MORE THAN A NUMBER
Photographs and Testimonies of the Families Contaminated with Arsenic and Lead in the Industriales Neighborhood—Arica, Chile
TATYANA SCHMID
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, I have to give my thanks to the families of the Industriales neighborhood who are the essence and the life of this project. Thank you for your trust and for so intimately sharing so much of yourselves and your time with me. I am honored and eternally grateful. Many thanks to the NGO AFCCOMTA, especially to the president, Marta, who introduced me to all of the families and helped me with anything and everything I needed; you truely are an inspiration. Thank you to all of the leaders of the NGO; you are incredibly dedicated and brave women who are going to carry your community to a better future, never give up hope! Many thanks to my advisors and teachers in Chile: Francisco Olivares, Mark Sinclair, Sandra (Choqui) Rojas and Danko Ulloa. Thanks to my advisor at Bennington College, Mirka Prazak, for always supporting me, guiding me and believing in my potential. A million thanks to my Spanish professor and thesis advisor Jonathan Pitcher who helped me edit and organize the entire text. Thanks to my photography professors Jonathan Kline and Jay Muhlin and thank you to the photo technician Jon Barber who was always there to help me with printing issues. Thanks to the Bennington College SEA, whose grant helped make all of the large mural prints possible. Thanks to Peg Carron in White Creek, NY who mounted all of the photographs and has been so willing to work with me as a student. Thanks to Molly Sarle for your encouragement, wisdom and help with the audio portion of the project. Thanks to all of my amazing friends for keeping me positive. Thanks to my homestay families in Arica and ValparaĂso, especially to Luna for your enthusiasm, support and hours of help for my initial editing, scanning and printing! And of course, all the thanks in the world to my amazing parents, Bill and Maya, for funding this entire project (apart from the few outside grants I received) without hesitation, for supporting me in all of my decisions and my studies, for being proud of me when it really counts, and for believing in me and helping me to achieve my dreams.
Mural in Industriales III neighborhood
DISCLAIMER I would like to make it clear that I conducted this research project of photography and testimonies not from a medical or scientific perspective, but from a photo-journalistic and anthropological standpoint. I do not claim that any of the diseases mentioned are 100% directly related to the contaminants because in order to prove that, in-depth scientific and medical study would be necessary. I do state, however, that most, if not all, of the medical conditions that I have presented here have been overwhelmingly linked to heavy metal poisoning, many being commonly acknowledged textbook symptoms of lead and arsenic contamination. Whether the illnesses suffered by these families are the results of-the contamination or not, I am presenting them as what the families have shared with me, being illnesses that they deal with every day, greatly affecting their lives. I believe that fear of the contaminants, along with inadequate medical attention and education regarding the affects of heavy metal contamination has shaped the families to question the origin of all of their health problems, which I believe, in itself, is a form of mental suffering, depression and anxiety, and therefore should not be dismissed or discredited. I also believe that due to a classist and overall poor healthcare system in Chile, all serious medical conditions should be considered and presented. It should also be noted that I asked almost all of the families if there had been a history of their illnesses within their family and not once did someone reply yes. I hope that my project will inspire among many things: legal action on matters of housing, healthcare, education and the environment, a more informative educational program regarding the effects of arsenic and lead, related illnesses and the process of recovery, as well as further and more in-depth medical and scientific study regarding toxic waste, poisoning, recovery and clean-up. Most of the interviews were conducted around a year ago, so it is also possible that facts like age, illnesses, diagnoses, treatments, pregnancies and blood tests have changed, although certain things such as fatalities have been updated as recognized. Thank you.
Graffiti on a wall near the main street
INTRODUCTION In 1984, 19 thousand tons of toxic metals sent by the Swedish company, Boliden Metall, arrived in the port of Arica, Chile. The Chilean company, PROMEL, was paid to reprocess the materials, and under the title “mud with mineral content,” the Chilean Ministry of Health approved the toxic waste to enter the country. Promel claimed that they could reprocess the metals to extract gold and silver, and therefore dumped the waste products in land owned by Promel on the outskirts of Arica. A few years later, the Chilean government built new housing projects surrounding the toxic dump, on soil that had previously been a landfill, without doing any environmental tests of the soil or air. The toxic waste was never reprocessed by PROMEL, and remained abandoned in the same place, unprotected, until the year 1998. Families began to live in these “houses,” which at the time consisted of dirt full of holes and trash, one wall and a bathroom. They began to build their homes, one room at a time, some spending all of their earnings and many years building. Some told me that they unknowingly used the contaminated soil and toxic waste in the process of construction to level out the ground for their houses. In the first years, there wasn’t a road that ran through the neighborhoods and the families would often have to walk right through the toxic waste to get to school and work. The children played in the “black earth” and every day the wind would blow dust from the toxics into their homes, little by little bringing them illnesses and health problems. They arrived with the dream of owning their own home, something in which they could live for many years, where they could raise their children and their grandchildren. But nobody knew that years later they would all be ill, that their babies would be born with high levels of toxic metals in their blood, that the foundation of their homes would be falling apart due to the gases of the landfill on which they live, that their homes and their land would be worth nothing and that they would be fighting for their rights to live a dignified life, to have healthcare, to be moved to clean soil, leaving their contaminated neighborhood, their homes and their dreams behind. A few years later, around 1997, many families started experiencing similar health symptoms: severe headaches, joint and joint pain, constant nosebleeds, as well as white splotches appearing on many of the children’s skin. They began to suspect that perhaps their symptoms had to do with their environment. With the help of the NGO SERPAJ, the neighborhood urged the government to conduct environmental tests of the land. The results found high levels of 14 toxic minerals in the soil including lead, arsenic, mercury, cadmium and copper. After that, they took blood and urine tests of 20 children who lived in the contaminated sectors and the results revealed that more than 50% of the children had over 10ug/100ml of lead, which was internationally considered over the amount permitted and therefore dangerous to the health of the children. Those tests provoked more, this time of 5,000 people who lived in those sectors, but the results were given only to the 1000 people who were “contaminated,” while 4000 test results mysteriously “disappeared.” This is what initiated the neighborhood’s lack of trust in the authorities, as well as creating skepticism as to the accuracy of the test results and what was being hidden from them. To this day, many of the families recounted to me that they feel cheated and uncared for by the authorities.
