Víctor reflects on the reasons that led people to organize.
Transcription
Yes, what motivated the people to organize was that there were things that were truly unjust. Imagine what it was like when we went to the coffee harvests, when we went to work on the plantations. Really, the food they gave us was nothing but beans; sometimes we had to sleep out in the open under the coffee bushes. And beyond the food and sleeping conditions, they stole from you when they weighed your harvest, and they stole from you when they paid you. Sometimes you knew how much money you had earned and when it came time to pay no, it wouldn’t be the full amount. It just wasn’t fair. That’s why people got organized, it wasn’t like, if someone didn’t pay you, were you going to go to the Ministry of Labor by yourself? You had to go as a group for them to pay attention to you, if not, they’d say, “There’s nothing to be done,” and that was it. And in the countryside, there wasn’t, now you can say that we have potable water, we have electricity, we have other services as well, right, the school. At that time in the villages there were no schools, there was no potable water, there was no electricity. So that’s also why people got organized, to get their basic necessities: water, electricity, schools, and other services that are also necessary. Healthcare. Before there were no doctors here, people treated themselves using natural medicines. So there were no doctors to speak of, not from the Health Ministry, just those who had studied natural medicine. So, I would say that’s why we began to organize.