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THE CHILEAN MINERS who became celebrities after months trapped underground are now immortalised in a Hollywood film starring Antonio Banderas – but for some, real life has had no happy ending.
Five years on, with movie The 33 hitting screens across the US, men who lived through the ordeal and their families are struggling on with lives of little glamour.
“We have felt abandoned from the start,” said Jessica Cortes, wife of one of the miners, Victor Zamora.
“I have lived through these anxious years with him day after day, seeing how he gets depressed at not finding a job and at feeling cheated,” she said.
The miners’ tale of survival warmed hearts worldwide. For the media, it was a tale of friendship and triumph in adversity. But squabbles and contrasting fortunes have since divided the heroic 33.
Some went on to build successful lives, including Luis Urzua, the foreman of the group working in the San Jose copper mine when it collapsed.
Urzua says he and some of his companions have managed to get work with big mining groups and are better off now than before the accident.
But others struggle to find work and say they have been cheated out of the Hollywood dollars being made from their story.
“They have been seriously affected as workers,” said Alberto Iturra, a psychologist who treated the miners.
“They think that at any moment they are going to be laid off and stop working, or worse, that they will be unable to cope with the stress.”
Homeless, poor
With two children aged four and nine, Zamora is as poor now as he was before the mining accident. He lives in social housing off odd jobs and a state allowance of $450 (€415) a month, awarded to the eldest of the 33 miners.
In March a fresh disaster hit his family: a storm destroyed their home and left them in the street.
In The 33, Banderas stars as the charismatic Mario Sepulveda, who acted as one of the leaders of the group, helping to keep their spirits up until they were rescued in October 2010.
Sepulveda is among those who have prospered since climbing out of the mine: he has launched a construction business and a charitable foundation.
But others in the group have not benefited from the fame their ordeal brought them, and are bitter at the way they have been treated.
“Each of them has his own story; each had his own experience,” said Sepulveda.
Disputes have broken out, in particular, about contracts for managing the rights to their story.
Urzua was among several miners who attended a premiere of The 33 in Hollywood this week, ahead of its general US release on Friday.
Film earnings lost
The movie has been rolled out across Latin America since August and heads to Asia and Europe over the coming months.
The ex-foreman has also led a group of nine miners who sued their lawyers this month, accusing them of cheating them out of money from the rights to their story, including earnings from the film.
Sepulveda took issue with his comrades’ lawsuit, saying they were being “led astray by people who haven’t read the contracts properly.”
But Victor Zamora insisted: “The division we have within the group is because of what the lawyers have done to us.”
After emerging from the mine before the cameras of the world’s media, the miners traveled around the world telling their story.
Each of them received a gift of $7,000 (€6,500) from Leonardo Farkas, an eccentric Chilean mining entrepreneur.
One of them even found love waiting for him in the light at the top of the mineshaft.
A German woman watching the drama on television fell in love with miner Daniel Herrera and contacted him online. They are now married and living together in Chile.
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Will they be rolling out a red carpet like a bunch of saps again?
As I’ve already pointed out, he requested and paid for all that himself.
Any source for that? Had a quick Google and couldn’t find anything
I wonder what the hourly rate on finance minister rental is.
I didn’t know , you could hire the finance minister Michael noonan. That explains a lot. So your saying arsesmell FC that trump git the red carpet and paid for noonan to fawn all over him.
It’s buy one get one free over the bank holiday weekend.
Cheaper than you think…
“In his defence, he buys a red carpet and gets it rolled out for him wherever he goes”
He knows his lusterous rugs does Drumph! Count Fingers Noonan will no doubt do the blood letting for Inda Badbooks after his tantrumpous outburst the other day!
“As I’ve already pointed out, he requested and paid for all that himself.”
He requested a Red carpet? Wouldn’t put it past him, An Irish Dancer? Maybe, Michael Noonan to great you off a 7 hour flight?? Come on.
