A Silent Fury : The El Bordo Mine Fire

On March 10, 1920, in Pachuca, Mexico, the Compañía de Santa Gertrudis — the largest employer in the region, and a subsidiary of the United States Smelting, Refining & Mining Company — may have committed murder. The alert was first raised at six in the morning: a fire was tearing through the El Bordo mine. After a brief evacuation, the mouths of the shafts were sealed. Company representatives hastened to assert that "no more than ten" men remained inside the mineshafts, and that all ten were most certainly dead. Yet when the mine was opened six days later, the death toll was not ten, but eighty-seven. And there were seven survivors.A century later, acclaimed novelist Yuri Herrera has reconstructed a workers' tragedy at once globally resonant & deeply personal: Pachuca is his hometown. His work is an act of restitution for the victims & their families, bringing his full force of evocation to bear on the injustices that suffocated this horrific event into silence. Born in Actopan, Mexico, Yuri Herrera is the author of three novels, including Signs Preceding the End of the World, which was one of the Guardian's “100 Best Books of the 21st Century” & won the Best Translated Book Award. He teaches at Tulane University in New Orleans.Lisa Dillman teaches in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese at Emory University & has translated numerous works of fiction by Argentine, Mexican, Catalan, & Spanish writers. She lives in Decatur, Georgia. On March 10, 1920, in Pachuca, Mexico, the United States Smelting, Refining and Mining Companythe largest employer in the region, and known simply as the Companymay have been guilty of murder. The alert was first raised at six in the morning: a fire was tearing through the El Bordo mine. After a short evacuation, the mouths of the shafts were sealed. Company representatives hastened to assert that no more than ten men remained in the shafts at the time of their closure, and Company doctors hastened to proclaim them dead. The El Bordo stayed shut for six days. When the mine was opened there was a sea of charred bodiesmen who had made it as far as the exit, only to find it shut. The final death toll was not ten, but eighty-seven. And there were seven survivors. Now, a century later, acclaimed novelist Yuri Herrera has carefully reconstructed a workers tragedy at once globally resonant and deeply personal: Pachuca is his hometown. His sensitive and deeply humanizing work is an act of restitution for the victims and their families, bringing his full force of evocation to bear on the injustices that suffocated this horrific event into silence.

On March 10, 1920, in Pachuca, Mexico, the Compañía de Santa Gertrudis — the largest employer in the region, and a subsidiary of the United States Smelting, Refining and Mining Company — may have committed murder.

The alert was first raised at six in the morning: a fire was tearing through the El Bordo mine. After a brief evacuation, the mouths of the shafts were sealed. Company representatives hastened to assert that “no more than ten” men remained inside the mineshafts, and that all ten were most certainly dead. Yet when the mine was opened six days later, the death toll was not ten, but eighty-seven. And there were seven survivors.

A century later, acclaimed novelist Yuri Herrera has reconstructed a workers’ tragedy at once globally resonant and deeply personal: Pachuca is his hometown. His work is an act of restitution for the victims and their families, bringing his full force of evocation to bear on the injustices that suffocated this horrific event into silence.

"On March 10, 1920, in Pachuca, Mexico, the Compañía de Santa Gertrudis -- the largest employer in the region, and a subsidiary of the United States Smelting, Refining and Mining Company -- may have committed murder. The alert was first raised at six in the morning: a fire was tearing through the El Bordo mine. After a brief evacuation, the mouths of the shafts were sealed. Company representatives hastened to assert that "no more than ten" men remained inside the mineshafts, and that all ten were most certainly dead. Yet when the mine was opened six days later, the death toll was not ten, but eighty-seven. And there were seven survivors. A century later, acclaimed novelist Yuri Herrera has reconstructed a workers' tragedy at once globally resonant and deeply personal: Pachuca is his hometown. His work is an act of restitution for the victims and their families, bringing his full force of evocation to bear on the injustices that suffocated this horrific event into silence."-- Amazon.com summary On March 10, 1920, in Pachuca, Mexico, the Compañía de Santa Gertrudis #8212; the largest employer in the region, and a subsidiary of the United States Smelting, Refining and Mining Company #8212; may have committed murder. The alert was first raised at six in the morning: a fire was tearing through the El Bordo mine. After a brief evacuation, the mouths of the shafts were sealed. Company representatives hastened to assert that "no more than ten" men remained inside the mineshafts, and that all ten were most certainly dead. Yet when the mine was opened six days later, the death toll was not ten, but eighty-seven. And there were seven survivors. A century later, acclaimed novelist Yuri Herrera has reconstructed a workers' tragedy at once globally resonant and deeply personal: Pachuca is his hometown. His work is an act of restitution for the victims and their families, bringing his full force of evocation to bear on the injustices that suffocated this horrific event into silence On March 10, 1920, in Pachuca, a fire was tearing through the El Bordo mine. After a brief evacuation, the mouths of the shafts were sealed. The mining company representatives hastened to assert that "no more than ten" men remained inside the mineshafts, and that all ten were most certainly dead. Yet when the mine was opened six days later, the death toll was not ten, but eighty-seven. And there were seven survivors. A century later, the author has reconstructed a workers' tragedy at once globally resonant and personal: Pachuca is his hometown. His work is an act of restitution for the victims and their families