In 1998, the toxic waste was moved by the Department of Health two km. from the original site where it was then buried and covered with plastic and heavy rocks. Yet, to this day, the families continue waiting for an answer, living in their houses, with minimal assistance from the government, still suffering from severe health problems related to the contamination. The government’s current plan of assistance will move the families within the next few years into apartments much smaller than their current houses, where many will lose their businesses and struggle climbing the stairs, or the other option will put them into a used home valued at $22,000 or less, which will allow up to about half of the square footage of most of their already very modest homes. The healthcare plan is limited, and for the time being only includes a clinic that takes blood tests to determine toxicity levels of patients. The clinic at this time lacks specialized doctors and the healthcare policy does not yet cover expenses beyond what is offered at that clinic. For all of the injustices that they have been victim to, I believe that the residents of the Industriales neighborhood deserve much more. They deserve what they are fighting for: a dignified life, homes of equal value and size on non-contaminated soil, complete healthcare coverage for life, scholarships for their children’s education and a community social center which educates on toxins, helps the residents find work, as well as coaches the families through the difficulties that they are still to face regarding their illnesses, their children’s wellbeing and how to cope with the mental problems and depression from which many of them suffer. “Más que un número/More than a Number” is a project that I did in the months of May and August, 2010, working in the contaminated neighborhoods of Arica, Chile interviewing and photographing many of the severely affected families about their struggles, their experiences, their hopes and their dreams. Assisted by the NGO AFCCOMTA and my study abroad program SIT, I spent each day traveling from home to home conducting my studies. Over the course of my senior year at Bennington, I have been able to work with all of the photographs and interviews, the final product of which is shown here. My objective in this project has been to create more consciousness about the problem and, hopefully, to help give the contaminated families a voice, so that they can be recognized as more than a number, as real human beings who have the right to be heard and the right to live a dignified, healthy, secure life.
View of the neighborhoods from the empty land where the toxic waste used to be
The Industriales neighborhood
Layers of contaminated earth
Yellow earth full of arsenic
Fernanda pointing to the empty land where the toxic waste used to be
The contaminated neighborhoods
TESTIMONIES
Testimony of Marta Quísbert Olivares (50 yrs)
With only a technical degree in social work, Marta, one of the affected neighbors, works as the president of the NGO AFCCOMTA, traveling, investigating and fighting for their rights. It is a difficult job that tests her strength and tolerance dealing with sadness, pain, injustice, discrimination, death and conflict each day. She began her work in 2006, after bringing her son to a physical where the doctor reviewed his health and his entire body, and after the second time, the doctor asked her, “What happened to your son? Did he get in an accident? Did he fall?” Marta didn’t understand because nothing like that had ever happened to him. The doctor told her that her son’s bones were deforming – that he had problems with his skeletal system. “Where do you live?” the doctor asked finally, “Do you know about the issue of contamination?”… and this was the first time that Marta learned about the toxics and the problem of her neighborhood. “From that moment, my life completely changed,” said Marta. “I realized that there must be many more children who are also contaminated. I had to learn about the issue all by myself and soon after I left my normal life and the small business we had behind and decided to dedicate myself 100% to learn, work and fight about this problem… and up until today, I do it for my son. My faith is what helps me and gives me hope. It clears the pathway for me so that I am able to continue fighting.”
Marta, the president of the NGO AFCCOMTA
Testimony of Bernarda Gonzales Gonzales (82 yrs) and Héctor Don Beltrán Gonzales (49 yrs)
It was 18 years ago when they saw the neighborhood for the first time. Back then, Héctor was working for the company PROMEL, working directly with the toxic waste. They have had a dirt floor since they arrived, recently covering up parts with a bit of wood. Now they are both suffering from intense pain in the joints and severe headaches. Bernarda has arthrosis. She told me that it feels like her bones are turning into sand, that sometimes she can’t sleep because the pain is so bad and that there is no cure for her disease or pain. They don’t want to go to the doctor because they don’t have health insurance, but Bernarda did tell me that she is very grateful for the doctor she has at the toxic contamination medical center in town, “He is a very good doctor, very warm and friendly. I remember that he sat down next to me and told me that he would take care of me.” They both feel as if the government is cheating them: “They don’t do anything, it isn’t convenient for them to evaluate and diagnose our illnesses, all they do is give us vitamins. President Bachelet’s government had a plan to evacuate us, but with the change of office, we are back to square one.” Recently, Bernarda was diagnosed with bone cancer… they don’t know how much time she has left to live… but they know it is little. Quietly, with her voice trembling and so fragile, she said, “Thanks to God that I am still alive… I pray to him that he gives me one more year, so that I can see my wish of leaving here and living my last years peacefully come true… that is my greatest desire before I die… to live peacefully, without worry and pain.”
Héctor and his mother, Bernarda
“Thanks to God that I am still alive… I pray to him that he gives me one more year, so that I can see my wish of leaving here and living my last years peacefully come true… that is my greatest desire before I die… to live peacefully, without worry and pain.”