Trump you should get off the comments section but no you didn’t pay for it yourself. If it wasn’t paid for by enda kenny it was paid for by your shoddy business practices like handouts from daddy and your multiple bankruptcies
Trump for Taoiseach
And did he request RTE cameras and interviewers too? If so we definitely are a bunch of saps for turning up to pay homage to a man who bought a golf course and hotel for a song.
Shame on you Noonan Nama and RTE.
Build a wall to keep him out, and make him pay for it….
its would be no different than dealing with SF
Yaaay, hope mickey noonan will be waiting there with the red carpet and oirish cailini to do an auld bit of fawning.
Trump requested and paid for that himself.
If that’s the case: can I pay the Minister for Finance to do my tax returns?
He can’t do his own Fred.
Wait till we see all the politicians rolling out the red carpet for the bigot
Citation needed.
Apparently he’s going to build a wall in doonbeg
And the fish are gonna pay for it!
Hope he says “Enda you’re fired”.
The people of Ireland fired Enda at the last election…yet he is Taoiseach again…WTF…he is like a cockroach…hard to get rid of.
His party got the most votes, so eh basically that’s often how it works when those who get most votes in any debate/election/competition do win!
Parlimentary system doesn’t work
Good point Michael. We need you and people who agree with you to decide. That’s much fairer.
Kenny better pucker up for that ass kissing he is going to have do next November when Trump is the new Potus. That’s going to be an awkward situation in March when Kenny attempts to give Trump the usual bowl of weeds, with a big forced grin on his red cheeked face
Does it not work because the person/Party you didn’t vote for is in power?
No bort man, if say 99% of people out of 100 vote on something and you don’t, it doesn’t mean that it is wrong for the winner to be the one you didn’t vote for! Surely it’s that simple to understand?
He’ll have no problem puckering up. Hell kiss Donald’s arise cheeks for a pat on the head. Once Trump is President, enda will start his snivelling and grovelling. If there’s one thing our enda is good at, it’s obsquesiousness. We’ve a lot to be proud of.
Enda has a nose for sniffing out those higher on the totem pole than he is. Once Trump is president, there’s no higher. Enda will do all the brown nosing that’s required. Doesn’t matter how far up he has to go he will do it cos our Enda goes the extra mile.
Greg, I was agreeing with you!
Sorry Bort Man. I wasn’t sure if you were serious or were being sarcastic!
The Irish electorate said `Enda your fired`back in February and look what happened.
We might need Donald Trump before he has any need of us!! Like him or loathe him he could possibly be elected the next US President.
should we start building a massive wall to keep out the Donald?
He would just negotiate it down. With words. He knows them so I am led to believe.
He has the best words!!
We should start building a massive wall to keep middle eastern types out when the Brits leave the UK.
Can’t see the problem. We allow plenty racists from the Middle East to live here and nobody bats an eyelid, we even bend over backwards to make sure they’re not “offended” by our western and advanced way of life.
i think it’s you that’s the racist making such a broad and generalised comment about people who themselves are the victims of brutal dictatorships and Western military misadventures. To draw an equivalence between them and a foul, racist bigot like Trump whose’ speeches have incited violence against minorities is absurd.
@conor
He didn’t generalise. He said “plenty of” racists in the middle east, not “everyone in the middle east is racist”. Please, don’t let your eagerness to white knight for others cloud your reading skills.
Sorry Conor, re-read and tell me where I said all people in the ME are racist.
Be big enough to apologise for your pathetic attempt to call me a racist.
Trump isn’t a racist bigot. You seem to just be repeating what the media has told you to say. Have you ever had an original thought?
I hope Trump responds, his infantile insults are usually hilarious
May lightning strike!!
Twice!
‘Don the Con’ is in big big trouble after his staff admitting the other day in the court case against his “University” -that they were told to take peoples retirement funds for his bogus courses .. What a sick individual ..
