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The translation of this interview consists of extracts only.



Having worked for a mining company in Ixtlán for 12 years, Manuel is well able to describe the miners’ weekly working routine. The mine’s productivity has declined: “The work of the mine was very famous before because there were a lot of workers, there was a lot of trade and it earned a lot of money . . . the mine’s gone down, because it doesn’t produce like before . . .”.

The narrator also recounts some history of the logging industry in the surrounding forest. Working for them, he initially earned a wage of 12 pesos a day. Not long after he joined, a trade union was formed, credited by Manuel for improvements to working conditions: “It put the work into a proper form; there was security.” Diminishing resources eventually led to the company pulling out and the villagers taking charge of gathering and selling smaller quantities of unworked timber.

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