Bernarda
Testimony of Matilde Mamani Villafán (53 yrs)
“I am going to fight until the very end!” declared Matilde, a woman with an unimaginable faith who has lived an incredibly difficult, unjust and painful life, yet even so she has a more amazing spirit, strength and sense of hope than anything I have ever witnessed in my life. From our very first moments together, I felt a connection to her as if she were a mother to me. In all of my time in the Industriales neighborhood, she gave me the most encouragement to continue with my work and to approach it optimistically, with passion and an open heart. I interviewed her the day after she had gotten chemotherapy, and she was in bad shape. Hunched, shaking, coughing and exhausted; in the middle of our interview she had to throw up, violently ridding her body of the pain. Yet, she insisted that we do the interview this day because she wanted me to see her at her worst, especially for my project. That day, she recounted the story of her life to me, about her illness that had arrived one year after they moved to the Industriales neighborhood, how they had lived without a roof for the entire first year, how the dust from the toxic waste had blown in every day, and how they still lived there, with the same dirt floor under the rugs, how they had to walk every day through the toxic waste, and how she had worked cleaning three homes… even when she was extremely ill, how at one moment in her life she had weighed 286 lbs and at another only 55 lbs, still extremely small and frail to this day. She told me about her illnesses, how she had suffered almost constantly since the day they arrived, and how for years she had no clue that it was the environment that was making her sick. She told me about her son, Han, who is developmentally disabled, but who helps her with everything, including cooking and cleaning the house. During our conversation there was an hour in which she cried and cried, letting out all of her pain, her history, all of her hopes and dreams. It was by far the most difficult interview that I conducted, yet it was also the most beautiful and powerful. Matilde, you are going to carry your community, you are going to live to see out your dreams, never give up your faith, never stop believing that there is an answer, and that it will come.
Matilde
“I am going to fight until the very end!�
Matilde
“I want to live in a respectable house… my own comfortable, house with a garden and little animals. A home where I can be with my children and my grandchildren, together… where I can live the little bit of my life that is left.”
Testimony of José Rojas (56 yrs) and Mónica Jabre (54 yrs)
They arrived in the Industriales neighborhood with the dream of owning their own home. Although when they arrived, “There was only a bathroom with one wall and dirt full of holes and trash. In those first years we had only one room where five people slept… we cooked there… some slept on the floor. It was completely open.” They decided to “form something” and with a group of 20 neighborhood women, they began to work selling lunches. In time they were able to buy materials, with the help of FOSIS and the government, and they began to construct an upstairs room and other parts of their home. “We were moving forward...” They remember the first time the government came to test the children for lead and arsenic poisoning. Most of the tests “disappeared” and later when the list of contaminated people arrived the numbers had been “accidentally” changed with a coma separating the numbers so that they appeared smaller. They still feel lied to and cheated. “After this, we began to organize.” A report on Channel 13 came out explaining the problem of contamination and its effects in Arica and finally the authorities began to take interest in the problem. “We began to realize how grave it was to live here… contaminated with toxic metals and living on top of a landfill. We all suffer similar health symptoms… extreme pain in the joints as well as severe migraines.” Now the foundation of their house is collapsing because of the gases from the landfill on which they live. Mónica Jabre is one of the leaders of the grass roots NGO AFCCOMTA, fighting for their rights.
Mónica and José
José’s Shoulder
“According to my doctor, I don’t have arthritis, but look how the bones of my hand are deforming.”
Mónica’s Hands
Testimony of María Teresa Castillo Aguilera (45 yrs) and Juan de Dios Tapia Cifuente (52 yrs)
“When we first arrived here we were happy. But over time we all began getting sick… for a while we thought it was normal. I had chronic asthma and my husband was suffering from intense pain in his bones and joints. But my daughter is the one who is most effected; she has gone from one illness to the next. 2008 was horrible, she had an involuntary eating disorder and couldn’t keep anything she ate down. She went from 154 lbs to 110 lbs in only two months. She was just like any normal girl, smart and strong, but after this she began to struggle in school and we had to take her to live in a different house with clean air for three months. She also suffers from really bad UTIs and to this day she has had problems with her hair falling out. The doctors recently found a high presence of cists in her ovaries and thought they would have to remove them… this affected all of us quite a bit because my daughter wants very much to have children. We thought about moving to southern Chile to escape all of this, but we aren’t able to sell our house. I try to do whatever I can… sometimes we go to our grandmother’s house. The doctors at the clinic have told me how important it is that my family eats healthily, but sometimes we have to eat just what we can afford. It is like we are trapped in all of this… I would sell everything I own so that we could leave here… I would do it for my family… we have seriously thought of doing this if no other solution comes. We are a family of the faith and that is what gives us encouragement and strength. But here we are living in a really tough reality… (crying) … it’s really hard on me.”
Their family in front of their house
“My dream is for my children, that they have a good life and a better future… they are young still. I dream that they would wake up tomorrow and have no more health problems… that, more than money, more than anything.”
María Teresa and her 15-year-old son
Testimony of Yolanda Jordán Rocher (53 yrs)
When she arrived, Yolanda sold candies and baked goods and her husband worked for the company PROMEL… every day working with the toxic waste. Now, Yolanda can hardly leave her home. She lives with pain and embarrassment every day, waiting for an answer to her problem. 13 years ago her kidneys dried up and thanks to her sister’s kidney she is still alive. Although, related or not-related to the contamination, what she suffers from most at the present is elephantiasis in one of her legs, which is giant, heavy and extremely swollen. Her leg is so heavy that she almost cannot walk outside of her home. “I can’t even buy normal shoes.” Yolanda spent months in Santiago looking for an answer to her health problems and for a doctor who could empty the liquid from her leg, without any success or solution. Due to the weight of her leg, her spine is deforming. My other leg receives all of the pain… a pain from inside, so strong that it wakes me up at night… (crying)… I have trouble taking a shower. I can’t work… One thing I love is music… I put it on… I listen to it… To help me forget my problems and my pain.”
