred to as ABCC). The transience of the copper labor force was consistent with Chilean workers' long history of migrations. Since the nineteenth century laborers had traveled the country from the agricultural regions of the southern and central valleys to the northern nitrate fields, through ports like Valparaíso and Antofogasta, and to urban centers like Santiago in search of work opportunities. Most workers spent time at a number of different jobs in different sectors of the economy. For studies of the nineteenth and early twentieth century work force and migration see: Gabriel Salazar, Labradores, Peones, y Proletarios (Santiago, 1985) and Arnold Bauer, Chilean Rural Society from the Spanish Conquest to 1930 (Cambridge, 1975).
13. In 1917 only 22.4% of the El Teniente work force was permanent, and in 1918, 23.8%, according to a study by Alejandro Fuenzalida Grandon, La vida i el Trabajo en el Mineral "El Teniente" [Santiago, 1919]. In 1922, of the two-thousands worker hired by the infamous enganche, only 9% stayed on in El Teniente to work. (H. Mackenzie Walker to L.E. Grant, 2 May 1923, Archive of the Braden Copper Company, hitherto referred to as ABCC). The transience of the copper labor force was consistent with Chilean workers' long history of migrations. Since the nineteenth century laborers had traveled the country from the agricultural regions of the southern and central valleys to the northern nitrate fields, through ports like Valparaíso and Antofogasta, and to urban centers like Santiago in search of work opportunities. Most workers spent time at a number of different jobs in different sectors of the economy. For studies of the nineteenth and early twentieth century work force and migration see: Gabriel Salazar, Labradores, Peones, y Proletarios (Santiago, 1985) and Arnold Bauer, Chilean Rural Society from the Spanish Conquest to 1930 (Cambridge, 1975).
14. See the company paper, El Teniente, 1920-24, for descriptions of the company welfare program.
15. June Nash notes a similar attempt to build stable nuclear families in the Bolivian tin mines, where "the beneficial effects of a stable family life in creating a more dependable work force were recognized by the administration of the mines after nationalization." June Nash, We Eat the Mines and the Mines Eat Us: Dependency and Exploitation in Bolivian Tin Mines (New York, 1979), p.59.
16. See Thomas Miller Klubock, "Class, Community, and Gender in the Chilean Copper Mines: The El Teniente Mines and Working-Class Politics, 1904-1951" (Ph.D. Dissertation, Yale University, 1993).
17. L. E. Grant to Carlos Briones Luco, 6 December 1921, ABCC.
18. El Teniente, 17 October 1922.
19. El Teniente, 12 October 1922.
20. For cases of women arrested for illegal abortions see Juzgado de Letras de Menor Cuantía, Sewell, Causa No.9926, 23 March 1945, Juzgado de Letras de Menor Cuantía, hitherto referred to as CBRR.
21. For women arrested for abandoning their husbands see Juzgado de Letras de Menor Cuantía, Sewell, Causa No.5458, 5 November 1940, CBRR.
22. For examples of cases of domestic violence see Juzgado de Letras de Menor Cuantía, Sewell, Causas No.12047 (13 July 1948), Causa No.6266 (14 November 1941), Causa No.8344 (15 September 1942), Causa No.6146 (1 February 1941), Causa No. 4742 (21 November 1938), Causa No.10.955 (2 September 1946), CBRR.
23. In 1937, almost half of El Teniente miners were married (3503) and 3000 women lived in the camps. Census de la Braden Copper Company, 1937, ABCC.
24. David Montgomery, Workers' Control in America: Studies in the History of Work, Technology, and Labor Struggles (Cambridge, 1979).
25. Account published in La Semana, 12 November 1921.
26. Yonne de Souza Grossi describes a similar masculine work culture among Brazilian gold miners, where the company also promoted competitions among workers and work groups. The miners' discourse of virility promoted by competition divided the miners and stimulated individualist tendencies. At the same time, however, de Souza Grossi argues that this same sense of virility based on hard physical labor created the potential for militant collective action. Mina de Morro Velho: A Extração do Homen (Rio de Janeiro, 1981).
