33 Men
Page 24
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In writing this book in the immediate aftermath of the mining drama, I found the challenges were numerous, the sacrifices many. First I would like to thank my wife, Toty Garfe, for accepting my months-long disappearing act. And to my daughters Kimberly and Amy, sorry to have missed your birthday. Zoe, your baptism photos are great; it would have been better to have been there. Susan, congratulations on winning so many high-diving medals; I saw the video. Maciel, how did you grow half a foot in two months? Francisca, my first daughter, your loyalty to your globe-trotting dad is appreciated.
To Annabel Merullo, Caroline Michel, Juliet Mushens, Alexandra Cliff and the team at PFD, you were the first to see the potential of this book and guided it through the Frankfurt Book Fair and to higher ground. I am forever grateful. George Lucas of Inkwell Management, you guided this book through the jungles of U.S. publishing and landed me at Putnam, where Marysue Rucci and Marilyn Ducksworth were instrumental in turning this book into a beautifully designed, finely edited and nationally known work. Both Diana Lulek and Michelle Malonzo at Putnam dropped their schedules to answer my many questions about publishing my first book. At Putnam I would also like to thank the managing editorial team of Meredith Dros and Lisa D’Agostino, who were busier than air traffic control at JFK, keeping all the pieces of this project in sync. And to Putnam President Ivan Held for his backing of my first book: I appreciate your unwavering support. Finally, I want to thank Art Director Claire Vaccaro, who patiently figured out the maps and photos, and Copy Chief Linda Rosenberg, who worked through the holidays. To Bill Scott-Kerr and Simon Thorogood at Transworld Publishing in London, your early support for this project was key to making it happen. Bob Bookman and the team at CAA for everlasting optimism inside the madness that is Hollywood movie production. To Colin Baden, Diane Thibert, and Rachel Mooers at Oakley for a generous contribution to the miners. Thanks to Martín Fruns, Alejandro Piño and the entire medical and psychological staff at the ACHS for their professional treatment and constant help throughout this project. A special mention of psychologist Alberto Iturra, who may have had the hardest job of all—keeping the miners united underground. Alberto, the miners may not have realized how hard your job was, but the rest of us did!
My father, Tom Franklin, used to fact-check and copyedit my third-grade homework—see, it all paid off! My older sister Sarah, who is a tremendous writer and even greater inspiration, cleared the way for my career. My younger brother Christopher, who silently creates parks and recreation areas, your legacy is already here. To my mother, Susan, who is watching from above, you not only delivered me to this world but imbued me with a spirit of survival and endurance.
To my colleagues, including Dean Kuipers, L.A. Times, early investor in my self-confidence. Sam Logan, of SouthernPulse, a visionary journalist. Denise Witzig, Brown University, a key mentor. John Kifner, New York Times, early mentor. Hunter S. Thompson, no explanation needed! Michael Smith, Bloomberg, best investigative reporter I know. Jorge Molina, El Mostrador, Chile’s finest reporter. Pablo Iturbe and Tim Delhaes, Tigabytes, close conspirators and fellow dreamers. Rory Carroll, Martin Hodgson, David Munk, Marx Rice Oxley and the entire foreign desk at The Guardian for putting up with my random acts of generosity. Tiffany Harness, Doug Jehl Griff Witte and Juan Forero at the Washington Post, who proved that great editors still exist. Guillermo Galdos, Discovery Channel, for hosting me at the San José mine and always providing inspiration. Lonzo Cook and Karl Penhaul of CNN for good humor and great dinners. Amaro Gómez-Pablos Benavides of Televisión Nacional de Chile, for loyalty and laughs. Francisco Peregil from El Pais, an example that great journalism can also be collaborative. Bert Rudman, John Quinones, Joe Goldman and the whole ABC News team, who took me under their wing at Camp Hope. Carlos Pedroza and Manuel Martinez of Esquire Mexico for their long-term loyalty and eye for real news, Miguel Soffia for proving that the next generation is going to make us old-timers feel slow and lazy! And finally to James Bandler, my eternal co-conspirator, master of the understatement and the world scoop and the reason I went to Chile twenty-one years ago.