Yolanda
“The only dream I have is to find a solution for my leg…”
Yolanda’s Leg
Testimony of Roxana Guarache (34 yrs) and her children (15 and 16 yrs)
Roxana moved to the Industriales neighborhood in 1992 with her mother, who had to leave the neighborhood a few years ago due to extreme pain in her joints. When Roxana was 17 years old she had a son with her husband who was also from the Industriales neighborhood, and at 18 they had their daughter, Nataly. She was living in the contaminated neighborhoods while pregnant, having to walk across the toxic waste everyday to get to work. Before she was six months old, they detected problems with Nataly’s heart. It was too big and she had to be operated on. Then in 2007 they diagnosed the illness IHD (Ischaemic Heart Disease) and had to operate on her again. In 2008, she was diagnosed with an ACA (Anomalous coronary artery). Roxana told me that this time they asked the doctors where Nataly’s heart problems came from and the doctors said that they most likely were caused by the contamination. Before the second operation, Nataly couldn’t do normal things like go out with friends, and to this day she can’t exercise or play sports, since she gets tired after walking for a while or running even a little bit. In addition to all of the difficulty they went through with Nataly’s heart problems, in 2004, their lives changed drastically when their father died of stomach cancer; he was only 33 years old. He had been healthy his whole life, but when he was diagnosed with cancer, he lived only 29 days. “It was incredibly difficult,” Roxana told me through tears, “How was I supposed to tell my two little children… your dad is going to die. I have lived through a lot… I just ask God to give me strength to keep going.”
Roxana and her children
“It was incredibly difficult,” Roxana told me through tears,“How was I supposed to tell my two little children… your dad is going to die.”
Nataly holding a photograph of her family, taken right before her dad died.
“We want to leave here. To live in a place where we can feel good… where we can breathe. We want a house. I want the authorities to think about what they would want for their kids and their families…”
Testimony of the family of Rebeca Acevedo Montecinos (47 yrs)
My first and most memorable impression of Rebeca’s family is that they are all very close to one another, they care for each other deeply and always greet each other with a heap of hugs and kisses. The mother, Rebeca, worries about the health of her children, and she has reason. “I’m scared. It isn’t a joke,” said Rebeca, who works cleaning up the beaches of Arica and whose husband works as a commercial bus driver between Arica and Santiago. Luciano, her eldest son, who body-boards and is an amazing singer, works as a gas station attendant, but severe lead poisoning from when he was younger has produced the disease osteonecrosis or “avascular necrosis,” which is where a part of the bone dies due to lack of blood supply, and for Luciano it is deforming the bones in his wrist from pumping gas (although he has only worked there for a year and a half). The doctor said that if he continues working and doesn’t get surgery on his wrist, he will eventually lose all joint function. Luciano continues to work at the gas station because he says he doesn’t have any other option… he can’t afford the surgery without working. He remains trapped in the circle without an answer or escape. “I’m not happy… I feel incomplete…” Luciano told me, “there are already things that I can’t do. If this is affecting my wrist now, what will happen to the rest of my body in the future? Really, it’s sad… When I’m 40 years old I’m not going to be healthy like others. I worry, because to live, you have to work… and if I can’t work… how will I eat? How will I survive?”
Rebeca
“I’m not happy… I feel incomplete. There are already things that I can’t do. If this is affecting my wrist now, what will happen to the rest of my body in the future?”
Luciano, the singer
Their family
Jose with his BMX bike
Testimony of Mauricio Pizarro (18 yrs) and Fresia Plaza (61 yrs)
Their family arrived complete and healthy in this sector where they have lived for the last 20 years, eight in the house where they live now. Two years ago, their family went from three to two when the father passed away due to a heart attack. He worked as a truck driver and was 58 years old. Telling me about the father, Fresia began to cry. “It’s ok,” said Mauricio, “she needs to cry… she needs to let the pain out.” Mauricio is studying risk prevention at INACAP in Arica. “I like to study, I am very motivated because I want to have a good future.” Although he also loves to dance… “I dance everything… salsa, merengue, folk… I’m a ballerina! Look, this is my costume!” Mauricio intrigued me from the moment I met him… he has a passion, curiosity and energy for life. His mother, Fresia, is much quieter, but is always supporting her son… and every now and then you’ll catch her smile, in admiration and pride.
Mauricio and Fresia
“I dance everything… salsa, merengue, folk… I’m a ballerina! Look, this is my costume!”
Mauricio and Fresia
Testimony of Priscila Agüero Muñoz (25 yrs)
“How many years of the same?” asked Priscila, a stay-at-home mother of three. “The politicians come, they give us promises, hope, answers, and then they always leave us empty handed. We are still living here and we will haven’t received any help!” Priscila likes spending time with her kids and in the summer, going to the beach and camping. “I study also, but without good health, it is worth nothing.” Priscila’s son who is ten years old suffers from severe skin problems. “It looks as if he has tiny scabs all over his arms and legs. The doctors have yet to figure out what he has or find a cure. He’s embarrassed by his skin and always wears long sleeves and pants even when it is hot. Itt is very much a psychological problem for him.”
Priscila and her son
“We want people to know and recognize that we are sick. We had hope with President Bachelet, but now, with Piñera, we have to start all over again.”