27. Oral sources.
28. Baltazar Castro, Mi Camarada Padre (Santiago, 1985), p.267.
29. See, for example, interviews with old miners in the company paper, Semanario de "El Teniente," August 1962.
30. Ibid., pp.11-18.
31. Baltazar Castro, Sewell (Santiago, 1966), p.25. Castro's iconography of the male body is startlingly similar to George Orwell's fascination with British coal miners' physical strength. Writing around the same time as Castro, Orwell described coal miners as "hammered iron statues ... splendid men ... most of them have the most noble bodies; wide shoulders tapering to slender supple waists, and small pronounced buttocks and sinewy thighs." The Road To Wigan Pier (New York, 1958) p.23. A study of British coal miners during the 1950s commented on the ways in which "in the pit itself, among his workmates, the miner is proud of doing his job as a good man should.... pride in work is a very important part of the miner's life. Old men delight in stories of their strength and skill in youth." Norman Dennis, Fernando Henriques, Clifford Slaughter, Coal is Our Life: An Analysis of a Yorkshire Mining Community (London, 1956), p.73. Similarly, Michelle Perot notes that with industrialization and proletarianization in France "the symbols of the working class ... became more and more masculine: it has been represented by the barrel-chested male worker with broad shoulders, swollen biceps, and powerful muscles." Michelle Perot, "On the Formation of the French Working Class" in Ira Katznelson and Aristide R. Zolberg eds., Working-Class Formation: Nineteenth Century Patterns in Western Europe and the United States (Princeton 1986), p.99. Similarly, Eric Hobsbawm has noted that by the 1930s in most of the industrial world the dominant symbol of the working class was a "masculine laborer ... naked to the waist." Eric Hobsbawm, Workers: Worlds of Labor (New York, 1984), p.90. Also see Joshua B. Freeman, "Hardhats: Construction Workers, Manliness, and the 1970 Pro-War Demonstrations." Journal of Social History, vol.26, #4, 725-744, for a discussion of this point in the context of North American construction workers.
32. Baltazar Castro, Sewell (Santiago, 1966), p.25. Castro's iconography of the male body is startlingly similar to George Orwell's fascination with British coal miners' physical strength. Writing around the same time as Castro, Orwell described coal miners as "hammered iron statues ... splendid men ... most of them have the most noble bodies; wide shoulders tapering to slender supple waists, and small pronounced buttocks and sinewy thighs." The Road To Wigan Pier (New York, 1958) p.23. A study of British coal miners during the 1950s commented on the ways in which "in the pit itself, among his workmates, the miner is proud of doing his job as a good man should.... pride in work is a very important part of the miner's life. Old men delight in stories of their strength and skill in youth." Norman Dennis, Fernando Henriques, Clifford Slaughter, Coal is Our Life: An Analysis of a Yorkshire Mining Community (London, 1956), p.73. Similarly, Michelle Perot notes that with industrialization and proletarianization in France "the symbols of the working class ... became more and more masculine: it has been represented by the barrel-chested male worker with broad shoulders, swollen biceps, and powerful muscles." Michelle Perot, "On the Formation of the French Working Class" in Ira Katznelson and Aristide R. Zolberg eds., Working-Class Formation: Nineteenth Century Patterns in Western Europe and the United States (Princeton 1986), p.99. Similarly, Eric Hobsbawm has noted that by the 1930s in most of the industrial world the dominant symbol of the working class was a "masculine laborer ... naked to the waist." Eric Hobsbawm, Workers: Worlds of Labor (New York, 1984), p.90. Also see Joshua B. Freeman, "Hardhats: Construction Workers, Manliness, and the 1970 Pro-War Demonstrations." Journal of Social History, vol.26, #4, 725-744, for a discussion of this point in the context of North American construction workers.
