Despite film buzz, life grim for some of Chile's hero miners

Yahoo – AFP, Giovanna Fleitas, 13 Nov 2015

Chilean miner Victor Zamora gives the thumbs up upon surfacing, on October 13, 

2010, following a 10-week ordeal in the collapsed San Jose mine (AFP Photo/

Rodrigo Arangua)

Santiago (AFP) - The Chilean miners who became celebrities after months trapped underground are now immortalized 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 United States on Friday, 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 told AFP.

The miners' tale of survival warmed hearts worldwide. For the media, it was a tale of friendship and triumph in adversity.

Chilean miner Mario Gomez arrives for

 the premiere of 'The 33' during AFI FEST 

2015 at TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, 

California (AFP Photo/Mark Ralston)

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."

Mixed fortunes

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 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.

Legal squabble

Disputes have broken out, in particular, about contracts for managing the rights to their story.

Chilean miner William Ordenes attends a 2013 ceremony to inaugurate a

monument to the incident with his daughter (AFP Photo/Ariel Marinkovic)

Urzua was among several miners who attended a premiere of "The 33" in Hollywood this week, ahead of its general US release on November 13. 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 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.

Miners from "the 33", (L-R) Victor Zamora, Jorge Galleguillos, Luis Urzua and
Mario Gomez arrive at the courthouse in Santiago, on November 2, 2015 (AFP
Photo/Martin Bernetti)

Related Articles

Nine Chilean 'miracle miners' sue lawyers

Chilean prosecutors drop charges over 2010 mine collapse

Chile's Congress blame mine owners for accident

33, the magic number

The BBC’s James Read says the number 33 has taken on a special significance for the miners, who are known to be superstitious: there are 33 miners, it took 33 days for the drill to complete the rescue shaft and Roman Catholic Chileans believe Jesus Christ was 33 when he died. Even President Sebastian Pinera mentioned the “magic number” in his triumphant speech after the first miner emerged from the shaft. The date of the rescue 13/10/10, adds up to - you guessed it - 33.


"Atacama Desert, Chile 33-Miners" – Nov 5, 2013 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) + Video

"The 33 Miners" – Oct 24, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)

"The N in Kundalini" – Oct 20, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)

"The Human Design" – Oct 18, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

"... So finally, I give you an answer to a question that has not been asked, but is still on the minds of many. What happened last week in Chile was not an accident [the saving of 33 miners]. Everyone was amazed at how smooth it could be. So, look at the numerology around it! Even the mainstream media noticed - 33, 33, 33. But the media did not tell you the meaning of it, because they didn't know. To them, it was just coincidental, so many 33s!

Let me tell you what it means. Let us take a look at the numerology attributes of 33 from the ancients to modern day. The number 33 is called a master number. It is not to be broken apart numerologically, but you could still look at the attributes of the three alone if you wish. The three in numerological terms is a catalyst energy. A catalytic energy changes things around it. When you put two threes together, they represent one of the highest energies on the planet. It's so high that it's the last master number that is definable by humanity.

In numerology, 44 has no definition. Even those in Tibet who helped originate the numerological system said that 44 was multidimensional and had no paradigm of definition. Neither did 55 or 66 or 77. Thus, 33 was the highest of all defined master numbers and remains so to this day.

Now, don't misunderstand what I'm going to tell you, for this definition is not about the Human Being; it's about an attribute. Thirty-three is defined as the passion of the Christ. Not the man, but the attribute [the noun, compassionate redeemer], the passion of the Christ. Is there anything higher than this? The number 33 is the highest compassion number of them all, and here it was right in Chile, where the heart center moves to. This compassion for the miners was a metaphor filled with energy and things to look at, but nothing will ever be the same here. And how does it make you feel? ...."