Testimony of Félix Adasame Beizaga (57 yrs) and Margarita Quiroga Sepúlveda (59 yrs)
Margarita, the caring and dedicated wife of Félix, came to the door and welcomed me into their home on May 14, 2010. I entered as always, a bit scared, with my camera and my notebooks, but with Margarita’s warm smile, I immediately felt at home. She brought me to her bedroom where her husband lies in bed, unable to move for a little over a year. They have three children and some grandchildren, all of whom live with them in their home in the Industriales neighborhood. Félix, who reminds me a bit of my father, besides his physical state and his health, has a great charisma and sense of humor. He treated me like a father, always joking with me and happy to have me sit next to him on his bed and visit with him in his home. Félix and Margarita told me about Félix’s illnesses and the pain that he has lived with for the last few years, suffering from gouty arthritis, otherwise known as gout. The sickness began in his feet and then moved into his ankles, knees and elbows. Gout causes there to be too much uric acid in the blood, which forms extremely painful crystals in the joints that aren’t easily treated. It is suggested that gout can cause a high number of fatalities from heart problems and strokes, both of which Félix has suffered from. Since his second stroke in 2009, he has been unable to go to the bathroom by himself or get out of bed, and on top of that, he still suffers from severe pain in his joints and his heart is extremely large at 70 cm, the only solution being a complete heart transplant. Before he became ill, Félix proudly worked as a guard. He told me that he got along well with everyone, was always helping out his community and neighbors, and was always a good man to his family. It hurts a lot to see a man so young in spirit, yet so debilitated by his body, without any cure or answer in sight. Margarita attends to him all day, every day, and besides the difficulties, they have an extraordinary, dedicated love that is so clearly visible in their gaze.
Félix and Margarita
Right now, FĂŠlix lies in his bed, a photograph of Jesus on the wall above his head, in his dark and simple bedroom.
FĂŠlix and Margarita
Testimony of the family of Ceferina Zambrano Amaya (56 yrs)
Cristián and Marcela live together with Cristián’s mother, Ceferina, in the Industriales neighborhood where Cristián was raised and where Marcela arrived eight years ago. Ceferina is one of the leaders of the NGO AFCCOMTA and Cristián works as a sales person for the company Sodimac. Cristián loves sports, especially soccer, and Marcela likes to listen to music and read. Together, they have one son, although it was their dream to have a large family. Marcela has had three miscarriages, one of which was an ectopic pregnancy and one with malformations. She showed me the ultrasound of one of her babies in her stomach. Thinking about the children she lost is still painful, and angers her. Ceferina said, “What has affected me most in all that we have suffered was when my daughter-in-law lost her baby girl… she was six months pregnant… we so vividly imagined her in our arms.”
Ceferina
Marcela’s son who has problems with his teeth
Marcela with a photo of the baby she miscarriaged that had malformations
Testimony of Paolo Bustamante Alcón (24 yrs) and Carol Aguirre Gallardo (22 yrs) Paolo and Carol are friends who rap together in a hip-hop group called “Real Elocuencia.” They are both from the Industriales neighborhood, along with the third member of the group. Their most well known song, “Nos acortan la vida,” “They’re Cutting Our Lives Short,” in English, has taken them all over Chile and to Lima, Peru, where they performed in front of 5 thousand people. They started singing and working together in 2003, when they first formed and belonged to “Resistencia Underground,” a larger group of young people from the neighborhood who were interested in the four elements of hip-hop. In 2008 the group had an abandoned house that they used as their workshop and community center and they started “Eskuela de hip-hop,” “Hip-hop Skool,” in English, where they taught young people about graffiti, music and dance. They told me that the group was really good then because “in the Industriales neighborhood you see a lot of drugs and a lack of interest by the authorities” but with the workshop there was a change in the air; “the young people had hip-hop instead of drugs and delinquency.” But the house lasted only a year, and was then closed down. At the same time the larger group lost some of its members, and therefore some of the energy was lost as well. Paolo said, “For me, hip-hop is life. It’s an escape valve. It has helped me avoid problems in the neighborhood and social pressures. The easiest thing for a young person to do here is to go to the corner and get fucked up. One chooses another path… and for me, it’s music.” Carol added, “Hip-hop and music for us is a method of both protest and defense. It is our way of being able to say what we think, to then carry that message to all kinds of people and to hopefully change the way they think a little, especially the kids.” Right now, their objective as a group is to obtain a new physical space that would be a cultural center for workshops, events, forums, etc. They would also like to continue to rap and share their message on both a national and international level. Carol has her technical degree in teaching Preschoolers, but she would like to study more. Paolo finished his studies in law, but is now studying psychology with hopes of, one day, being able to help the neighborhoods through their problems.
Carol and Paolo
“My dream would be to be born again, but in a different place... They have raped all of our emotions… not treated us like human beings. They destined us to be ill… they killed us… and then they left us forgotten… and I believe that all of the problems here, like drugs and delinquency, stem from all that.” -- Paolo
Carol and Paolo in front of a wall in downtown Arica that they painted with their crew, “Resistencia Underground,” a few years back.
Testimony of Grimalinda Rojas Rojas (47 yrs)
Grimalinda and her family arrived in the Industriales neighborhood 20 years ago. “I had dreamed of my house…. MY house… my HOME… building the floor, the rooms… I never thought that the dream of my home would come to this.” Grimalinda worked as a handicraft instructor, and now works through government programs cleaning. Her youngest daughter is in high school and the two elder children work, one as a chauffeur and the other in the supermarket. “My children’s dreams were to be able to study and go to college… but what I make just isn’t enough to be able to send them (crying). I would love it if the government would give them full scholarships so that they could study. I suffer from very bad depression because of all that we have lived through. Now the foundation and walls of our house are horribly cracked and falling apart; we have two feet of air underneath the floor because it was built on top of a landfill. The authorities come here to look at it, they take pictures, we were on TV and then they forget about us. It hurts me a lot to look at my house every day, and because of my vertigo it’s hard for me to leave the house. I recently spent 60 days confined inside. How am I supposed to get better if I am here?”