33. Baltazar Castro, Sewell (Santiago, 1966), p.25. Castro's iconography of the male body is startlingly similar to George Orwell's fascination with British coal miners' physical strength. Writing around the same time as Castro, Orwell described coal miners as "hammered iron statues ... splendid men ... most of them have the most noble bodies; wide shoulders tapering to slender supple waists, and small pronounced buttocks and sinewy thighs." The Road To Wigan Pier (New York, 1958) p.23. A study of British coal miners during the 1950s commented on the ways in which "in the pit itself, among his workmates, the miner is proud of doing his job as a good man should.... pride in work is a very important part of the miner's life. Old men delight in stories of their strength and skill in youth." Norman Dennis, Fernando Henriques, Clifford Slaughter, Coal is Our Life: An Analysis of a Yorkshire Mining Community (London, 1956), p.73. Similarly, Michelle Perot notes that with industrialization and proletarianization in France "the symbols of the working class ... became more and more masculine: it has been represented by the barrel-chested male worker with broad shoulders, swollen biceps, and powerful muscles." Michelle Perot, "On the Formation of the French Working Class" in Ira Katznelson and Aristide R. Zolberg eds., Working-Class Formation: Nineteenth Century Patterns in Western Europe and the United States (Princeton 1986), p.99. Similarly, Eric Hobsbawm has noted that by the 1930s in most of the industrial world the dominant symbol of the working class was a "masculine laborer ... naked to the waist." Eric Hobsbawm, Workers: Worlds of Labor (New York, 1984), p.90. Also see Joshua B. Freeman, "Hardhats: Construction Workers, Manliness, and the 1970 Pro-War Demonstrations." Journal of Social History, vol.26, #4, 725-744, for a discussion of this point in the context of North American construction workers.
34. Baltazar Castro, Sewell (Santiago, 1966), p.25. Castro's iconography of the male body is startlingly similar to George Orwell's fascination with British coal miners' physical strength. Writing around the same time as Castro, Orwell described coal miners as "hammered iron statues ... splendid men ... most of them have the most noble bodies; wide shoulders tapering to slender supple waists, and small pronounced buttocks and sinewy thighs." The Road To Wigan Pier (New York, 1958) p.23. A study of British coal miners during the 1950s commented on the ways in which "in the pit itself, among his workmates, the miner is proud of doing his job as a good man should.... pride in work is a very important part of the miner's life. Old men delight in stories of their strength and skill in youth." Norman Dennis, Fernando Henriques, Clifford Slaughter, Coal is Our Life: An Analysis of a Yorkshire Mining Community (London, 1956), p.73. Similarly, Michelle Perot notes that with industrialization and proletarianization in France "the symbols of the working class ... became more and more masculine: it has been represented by the barrel-chested male worker with broad shoulders, swollen biceps, and powerful muscles." Michelle Perot, "On the Formation of the French Working Class" in Ira Katznelson and Aristide R. Zolberg eds., Working-Class Formation: Nineteenth Century Patterns in Western Europe and the United States (Princeton 1986), p.99. Similarly, Eric Hobsbawm has noted that by the 1930s in most of the industrial world the dominant symbol of the working class was a "masculine laborer ... naked to the waist." Eric Hobsbawm, Workers: Worlds of Labor (New York, 1984), p.90. Also see Joshua B. Freeman, "Hardhats: Construction Workers, Manliness, and the 1970 Pro-War Demonstrations." Journal of Social History, vol.26, #4, 725-744, for a discussion of this point in the context of North American construction workers.
35. Baltazar Castro, Sewell (Santiago, 1966), p.25. Castro's iconography of the male body is startlingly similar to George Orwell's fascination with British coal miners' physical strength. Writing around the same time as Castro, Orwell described coal miners as "hammered iron statues ... splendid men ... most of them have the most noble bodies; wide shoulders tapering to slender supple waists, and small pronounced buttocks and sinewy thighs." The Road To Wigan Pier (New York, 1958) p.23. A study of British coal miners during the 1950s commented on the ways in which "in the pit itself, among his workmates, the miner is proud of doing his job as a good man should.... pride in work is a very important part of the miner's life. Old men delight in stories of their strength and skill in youth." Norman Dennis, Fernando Henriques, Clifford Slaughter, Coal is Our Life: An Analysis of a Yorkshire Mining Community (London, 1956), p.73. Similarly, Michelle Perot notes that with industrialization and proletarianization in France "the symbols of the working class ... became more and more masculine: it has been represented by the barrel-chested male worker with broad shoulders, swollen biceps, and powerful muscles." Michelle Perot, "On the Formation of the French Working Class" in Ira Katznelson and Aristide R. Zolberg eds., Working-Class Formation: Nineteenth Century Patterns in Western Europe and the United States (Princeton 1986), p.99. Similarly, Eric Hobsbawm has noted that by the 1930s in most of the industrial world the dominant symbol of the working class was a "masculine laborer ... naked to the waist." Eric Hobsbawm, Workers: Worlds of Labor (New York, 1984), p.90. Also see Joshua B. Freeman, "Hardhats: Construction Workers, Manliness, and the 1970 Pro-War Demonstrations." Journal of Social History, vol.26, #4, 725-744, for a discussion of this point in the context of North American construction workers.