And to the thirty-three miners—each of whom took time to speak with me and provide information for the book. In particular I would like to thank Mario Sepúlveda, Raúl Bustos, Alex Vega, Juan Illanes and Samuel Ávalos.
Finally my business partner Morten Anderson, for his patience during my unexpected sabbatical. Assistants Gemma Dunn, Lucia Bird and Ellen Jones were infinitely patient in transcribing Chilean miner interviews from an almost unintelligible slang into perfect English.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Inside the San José mine, a sign points in the direction of the safety shelter where the men gathered after the August 5 collapse.
REUTERS / CHILEAN MINING MINISTRY / LANDOV
Miner Gino Cortés had his leg sliced off by falling rock inside the San José mine just days before the August 5 collapse.
© MORTEN ANDERSON
The mouth of the mine.
MARTIN BERNETTI / AFP /
GETTY IMAGES
Desert shrines to sudden deaths along the Atacama Highway.
ARIEL CALIBAN MARINKOVIC
Every morning a tongue of thick fog engulfed the valley in a blanket of cold, mysterious air.
ASSOCIATED PRESS /
NATACHA PISARENKO
Campers, cranes and Camp Hope—an empty corner of the Atacama Desert filled up overnight.
ASSOCIATED PRESS / CARLOS ESPINOSA
Dozens of children made Camp Hope their home as anguished parents awaited the rescue.
ARIEL MARINKOVIC / AFP / GETTY IMAGES
The morning fog hid the antenna trucks and the media frenzy.
ARIEL CALIBAN MARINKOVIC
Thirty-three candles for the miners—a singular shrine built into the side of the rocky hillside.
ARIEL MARINKOVIC / AFP /
GETTY IMAGES
Inside a tent at Camp Hope, a family member curls up to write a letter to one of the trapped miners.
© RONALD PATRICK
Tears and emotions were stretched to the limit as rescuers pushed forward in search of the trapped men.
© RONALD PATRICK
Solidarity at Camp Hope as family members united to push rescuers to never give up.
© RONALD PATRICK
An estimated three thousand journalists flocked to the San José mine, living in an instant tent city that stretched for acres.
© RONALD PATRICK
Mining Minister Golborne, President Piñera and André Sougarret, the lead engineer, confer on rescue plans.
HUGO INFANTE / GOVERNMENT
OF CHILE / REX USA
Drill bits for Plan B, worn out by hundreds of feet of rock twice as hard as granite.
JONATHAN FRANKLIN / ADDICT VILLAGE
Family members at Camp Hope light candles in homage to the trapped men.
ARIEL MARINKOVIC / AFP / GETTY IMAGES
A poster of the thirty-three miners with the slogan
“We Are Waiting for Them.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS / JIM CRAVEN
Author Jonathan Franklin reporting at Plan B; Jeff Hart in the background.
JONATHAN FRANKLIN / ADDICT VILLAGE
Verónica Quispe holds a photograph of her trapped husband, Bolivian Carlos Mamani, the only non-Chilean in the mine.
© CLAUDIO REYES / EPA / CORBIS
In a few famous words—“We are fine in the shelter, the 33”—the Chilean miners conveyed a miracle.
ASSOCIATED PRESS / HECTOR RETAMAL
Chilean President Sebastián Piñera holds aloft the famous note declaring all thirty-three miners are alive in the shelter.
ASSOCIATED PRESS / HECTOR RETAMAL
Jeff Hart (left), considered the world’s best driller, was flown in from Afghanistan to save the miners.
© RONALD PATRICK
Mining Minister Laurence Golborne was ever present at the rescue, earning the title “Laurence of Atacama.”
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p; © FERNANDO RODRIGUEZ
Family members of Mario Gómez and Darío Segovia celebrate the final phase of the rescue
operation.
ASSOCIATED PRESS / MARIO BARRETT
Chilean inventor Pedro Gallo was instrumental in designing the telephone hookup with the trapped miners.
© FERNANDO RODRIGUEZ
Jonathan Franklin had a Rescue Pass, allowing him to go beyond this police checkpoint to report from the front lines of the rescue operation.