Grimalinda
Elvis had spent the two previous days in the hospital for problems with kidney stones, something he has had almost every year of his life. His eyes were full of blood due to extreme increase in blood pressure after receiving so many injections.
Grimalinda’s son, Elvis
“We dream of a better wellbeing and better health for our family and all of the families that live here… That the future generations are saved.”
Testimony of the family of Damarie Haunchicay Fortes (32 yrs) and Glarina Fortes Flores (55 yrs)
They arrived with the dream of owning their own home, a place to raise their children and their grandchildren, a place to live a good life. They remember that in those first years they slept in a makeshift tent on the ground, because when they arrived, there was nothing but a bathroom, a wall, and dirt. The kids played on the ground and began to have infections on their skin. Glarina works as a seamstress and her husband, Segundo, worked in construction until 2006 when he couldn’t anymore due to his health. Her daughter, Damarie, has her own catering business. All of the grandchildren play together in a traditional folk-music band. They even made their own traditional costumes. When they arrived, they were all healthy and now they are all ill. They have seen many doctors, who always say that their symptoms are normal, but they’re not! “The doctors don’t do anything, they play games with us. We want real answers, real attention… these are our lives they are playing with!”
Their family
The grandchildren
Testimony of Santiago Guailla (73 yrs), Gloria Solar Marin (55? yrs) and Katerín Rosario Guailla Solar (20 yrs)
Santiago and Gloria have a more or less unique family. Their marriage functions more as civil union in which they help each other with what they need but also have their own space. Their adopted daughter, Katy, has lived with them for the last 10 years after being abandoned by her mother. They live in a very simple home, dark, with little furniture and a dirt floor. Santiago was very quiet and did not say much during our interview, but even without many words, I still felt that he was a very warm and kind person. At the end of our brief conversation, he brought up his son, Víctor Antonio Guilla Blaz, who died two years ago of cancer at the age of 49. When I asked Santiago what type of cancer his son had, he responded, “I never asked the doctor much about these things, but his stomach was like this – swollen huge, like a pregnant woman. In 10 days his stomach swelled and he died.” He had kids and a family.
Gloria
“We want to be evacuated to a house away from here, compensated for the damage that has been done, and to receive healthcare more than anything.”
Santiago, holding a copy of his deceased son’s identification card.
Testimony of Margarita Riquelme Pinto (53 yrs) and Alejandro Vasquez Riquelme (22 yrs)
Alejandro, whose test results came back with 261 ug/L of arsenic, has the highest contamination number that I have heard of in the neighborhoods. He seems like any normal young adult, attractive and a bit shy, who likes to play soccer and go on the computer, who doesn’t like to study much and who isn’t very worried about his health. But, to speak with his mother is a whole different story. She worries desperately about the health of her son. “The doctor told us that the only solution is to get him out of the contaminated neighborhoods and into a clean environment and to give him vitamins for 6 months, but we don’t have the money to leave our house and rent somewhere else… I also don’t like the idea of leaving what we have here and all that we have created… our house, our lives. When I heard that my son’s test came back showing that he had 261 ug/L of arsenic I almost died… I was so upset, tears falling down my face. I see my son as being so healthy, and I think how could all this be happening. Now we have to wait for the doctors to examine his lungs… the great danger is cancer. I can’t help but feel so enraged with the government and the people who are responsible for all of this damage… who have profited, while we are all sick and dying.”
Margarita and Alejandro
Testimony of the family of Judít Martin Ponse (39 yrs)
Judít, the mother of four, works washing linens and her husband works as a truck driver between Arica and Santiago. Their family moved to the Industriales neighborhood without any idea of the contamination, like all the rest. They began with pain in the bones and joints, and now the tests are coming out and revealing that they are all, in fact, contaminated, including the baby who was born with the contamination. “This isn’t a game,” said Judít, “this is death. The clinic that we have doesn’t do anything. All they have done is taken tests of our contamination levels and given out vitamins to the children. Our house is worth nothing now… It isn’t easy. We are trapped here, with families and children, and unable to move elsewhere.” Two of her daughters have their own families, but they all still live together in their contaminated home in the Industriales neighborhood. When we were outside of their house taking the portraits, there was a dog lying on the ground that had big gaping hole-like lesions all over him. They told me that was normal there; that all of the animals are sick too.
Judít’s daughter with her baby
“I don’t have any desire to dream… my dreams are dead. They say that they are going to help us and they never do anything.”
Anonymous Testimony (42 yrs)
She arrived in the Industriales neighborhood in 1990 without any health problems, but five years later she was diagnosed with leukemia, one of the most dangerous types of cancer. She was hospitalized for six months and survived the illness, but it was a miracle she told me. She is better now, but she has trouble working due to severe migraines and pain in her bones. She also tires easily. She lives off of selling arts and crafts and a very small pension from AFP. “I was happy before, working for a big company, and now I can’t… I feel like an old woman already.” She has three daughters, all of whom suffer from health problems and whose blood tests have revealed high levels of arsenic contamination. “Here we can’t feel calm or safe. We continue to be contaminated every day.” Her five-year-old daughter’s contamination tests came back with 81 ug/L of arseni. She also suffers from pain in her joints and headaches… “She can’t watch very much TV because she complains that her head hurts,” she is aggressive, and she gets nose-bleeds almost daily.