Whereas others show people saying the courses were the best investment they had made. Interestingly the Judge was previously a member of the pro-amnesty La Raza Lawyers Association. http://dailycaller.com/2016/06/01/judge-presiding-over-trump-university-case-is-member-of-la-raza-lawyers-group/
http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/trump-university-its-worse-than-you-think The deposition of one of his employees is there. Describes how the company conned a heavily indebted couple on disability payments to take equity from their apartment for a 35,000 dollar 12 week property course. When the man who gave this written account didn’t push harder to sell after already selling 1500 USD he was reprimanded. The course content was made by companies that make timeshare presentations. It’s beyond messed up. He is not welcome here. He is vile.
Ah sure, the judge has Mexican parents so it is biased against Trump…Oh what an evil conman this Trump man is …
Thanks for those facts,David .
Its not his ethnicity thats the issue. The issue is that he was in the La Raza Lawyers Association which is a pro amnesty group.
Plus he “mistakenly” released Trump University records which he then had to change his mind and seal again! http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-trump-university-lawsuit-records-seal-release-election-2016/
David Leonard Scully
The New Yorker has always had it in for Trump and is very liberal. It is Israel first where as Trump is America FIRST so it doesn’t take a genius to work out where that particular agenda lies.
Agree he is vile. And to think those fool farmers think his wall in Clare was for their benefit. To stop erosions. It was to keep his resort very exclusive.
The law firm driving this bogus case is a major donor to the Clintons and as recently as 2014 they paid Crooked Hillary north of 250k for one of her speeches.
Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd, the law firm behind the class action lawsuit, is not exactly neutral either. Our analysis, using data first compiled by The Washington Post, found that Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd paid the Clintons a total of $675,000 in fees for speeches since 2009. Hillary Clinton gave a $225,000 speech at the law firm as recently as September 4, 2014. Bill Clinton also gave a speech for the same fee back in 2013, and another one in 2009 before the firm had been renamed (they used to be called Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP). In fact, of the five law firms that paid for the Clintons to speak over the last few years, Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd paid out the most money.
400+ plaintiffs against trump in this case. At $36,000 a pop that’s a lot of money lost. Source: the young Turks news group. I haven’t heard of one satisfied ” student “. It wasn’t even a legal university, he just called it one because he wanted to. Absolutely no accreditation at all. It was a con. What’s your source?
Its hilarious seeing the trolls clutching at straws here with the Trump university thingy.
Two words spring to mind ‘Pathetic’ and ‘Desperate’.
Losers. :)
My source is the internet. Google. It’s pretty easy to find. Also pretty easy to find out what’s going on with Clinton’s email . That’s still not gone either..
Three previously unreleased emails have been found on Clinton’s server, The Hill reports, thanks to the State Department’s audit. One of them is her own explanation of why she wanted to keep her emails private. Clinton has long claimed that she released all of her work-related emails for public scrutiny, but this revelation indicates that she’s either been lying or she’s been a poor steward of her government-related affairs. It’s a good bet that this is not all she’s been dishonest about.
https://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/clinton-email-scandal-three-problems-hillary-cant-escape/&ved=0ahUKEwjRxYSbu4vNAhVjOMAKHcCfAh0QFggyMAY&usg=AFQjCNF7E9Lq5KuTAowwFL1rRNHO4Xjawg
Trump was yesterday questioning the judge’s impartiality in handling the case because his Mexican heritage is “an inherent conflict of interest.” Curial has “an absolute conflict” said Trump, due to his ethnic background, adding, “I’m building a wall. It’s an inherent conflict of interest.” Curiel was born in East Chicago, Indiana, to Mexican parents.”
But he is still great friends with the Latino’s ..
I do realise that it’s like banging ones head against the wall when you start conversing with Trump supporters anywhere online ..But it still won’t stop me from saying it over and over again to the Trump losers (Ziggy) on here that Trump is an evil conman ..
Francis I would rather see sanders than either Clinton or trump. Both are as bad as each other. Both nutters. Both don’t like the constant bashing of one candidate while the other one gets an easy ride although they are under investigation by the FBI.
Trump never killed anyone Francis, Hillary has the death of over a million on her hands in Libya alone.
