Primero de Mayo

Cirilo Jimenez, the leader of the rentistas mineros, the retired miners, marches with his compañeros on May Day, 2007. Their signs called for full nationalization of Bolivia's mines and increased rentas, pension payments, from the government. The miners currently recieve about $150 per month.


The Joventud Comunista de Bolivia, the youth group of Bolivia's Communist Party, march on May Day.




The inauguration of the monumento al minero on May Day in the Max Fernandez neighborhood of Chilimarca, a community about 20 minutes north of Cochabamba's city center. The neighborhood used to be called Siglo XX, as it started out as a cooperative that miners from the mining center by the same name bought into. When more than 25,000 miners were "relocalized" in the mid-1980s, these miners were more fortunate than most to have a lot in Cochabamba to come to. Many lived in tents on their lots until they had the funds to construct a home. This monument is a replica of the monumento al minero in Siglo XX (see earlier blog entry "Siglo XX" below).

Fortunately the history of May Day has not been erased in Bolivia as it has almost been in the United States. Everyone from militant trade unionists to school children can tell you about the Haymarket martyrs in Chicago. My ex-miner friends were surprised to hear that here in the U.S. we not only do not learn about May Day, but that it has not been celebrated as the day of the worker for many years. They were happy to hear, however, about last year's immigrant rights demonstrations that brought May Day back to life in the place or its origin.