Her and her youngest daughter
Testimony of Cecilia Arce Veliz (45 yrs)
Cecilia arrived in the Industriales neighborhood in 1992 with her husband (they separated a few years later) and her daughter, Raquela, who was two years old. Her second daughter was born there, who is now 14 years old. When I interviewed them, her daughter Raquela was seven months pregnant, and living with her grandparents because she was fearful of living near the contamination, especially because she had a friend who had lost her baby. Cecilia and Raquela work at the supermarket, Lider, and the younger daughter is in high school. Cecilia told me about the worries she has, some for her daughter who is pregnant and others for her younger daughter who is depressed and doesn’t like to do much; she doesn’t go out with friends and spends lots of time in her room alone in a bad mood. They still live with a dirt floor, and much of their house, besides the kitchen and the bedrooms, is open and roofless.
Cecilia and her daughters
They still live with a dirt floor, and much of their house, besides the kitchen and the bedrooms, is open and roofless.
Cecilia and her youngest daughter in front of their bedrooms
Testimony of Yisenia López Cruzat (47 yrs) and Eduardo Urriola Aguilera (48 yrs)
Yisenia, Eduardo and their younger daughters live in their home in the Industriales neighborhood. Yisenia works for a company that sells American clothing and Eduardo works as a driver for a transportation company. The three younger daughters (11, 12 and 13 yrs) study and the other three work. They have been close to many people who have died there: Yisenia’s mother’s partner at 56; Yisenia’s sister, who was 27, and was diagnosed one day with stomach cancer and a week later she died; they also knew a neighbor who passed away. Not even the animals that live there are healthy, they told me. Their daughter Carol has been the most affected of their family. She has many health problems, the most difficult being that she cannot get pregnant. She has already had two molar pregnancies that ended in miscarriages and was recently diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome. She is 24 years old and her greatest dream is to be able to have kids and a family.
Yisenia, with arsenic spots on her skin.
Carol has had this wound on her ankle for 10 years. She told me that when she was younger she played a lot in the contaminated earth and she believes that’s where it came from.
Yisenia’s daughter, Carol
Testimony of Yéssica Johanina Cartes Correa (26 yrs) and Jeannette Ilse Correa Correa (48 yrs) Yéssica, the daughter of Jeanette (one of the leaders of AFCCOMTA), is 26 years old and grew up in the Industriales neighborhood. She still lives in her home there with her family and she works as a kindergarten teacher. She loves her job and working with the kids. Despite her happiness now, she lives with a lot of sadness for the family she could have had. When she was 20 years old, she got pregnant and was excited and looking forward to having a baby. At the beginning, everything was fine, but at four months she started having symptoms of a miscarriage… bleeding, etc. She went to the hospital where they declared her to have a high-risk pregnancy. They did an ultrasound to see the extent of the risk to the baby, but the doctor said that there weren’t any problems and that the baby was fine. She continued with her pregnancy but at seven months she went to the hospital again because she was bleeding a lot and having contractions. They couldn’t stop the contraction and did another ultrasound. They could see that the baby wasn’t in position to be born but was born anyway. After they brought Yéssica to the recovery room the doctor yelled at her. He asked if she had done drugs, drank alcohol or done anything that could have harmed the baby. She didn’t understand because she never had. The doctor told her that her baby had many malformations: a cleft palate, a collapsed lung, a dilated heart and polydactylism (six toes on each foot), but her face was perfectly normal. The doctors didn’t understand why the baby had so many malformations; he had Patau syndrome (trisomy 13). He lived for only two days and then died. After Yéssica had told me the story, she said, “I am never going to forget my son. I was with him for seven months… I smiled for seven months, I prepared all of his things (crying)… it hurts… he was my son…” The doctor had never before seen a case like this related to the contamination, but after the TV program “Contacto” came out, Yéssica realized that many other women from the neighborhood had also lost babies. Four months later Yéssica had to go to the hospital again because she was bleeding a lot. They did an ultrasound and operated on her… they discovered that she had had another miscarriage. She didn’t know she had been pregnant. Five years later, “Thanks to God, my daughter Millaray was born.” Millaray, a Mapuche name, means “golden flower.”
Jeannette, Yéssica and Millaray
“We have suffered a lot of discrimination. I don’t want money; I want justice! I want them to admit what happened and that they are guilty. I want them to give us back the dignity of human beings.”
Testimony of Constanza Michelle Astorga Muñoz (19 yrs) and her siblings
Constanza and all of her siblings who have different fathers live with their grandmother in her home in the Industriales neighborhood. When I went to their house, Constanza, who is only 19 years old, was there cooking for her brother and sisters; hotdogs with vegetables and spaghetti. She told me mostly about her little brother, whose dream is to be a professional soccer player, but who has growth problems, joint pain, very fragile bones and constant nosebleeds, and therefore he has to be very careful and often can’t play soccer. They told me that overall they feel used and bad because the contamination doesn’t just go away, because now their house is worth nothing and because people from outside discriminate against the people who live there… they are known as the people contaminated with lead and arsenic. They wish to be like everyone else, known for their hobbies or their studies, not for being poisoned and ill.
Constanza’s brother
Testimony of Carlos Anselmo Torrico Álvarez (61 yrs), Erminia Luisa Elgueta Ávilez (63 yrs) and their son, Michael Hans de Jesús Torrico Elgueta (20 yrs)
Their family arrived in the Industriales neighborhood in 1992. At that time Carlos worked for a welding shop. Nowadays he still welds every once in a while and does other small jobs when he can, but he and Luisa are both early retirees because of their illnesses. Their son, Michael, works for the company Sodimac, but he would like to go to college and continue studying. He likes all types of music and playing soccer, although he suffers from bad pain in his legs, and therefore can’t play much. Carlos makes furniture and tables out of discarded iron and Luisa makes embroidered tablecloths, not to sell, just for the house and for family. They showed me a few of the tablecloths; beautiful, with vibrant colors and flowers. “It’s a form of therapy for me,” said Luisa, “to help me forget about all of our problems and what we are going through.”