36. Baltazar Castro, Sewell (Santiago, 1966), p.25. Castro's iconography of the male body is startlingly similar to George Orwell's fascination with British coal miners' physical strength. Writing around the same time as Castro, Orwell described coal miners as "hammered iron statues ... splendid men ... most of them have the most noble bodies; wide shoulders tapering to slender supple waists, and small pronounced buttocks and sinewy thighs." The Road To Wigan Pier (New York, 1958) p.23. A study of British coal miners during the 1950s commented on the ways in which "in the pit itself, among his workmates, the miner is proud of doing his job as a good man should.... pride in work is a very important part of the miner's life. Old men delight in stories of their strength and skill in youth." Norman Dennis, Fernando Henriques, Clifford Slaughter, Coal is Our Life: An Analysis of a Yorkshire Mining Community (London, 1956), p.73. Similarly, Michelle Perot notes that with industrialization and proletarianization in France "the symbols of the working class ... became more and more masculine: it has been represented by the barrel-chested male worker with broad shoulders, swollen biceps, and powerful muscles." Michelle Perot, "On the Formation of the French Working Class" in Ira Katznelson and Aristide R. Zolberg eds., Working-Class Formation: Nineteenth Century Patterns in Western Europe and the United States (Princeton 1986), p.99. Similarly, Eric Hobsbawm has noted that by the 1930s in most of the industrial world the dominant symbol of the working class was a "masculine laborer ... naked to the waist." Eric Hobsbawm, Workers: Worlds of Labor (New York, 1984), p.90. Also see Joshua B. Freeman, "Hardhats: Construction Workers, Manliness, and the 1970 Pro-War Demonstrations." Journal of Social History, vol.26, #4, 725-744, for a discussion of this point in the context of North American construction workers.
37. Castro, p.26.
38. Ibid., p.39.
39. Ibid., p.89. This miners' pride based on a sense of physical power, work skill, sacrifice, and danger was found in other mining areas around the globe. In the case of North American coal miners, David Corbin notes that "the coal miner was not alienated from his work or product. He took pride in his career - once a miner, always a miner. He possessed a 'proud sense of occupational identity,' that ... helped him to define himself and gave him an identity that seemed to be lacking among other industrial workers." Life, Work, and Rebellion in the Coal Fields: The Southern West Virginia Miners 1880-1922 (Urbana, 1981), pp.39-40.
40. Ibid., p.89. This miners' pride based on a sense of physical power, work skill, sacrifice, and danger was found in other mining areas around the globe. In the case of North American coal miners, David Corbin notes that "the coal miner was not alienated from his work or product. He took pride in his career - once a miner, always a miner. He possessed a 'proud sense of occupational identity,' that ... helped him to define himself and gave him an identity that seemed to be lacking among other industrial workers." Life, Work, and Rebellion in the Coal Fields: The Southern West Virginia Miners 1880-1922 (Urbana, 1981), pp.39-40.
41. Oral sources.
42. Baltazar Castro, Un Hombre por el Camino (Santiago, 1950), p.73.
43. Welfare Department, "Indices on Costs of Living with Special Reference to Clothing," 17 May 1940, ABCC.
44. Dick Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of Style (London and New York, 1979).
45. William E. French, "Progreso Forzado: Workers and the Inculcation of the Capitalist Work Ethic in the Parral Mining District" in William H. Beezley, Cheryl English Martin, and William E. French eds., Rituals of Rule, Rituals of Resistance: Public Celebrations and Popular Culture in Mexico (Wilmington, DE, 1994), pp. 199-200. French describes how copper miners in Mexico appropriated and undermined middle-class norms of respectability in their dress and other cultural activities.
46. The significance of clothing and appearance to both working-class masculinity and militancy has also been underlined in Michelle Perot's description of class formation in France. She notes that working-class aspirations "crystalize around clothing, which is laden with symbols; it was the most rapidly expanding item within the working-class budget." Perot, "On the Formation of the French Working Class," p.104.
