As Chilean miners below await rescue, strains test ties of families above
There are men who have been living with a partner for years while still formally married to a woman from whom they separated long ago, the result of a rigid divorce law. In a few cases, the legal wife of a miner has come forward looking for donations, said Leiva.
There are brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers on both sides of a miner who don’t get along, or who depended on his salary to survive, meaning they can’t just wait long months for their loved one to be rescued.
And of course, some miners have skeletons in their unexpectedly opened closets.
Leiva confirmed a story told by other witnesses: One miner’s wife and lover were both keeping vigil at the camp. When the two realized they were both praying for the same man, they had a very public argument, and the wife tore down a poster with the miner’s photo that the mistress had set up.
The mistress taped her poster back up, and beneath several poems and prayers she had dedicated to him, she added, as if defiantly: “Tu Senora,” or “your wife.”
Having to designate who gets their salary, a large sum in a country where the minimum wage is roughly $400 (200,000 pesos) a month, can put the men in a difficult situation, and limited communications give them little way to talk through the problems with squabbling relatives 2,300 feet (700 meters) above their heads.
Miner Claudio Yanez designated Cristina Nunez Macias, 26, his partner of 10 years and mother of their two daughters, an 8-year-old and a toddler.
Yanez’s mother, Margarita, declined to be interviewed, but his brother, Carlos Yanez, 38, said the tensions had died down the last week, as the two women have had to make peace.
Carlos also said they had come to an agreement on nonperishable items: leave them in Cristina’s house until the miner gets out and can decide who gets what.
For all the fissures that have been exposed, the tragedy has also brought families together.
Maria Segovia said that a stepdaughter of her brother, trapped miner Dario Segovia, visited the camp one day and angered Dario’s three biological children by telling local media she was his only child. In fact, she was a stepdaughter from Segovia’s previous relationship.
But after the blowup came a makeup, and a stronger relationship.