I’ve said on here before that I’m not a fan of sHillary the warmonger..
I’m more of a #bern man ..You know the lad that Trump chickened out of having a debate with?!
One thing that I will agree with is, that it is going to be an awful choice choosing which one to give your vote to..
My own personal feeling on this is, that he has stood on too many peoples toes ..But that is just my $.02 worth. Now I’m off to have a bit of lunch as us ‘trolls’ have to eat ,too..
Haha good one Francis, enjoy your lunch and mind you don’t choke on it! (joke) :)
I’d pay for a Muslim woman to welcome him to Shannon Airport this time around.
The Halawa ninja troupe would do the trick!
I’d pay him to take the Muslim woman away with him.
You mean bigly. Or maybe even bigglier??
Cead Míle Falla romhat Donald…….
Arriving on Hair Force One for a hunting trip up in Mayo, he tracks down and shoots his own toupee’s
Shun this dangerous, disgusting, racist moron.
Why should Kenny feel awkward? His comments were reasonable, accurate and based on fact.
Unrelated: They’ve found the Japanese kid safe n well.
We should put up lots of flags for him. Big Mexican ones.
The Donald is the biggest employer in Doonbeg, so he deserves a warm Irish welcome when he visits his Co Clare Hotel and Golf resort later this month.
Love or hate the rich, racist rascal, he has some good ideas for boosting the US economy and halting the slide of the financial lot of middle Americans, should he become President.
For example, US Multinational Corporations like Apple Inc holding nearly $200 bn Cash on its Balance Sheet in off shore tax havens is a scandal in itself. Some or all of this money needs to be recycled into US economy for the greater good of society.
As a US established corporation, Apple Plc should be paying the one third of profits in Corporation Tax each year to US Treasury without the need for repatriation of capital, as is the case under current rules.
That country’s road, rail, bridge and port infrastructure is crumbling for want of investment.
Donald is the only man for this job!
Rich and racist are now qualifications for the US Presidency.,
Do you really think he’ll do that? He’s out for himself only. He will be bought by big corporations for the highest price.
“The Donald is the biggest employer in Doonbeg”
Yeah, sure… next down is the local Londis.
Incidentally, I’m the biggest employer in my building. Should I be greeted by the Taoiseach every time I come home?
FFS.
Haha – The biggest employer in Doonbeg? Yeah with a total population of a whopping 754 people. Ireland is a unique country which has faced huge amounts of emigration and immigration, for better or for worse over the course of its history, so from our perspective he does NOT deserve a warm Irish welcome on the basis of the handful of jobs he creates
I hope this is not going to cost us as a Nation any money. We don’t want the f@#ker here.
Legend!!
I’d worry about Enda’s sphincter muscle control after what he said about the Don. I mean “racist and dangerous” about Don’s comments were a tad harsh.
Donald knows an idiot when he sees one.
Takes one to know one.
No thanks America. You can keep him.
Violence by anti Trump protesters. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp3YUvMXDWA
Violence by Trump. http://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000004269364/trump-and-violence.html
Amazing how reports of violence at these things only make it across this side of the Atlantic when it appears its Trump supporters instigating the violence.
Trump on women, among other things, http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/blogs/550112/donald-trump-quotes.html
Trump loves women, he’s had three wives!
Trump tweeted…The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive. So why is he building a wall around his precious golf course in Doonbeg?
*mic drop*
Racist? Or a realist?
These positions are not mutually exclusive. Demagogue? Or a popular liar?
Racist. Fascist. Misogynist. Take your pick. Realist he is not. Fantasist is more accurate.
Trump is no worse than Hillary Clinton whose actions as Secretary of State have been a tale of near complete incompetence.
not incompetence, that’s far too kind, corruption is the correct word.
Will he get the red carpet treatment again from enda and co.
Will be great to welcome The Donald back to Ireland on his long procession to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
He won’t be drab anyway.
Lads he’s going to win and then we’re all fecked
I object he’s a racist bigot
Great news.