47. Oral sources.
48. Here the direct analogy would be to Peronist culture in Argentina and the celebration of the descamisados and cabecitas negras in Peronist rhetoric. For a discussion of Peronism's appropriation and inversion of these traditionally pejorative terms for workers see Daniel James, Resistance and Integration: Peronism and the Argentine Working Class, 1946-1976 (Cambridge, 1988), chapter 1.
49. "The miner's 'pick' is the hardest that there is/it breaks the rock to pieces and extracts the [copper] ore." Quoted in Pagina Abierta, 12-25 October 1992.
50. Castro, Un Hombre por el Camino, p.202.
51. Gonzalo Drago, Cuentos Mineros (Santiago, 1941), p.82.
52. Ibid., p. 18. These El Teniente mining tales resemble the mythologies of miners around the world. The superstition regarding a woman entering an underground mine seems to have been shared almost universally. More specifically, the El Teniente miners' myths are similar to Bolivian tin miners' belief in the mine spirit, the tío, with the crucial difference that the Chilean miners' spirit is a woman. June Nash has described how Bolivian miners enter into contracts or agreements with the tío. In order to seek protection from mine accidents or access to the mine's riches (depending upon the historical conjuncture), the tin miners engage in various ritual offerings to the tío. Like the Bolivian tío, El Teniente's female spirits represented both danger and protection. They punished with accidents, but could be supplicated for protection. Similarly, like the tío, they guarded the treasure the miners sought to discover and extract and thus had to be dealt with delicately. Death in the mine could result from crossing the female spirits who guarded a secret treasure.
53. Ibid., p. 18. These El Teniente mining tales resemble the mythologies of miners around the world. The superstition regarding a woman entering an underground mine seems to have been shared almost universally. More specifically, the El Teniente miners' myths are similar to Bolivian tin miners' belief in the mine spirit, the tío, with the crucial difference that the Chilean miners' spirit is a woman. June Nash has described how Bolivian miners enter into contracts or agreements with the tío. In order to seek protection from mine accidents or access to the mine's riches (depending upon the historical conjuncture), the tin miners engage in various ritual offerings to the tío. Like the Bolivian tío, El Teniente's female spirits represented both danger and protection. They punished with accidents, but could be supplicated for protection. Similarly, like the tío, they guarded the treasure the miners sought to discover and extract and thus had to be dealt with delicately. Death in the mine could result from crossing the female spirits who guarded a secret treasure.
54. Castro, Sewell, p.126.
55. Oral sources.
56. "The miner in the mines is working/and the woman below is deceiving him." Drago, Cuentos Mineros, p.99.
57. "You see, the worker arrives tired ... from work and sleeps, gets up, drinks, arrives home drunk ... he doesn't have a good relationship with his family, he doesn't have a good relationship with his wife.... life in the camps is harder because there you noticed more those women that cheated on their husbands and everyone knew that the woman cheated on her husband ... and we even had a name for this ... la boca del fiero." This is also the opinion of social workers interviewed during the 1960s who explained workers' constant discontent with the company and militancy in terms of their anxieties about adultery. Manuel Barrera, "El Conflicto Obrero en el Enclave Cuprífero,́ Instituto de Economía y Planificación, Universidad de Chile, 1973.
58. See, for example, Castro, Sewell.
59. Drago, Cuentos Mineros, p.71.
60. Ibid., p.74.
61. Ibid., p.78.
62. See Departamento de Bienestar Social, Oficina del Trabajo, Nomina de Obreros Despididos Desde el 1 de Marzo al 31 de Mayo de 1940, Braden Copper Company and other reports on dismissals for the 1940s, ABCC.
63. "Gancho" literally means "hook," but for the miners it means something like "compañero" "comarada" - comrade or friend.
64. Fuenzalida, La Vida i el Trabajo en el Mineral "El Teniente" p.113. In interviews old miners also refer to the particular idiom of the mines which only they could understand.