© RONALD PATRICK
Family members gather to watch the first video showing the men trapped underground.
REUTERS / IVAN ALVARADO / LANDOV
A group of miners pose during a break in their daily work routines. The men had to move debris to clear their own rescue tunnel.
REUTERS / CHILEAN
GOVERNMENT / LANDOV
Claudio Yañez, one of the trapped miners, speaks on the phone with his wife and child.
© HANDOUT / MINISTRY OF
MINING / DPA / DPA / CORBIS
Reporter Jonathan Franklin taking notes at Paloma station.
JONATHAN FRANKLIN / ADDICT VILLAGE
Paramedics stuff the hollow tube known as “the pigeon” with food and supplies.
ASSOCIATED PRESS / LUIS HIDALGO
Carolina Narváez smiles as she rereads the first letter from her trapped husband, miner Raúl Bustos.
© MORTEN ANDERSON
Tubes used by the trapped miners and family members to ship messages back and forth.
JONATHAN FRANKLIN / ADDICT VILLAGE
A crowd gathers at Camp Hope for a religious service in the middle of the Atacama Desert.
REUTERS / STR / LANDOV
Dr. Jorge Díaz tries out the winch measure on Dr. Romagnoli to see if he would fit inside the Phoenix capsule.
JONATHAN FRANKLIN / ADDICT VILLAGE
Lead psychologist Alberto Iturra having one of his many talks with the trapped men.
JONATHAN FRANKLIN /
ADDICT VILLAGE
Faith and Los 33 were never far apart during the rescue of the miners.
JONATHAN FRANKLIN / ADDICT VILLAGE
Family members ultimately ended up outnumbered by the press at Camp Hope.
ARIEL CALIBAN MARINKOVIC
Author Jonathan Franklin talks to President Sebastián Piñera just hours before the rescue begins.
MARCELO ITURBE
Rescue workers gaze down in curiosity as the rescue capsule rises from the mine to deliver another miner to freedom.
REUTERS / CHILEAN GOVERNMENT
VIDEO / POOL / LANDOV
Huge convoys of equipment rolled into Camp Hope nearly every day to help with the rescue.
ARIEL CALIBAN MARINKOVIC
Rescue workers gathered at the Phoenix capsule as each miner was hauled to the surface in a journey that ended the sixty-nine-day drama.
© RONALD PATRICK
Tears of joy filled the air when the rescue capsule began saving the lives of the thirty-three men.
ARIEL CALIBAN MARINKOVIC
Mario Gómez, the oldest of the miners, celebrates his last shift after fifty-one years in the mines.
MARTIN BERNETTI / AFP / GETTY
IMAGES / NEWSCOM
Mario Sepúlveda danced his way out of the capsule and into the hearts of the world. He was dubbed “Super Mario.”
REUTERS / CHILEAN
GOVERNMENT / LANDOV
José Henríquez, who preached inside the mine, greets the world just minutes after being rescued from the San José mine.
ASSOCIATED PRESS / ROBERTO CANDIA
Miner Franklin Lobos, a former soccer star, holds his daughter Carolina Lobos seconds after being rescued.
GABRIEL ORTEGA / GOVERNMENT
OF CHILE / REX USA
After sixty-nine days of waiting, family members erupt in celebration when the last miner, Luis Urzúa, is rescued.
EPA/IAN SALSAS/LANDOV
Luis Urzúa, the last miner rescued, celebrates as President Piñera stands by his side. Urzúa was shift foreman on the day of the collapse.
HUGO INFANTE / AFP / GETTY IMAGES / NEWSCOM
Miners laugh and joke with President Sebastián Piñera in the hospital.
GOBIERNO DE CHILE / REX USA
Miner Richard Villarroel flashes a smile as he is wheeled into a makeshift hospital room just minutes after being rescued.
© CLAUDIA VEGA / EPA / CORBIS
Stone slab inscribed with the names of the thirty-three miners.
JONATHAN FRANKLIN / ADDICT VILLAGE
On his first day of freedom, miner Mario Sepúlveda prays at the beach near Copiapó.
© MORTEN ANDERSON