One must always welcome Americans to Ireland with open arms and give them the freedom of the country.
It’s good for tourism don’t ya know.
Especially Americans like Trump who give so much to our country and our people.
Is the wig coming?
Yes, with its own entourage and everything.
Make Ireland Great Again..
Yet when Obama , who is responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent people with his drones, came here he was fated like a king and when the Prime Minister to be Of China to visited he was also treated like a monarch without one word of complaint for the persecution of the Chinese people by his Government. Maybe some one can tell me how many murders and persecutions Trump is responsible for.
It’s more of judgment call on how many deaths he would be responsible for if he is ever elected to anything.
How much money in security is this going to cost us and who’s going to pay!
Somebody once said that the ar%e that you kick today may be the one that you may be kissing tomorrow.
Donald the Deceiver denies Climate Change as a candidate but pleads climate change destriction in the planning application for sea building works at his golf club. Liar.
If we look beyond the hysteria, and Trump does win, it won’t do us any harm that he has investments here. He’s hardly likely to do anything that hurts our economy when his resort is dependent on Irish people on decent incomes. Perhaps our politicians should be employing their excellent sycophantic skills to keep him onside. We can THINK he’s a kant but maybe not say it to his face. After all, we’ve tolerated nut jobs from Saudi, Iraq etc for years. Not to mention The Bushes, Thatcher and Reagan. Where there’s nuts there’s brass.
We couldn`t possibly welcome Trump here, after all he stands up for his country is against militant Islam and unrestricted migration, and has invested here providing jobs in the west of Ireland, nah we can`t have that kind of thing here.
Who is this orange man you speak of
I predict any antI Trump protest will either be led by self pro claimed antI fascist types or will be hijacked by them ,, Which from past experience they will resort to violence , all of which will backfire and will end up getting Trump even more media coverage, Trump is a high profile individual and chances are the garda will use more then batons to deal with violent thugs.
Go polish your head Noonan and practice some jigs n reels. Oops neary forgot the knee pads
Nooooo he is going to bring the rain
Ban him from coming
Enda really is an eejit, even if Trump isn’t elected he would still be visiting here somewhat regularly on the course in Doonbeg and get the attention of the press and publicity for Clare. Americans LOVE the west, and all the attention does show the place in a good light, even if the carpet and shamrocks is excessive.
Lads quick, build a wall
Maybe he will make Ireland Great Again.
Red carpet and the harpist etc. would be a bit much but I didn’t think a small country dependant on a lot of FDI from America should purposely offend someone who has a good shot of being President (influencing trade agreements)
Yerra. Feic.
Dumb meets dumber
Isis might bring his plane down.
Deadly, I need a wall built in the garden. Wonder what Donny Drumpf Building Contractors Ltd charges?
It’s ok to be a prostitute and keep the money, but our politicians prostitute the citizens of Ireland and the politicians keep the money. That includes Labour, AAA, And the rest of them. They keep selling us down the river yet we keep electing the Healy Reas and The rest.
I’m surprised – but I shouldn’t be – by the level of ignorance of Journal.ie commenters about this ugly, deeply disturbed, fascistic man who would be a YUGE danger to the whole world if elected. He has a 30% chance of being elected the most powerful man in the world. People in Ireland should be scared of that possibility, not waffling about his bringing jobs to West Clare. I hope Clare County Council has the cojones to follow the lead of An Bord Pleanála and deny him permission to build that 200,000 tonne, 2.8 km berm to protect his ugly golf course.
F*ck off, bird nest head. You’re about as welcome as a fart in a space suit.
LOL@ all the Yank Trump supporters thumbing down every negative comment about him.
And?
Would it not be in order to send the Hellish Rae’s to welcome Trump, give him a Rae’l Irish welcome that would spin his little head. Michael HeHaw Ray might set the cap aside and don a Trump toupee for the occasion or visa versa if the Cap fits. The World is really in a State of Chassis.
Same colour of hair as Prince Harry, lol.
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