65. Ibid., p.114.
66. For cases of disobedience see lists of firings and suspensions, Braden Copper Company, 1922-1946, ABCC.
67. Ibid.
68. Castro, Sewell, p.30.
69. Drago, Cuentos Mineros, p.11.
70. Juzgado de Letras de Menor Cuantía, Sewell, Causa No.6037, 11 December 1940, CBRR.
71. Juzgado de Letras de Menor Cuantía, Sewell, Causa No.11.280, 10 April 1947, CBRR.
72. Despertar Minero, Primera Quincena de Noviembre de 1944.
73. General Manager's Annual Report - 1940, Braden Copper Company, ABCC. In his writing on Eigensinn or self-assertion, Alf Lüdtke describes how physical horseplay and practical jokes on the shop floor served German metal workers as a means to take informal breaks in the workday and a way to assert their "self-will" and establish forms of self-respect, as well as an informal collective resistance to the bosses' control. Alf Lüdtke, "Cash, Coffee Breaks, Horseplay: Eigensinn and Politics Among Factory Workers in Germany circa 1900," in Confrontation, Class Consciousness, and the Labour Process, ed. Michael Hanagan and Charles Stephenson (New York, 1986); also see Geoff Eley, "Labor History, Social History, Alltagsgeschichte: Experience, Culture, and Politics of the Everyday - a New Direction for German Social History?" Journal of Modern History 61 (June 1989) for a useful discussion of Lüdtke's work.
74. General Manager's Annual Report - 1940, Braden Copper Company, ABCC. In his writing on Eigensinn or self-assertion, Alf Lüdtke describes how physical horseplay and practical jokes on the shop floor served German metal workers as a means to take informal breaks in the workday and a way to assert their "self-will" and establish forms of self-respect, as well as an informal collective resistance to the bosses' control. Alf Lüdtke, "Cash, Coffee Breaks, Horseplay: Eigensinn and Politics Among Factory Workers in Germany circa 1900," in Confrontation, Class Consciousness, and the Labour Process, ed. Michael Hanagan and Charles Stephenson (New York, 1986); also see Geoff Eley, "Labor History, Social History, Alltagsgeschichte: Experience, Culture, and Politics of the Everyday - a New Direction for German Social History?" Journal of Modern History 61 (June 1989) for a useful discussion of Lüdtke's work.
75. General Manager's Annual Report - 1940, Braden Copper Company, ABCC. In his writing on Eigensinn or self-assertion, Alf Lüdtke describes how physical horseplay and practical jokes on the shop floor served German metal workers as a means to take informal breaks in the workday and a way to assert their "self-will" and establish forms of self-respect, as well as an informal collective resistance to the bosses' control. Alf Lüdtke, "Cash, Coffee Breaks, Horseplay: Eigensinn and Politics Among Factory Workers in Germany circa 1900," in Confrontation, Class Consciousness, and the Labour Process, ed. Michael Hanagan and Charles Stephenson (New York, 1986); also see Geoff Eley, "Labor History, Social History, Alltagsgeschichte: Experience, Culture, and Politics of the Everyday - a New Direction for German Social History?" Journal of Modern History 61 (June 1989) for a useful discussion of Lüdtke's work.
76. Juzgado de Letras de Menor Cuantía, Sewell, Causa No.6290, 29 April 1941, CBRR.
77. Juzgado de Letras de Menor Cuantía, Sewell, Causa No.5430, 15 January 1940, CBRR.
78. La Tribuna, 5 March 1942.
79. British coal miners sustained similar codes of honor and solidarity. As one study noted during the 1950s, "Solidarity ... is a very strongly developed characteristic of social relations in mining; it is a characteristic engendered by the nature and organization of coal mining.... A miner's first loyalty is to his 'mates.' To break this code can have serious consequences ... for a miner his whole life, not only his work, can be affected by the actions and words of his fellows. The 'blackleg' miner must be a social outcast in every way, and not just at work." Dennis, Henriques, Slaughter, Cool is Our Life, pp.79-80.
80. Fuenzalida, La Vida, pp.101-102.
81. Letter to Ana Pino Santibañez, 3 February 1939, ABCC.
82. Braden Copper Company to Hernán Cousiño Tocornal, ABCC, op. cit.
83. H. Mackenzie Walker to W. J. Turner, 6 September 1939, ABCC.
84. Welfare Department, Confidential Memorandum, 28 July 1943, ABCC.
85. Letter to Ana Pinto Santibañez, 3 February 1939, op. cit.
86. Welfare Department, letter to Presidente, Sindicato Industrial Braden Copper Company, "Sewell y Mina," 4 September 1943, ABCC.
87. Stella Seibert, "Legislación del Trabajo y Previsión Social en El Teniente," (Thesis: Universidad de Chile, 1936) p.39.
