At the end of June of 2011 my paternal grandfather died, the last one of a miners’ saga. His life, and some others life, represents the history of a whole region, an architecture of emotions and signals. Up to the 1960’s the coal and anthracite catchment areas were the main resource of the north of Palencia (Spain). The activity of mining not only gave a job to thousands of workers but also defined the look and nature of its people. This work, far from the traditional look of the working struggle, scans the lives of the last eight workers at San Iisdro and María well in Velilla del Río Carrión. The images of these men (El polaco, Borja, José Luis, El abuelu, Luis, Rufino, Hoyos and Barullo) represent the identity of a region a voice that claims for the celebration of a collective remembrance.
Imanol Villota (Madrid,1981)