Michael, Erminia and Carlos
Testimony of Amparo Jabre Vera (50 yrs)
Amparo and her family arrived in the Industriales neighborhood in 1991. They were happy and thought that they were going to own a home, but when they arrived it was just a bathroom. They built their home little by little. Now, the foundation of their home is falling apart because of the landfill below but they can’t fix it. Amparo is the homemaker, but she also makes dolls to sell, as well as washes and irons. One of her sons is in high school and the other works away at a mine outside of Iquique. Like many of the women in the Industriales neighborhood, Amparo had two miscarriages while living there. These days she is worried about her family and their health and wellbeing, and is tired of waiting for an answer‌ but without anything else she can do, she keeps waiting.
Amparo
Testimony of Ruby Duvo Videla (26 yrs) and her niece (14 yrs)
Ruby’s son, who is now two years old, was born prematurely at only six months and after just being born his tests showed he had 58 ug/L of arsenic, an extremely high level for anyone, especially a newborn. Ruby and her other son’s tests came out with 19 ug/L of arsenic, and they arrived in this neighborhood only five years ago. Ruby’s niece’s tests came out with 52 ug/L of arsenic. As a 14-year-old teenager, she doesn’t think much about what it means to be contaminated. She is a high school student, but she doesn’t like studying, she’d rather listen to music. She said that she feels fine, but also that she doesn’t really know what to think or feel; no one has explained to her what arsenic does to people. When I asked her what she thinks about the situation, she said, “It’s like, people die from this shit – lead and arsenic… it goes into their bones. There’s a lot that scares me… but I don’t really know.”
Ruby’s niece
After just being born his tests showed he had 58 ug/L of arsenic.
Ruby and her son
Testimony of Fernanda Santos Ticlle (42 yrs)
Fernanda came to the Industriales neighborhood with her husband and her children, and when she learned of a close neighbor who had a miscarriage two weeks before the baby was supposed to be born due to the contamination, she decided to become one of the leaders of AFCCOMTA. “Before we came here I was a really dynamic person,” she told me, “I would help with work and do things for the house… but after a time living here, I started to feel down. I didn’t have a desire to do much. I started having and still have bad fatigue and my hands ache. I am not very sick right now, but I know what awaits me… and that makes me upset. My daughters’ arsenic tests came out very high, which scares me. We wanted to give them a better quality of life… their own bedrooms in the house… but how can we? We can’t fix up the house anymore. It’s hard to understand our rage, frustration and feelings, but we didn’t ask to come here and live this… and we didn’t come here alone, we brought our children. How did they let this happen? I ask… They knew about the toxics… we didn’t. They owe us a debt and no matter what they need to fix this situation… I’m not saying please.”
CONCLUSION Please, tell me if this situation seems normal to you... on one street in these neighborhoods, almost every single house has residents with grave illnesses, for example, 6 people have terminal cancer, 5 have failed kidneys, there are 10 people with respiratory and or lung problems, 15 kids are hyperactive and have difficulty learning, 4 women in their early 20’s have had cancer of the uterus, 8 more women have had miscarriages, 4 of these with malformations, and almost every single adult, and half of the children suffer from severe migraines and joint pain, and on top of that many of them are losing their eyesight due to their eyes “drying.” Moreover, we are talking about more than just numbers we are talking about real people, human beings, it could be anyone or better yet, us. And how would you feel if you lived on this street? Would you be worried about your children and their future? And if your contamination tests came back saying that you weren’t contaminated at all, although you suffer from many of these symptoms, would you believe the authorities who gave you this test or in the doctors who are paid by the government? What would you do? The NGO AFCCOMTA was created by a group of women who did not want to continue living contaminated, with health problems, always worried about the future of their children and with no answer or help from the government for the harm that they have suffered. Many of these women, especially the president, Marta Quisbert Olivares, left behind everything to work and fight for this. They have an incredible dedication and strength, something that I could only really understand after living and working at their side. Without degrees in medicine, law, public relations, social work, journalism or psychology, these women are working in all of this, and with a lot of power. Because of them, the program “Contacto” by Channel 13 came out with a show completely dedicated to the problem of contamination in these neighborhoods, which was really the first time that people in Chile became aware of the problem and the history behind it. After the show came out, the government began creating a master plan for how to deal with the contaminated neighborhoods that included sections on health, housing and education, but according to the residents, the plan lacks quite a bit. What the residents are asking for are respectable homes, away from the contaminated neighborhoods, and that, after they are moved away, that no new families be brought in to the contaminated zones... ever! They don’t want to be placed in small apartments, they want respectable homes that are comparable to the ones they already have, or better. Also, many of the ill residents, especially those who suffer from joint pain (which is the majority) cannot easily climb stairs like they would have to in an apartment building complex. They are asking for better healthcare, free for life, that is accessible and of good quality, with specialists on the illnesses that derive from toxic contamination. Furthermore, they want education for their children in the form of grants, because many of the kids have the desire to study, but because of the contamination many also have learning problems that would never allow them to be accepted into a University, especially within the classist Chilean educational system. They are asking for recognition, attention, help and an answer that they have long deserved… a dignified life, health and education. The leaders of the NGO AFCCOMTA
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ŠTatyana Schmid 2011