88. Oral sources.
89. See, for example, Juzgado de Letras de Menor Cuantía, Sewell, Causa No.2823, 16 July 1935 and Causa No.2816, 15 July 1935, CBRR.
90. Fuenzalida, La Vida i el Trabajo en el Mineral "El Teniente," p. 189.
91. Eric Hobsbawm, Bandidos (Barcelona, 1976). For anecdotes and stories of guachucheros in the Sewell popular literature see Castro, Un Hombre por el Camino and Drago, Cobre: Cuentos Mineros.
92. Eric Hobsbawm, Bandidos (Barcelona, 1976). For anecdotes and stories of guachucheros in the Sewell popular literature see Castro, Un Hombre por el Camino and Drago, Cobre: Cuentos Mineros.
93. Eric Hobsbawm, Bandidos (Barcelona, 1976). For anecdotes and stories of guachucheros in the Sewell popular literature see Castro, Un Hombre por el Camino and Drago, Cobre: Cuentos Mineros.
94. Intendencia de O'Higgins, Documentación Relativa a la Braden Copper Company, Archivo Nacional, Chile.
95. Fuenzalida, La Vida, p.88.
96. Castro, Un hombre por el Camino, p.34.
97. Ibid., p.98.
98. Drago, Cobre: Cuentos Mineros, p.57.
99. Drago, Cuentos Mineros, pp.104-105.
100. Drago, Cuentos Mineros, p.193.
101. See James Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts, (New Haven, 1990).
102. See La Hora, 9 March 1938, for a description of the campaign against gambling and La Opinión, 1 March 1938, for a description of the miners' congress.
103. See La Hora, 9 March 1938, for a description of the campaign against gambling and La Opinión, 1 March 1938, for a description of the miners' congress.
104. Despertar Minero, 16 August 1941.
105. Despertar Minero, 23 October 1941.
106. Despertar Minero, 4 September 1941.
107. Ibid.
108. Despertar Minero, 16 August 1941.
109. For accounts of the legal organized miners' strikes of 1942 and 1946 and the many wildcat work stoppages and strikes during these years see Klubock, "Class, Community, and Gender in the Chilean Copper Mines: The El Teniente Miners and Working-Class Politics, 1904-1951."
110. The following is based on an oral history interview. I have changed the source's name.
111. Pierre Bourdieu has argued that is necessary to examine the social conditions that structure the creation of a demand for sports and the "taste" for particular forms of sport. The social meaning and the actual function of sports are contested fields, related to a whole series of struggles over the legitimate uses of the body. Pierre Bourdieu, "Sport and Social Class," in Rethinking Popular Culture, ed. Chandra Mukerji and Michael Schudson (Berkeley, 1991).
112. A significant number of union leaders interviewed had played soccer in a serious way at some point in their lives. At least two former and current union leaders had played soccer professionally. Interestingly, June Nash also found that soccer clubs provided an important source for union leadership in the Bolivian tin mines. Nash argues that soccer players "gain industry-wide recognition for their feats on the soccer field, and this can contribute toward a political and union leadership position." Juan Lechín Oquedano, the famous leader of the miners' union, the Federación de Sindicatos de Trabajadores Mineros de Bolivia (FSTMB), and of the Movimiento Nacional Revolucionario (MNR) was a well-known soccer player prior to his union and political career. Nash, We Eat the Mines, p.107.
113. A significant number of union leaders interviewed had played soccer in a serious way at some point in their lives. At least two former and current union leaders had played soccer professionally. Interestingly, June Nash also found that soccer clubs provided an important source for union leadership in the Bolivian tin mines. Nash argues that soccer players "gain industry-wide recognition for their feats on the soccer field, and this can contribute toward a political and union leadership position." Juan Lechín Oquedano, the famous leader of the miners' union, the Federación de Sindicatos de Trabajadores Mineros de Bolivia (FSTMB), and of the Movimiento Nacional Revolucionario (MNR) was a well-known soccer player prior to his union and political career. Nash, We Eat the Mines, p.107.
114. Juzgado de Letras de Menor Cuantía, Sewll, Causa No.6134, 3 November 1941, CBRR.
115. Castro, Mi Camarada Padre, p.62.
116. Ibid.
117. Raymond Williams, Marxism and Literature (Oxford and New York, 1977), p.132.