In the historic and popular district of Recoleta (Santiago de Chile), the “Jatun Newen” Worker Cooperative emerged, the first to sign a contract in the country, for the cleaning and decoration of the roads of a whole commune. Born by direct will of its mayor Daniel Jadue, where “Jatun”, of Quechua origin and “Newen” of Mapuche origin, together they mean “Great Power”. The cooperative nowadays, is constituted by the strength and multiculturalism of its partners, being also the first intercultural cooperative in Chile, where Aymaras, Quechuas, Mapuches, Chileans, Peruvians, Colombians, Haitians and Ecuadorians experience an improvement in the quality of their employment and dignify their work, with the assumption of the challenge of being the owners of the company. The experience gives me a happy admiration for the work of the partners, who see a way to perform in it and to support their families from a distance, who endure the remoteness of their loved ones and friends, often with great pain. On the other hand I see the dedication and commitment with great dignity in sharing a common goal of service to the community. Happy also for the initiative of its mayor, who aware of a straightforward sense of the person, knows that they are people and not things that can simply be used and thrown away. Faced with this phenomenon and experience, my look as a photographer has been to respectfully explore and share moments of daily work as intimacy with some of its partners. The look I share in my images contains the experience and the echo of having also been a foreigner in distant lands. An experience marked also, for having integrated me at the time, a society that welcomed me and valued as a person and professional, and for my part, having contributed from my knowledge and sensitivity, to different instances related to communication and culture.
