The illustrated history of the miners of Coll de Pradell

Great things can come from the friendship between an archaeologist and an illustrator, comic book author, and educator. One of them is Lignite (Windows), a comic book that explains what life was like for the miners who lived in isolated barracks in the mountains. The archaeologist is Laia Gallego, who was excavating in Coll de Pradell (Berguedà), where in the 20th century there were two coal minesIt's a wooded area where the miners themselves built shacks to sleep and rest when they weren't working in the mine or separating and cleaning the coal. The illustrator is Emma Casadevall, who became captivated as Gallego told her about everything they were discovering.

"I was very interested because these were lives on the margins. There was a critical look at the power structures and, at the same time, there was the whole issue of how life was organized and the relationship with the land, in a pre-industrial society and later with industrialization," explains Casadevall, who speaks of the miners, but also of the women who work there. She also gives voice to the mountains. The comic's author worked with various materials: photographs of the excavated objects taken in the lab, plans of the barracks, interviews with witnesses... "I explored the materiality but also the architecture of the ruins, and I adopted different perspectives: I looked at it from a bird's-eye view and tried to get inside the bar. These experiences allowed me to develop a more emotional connection with these people," Casadevall explains. Specifically, the author listened primarily to Joan and Gabi. "They represent the most marginalized groups. Joan is one of the miners who lived in the self-built barracks, and Gabi represents the widows, single women, and migrants who worked in the mines," she adds.

They called Juan the barber Because he also cut the miners' hair and shaved them. "He came from a peasant background and symbolizes the rupture of an entire past relationship with the land," says Casadevall, who moves between different styles in a comic that not only tells a story but also has a clear intention. Casadevall draws on journalistic sources, such as articles explaining the 1932 uprising in Fígols and documentation about the Olano family, who operated the mines, founded the company Carbones de Berga SA, and promoted the mining colonies of Sant Corneli, Sant Josep, and La Consolació. "There were chapters where I was more interested in conveying an atmosphere, like the darkness and the cold. There's also poetry because I wanted to explore the sensations of the moment, and the power of small acts of resistance or the diversity of resistance," he says. "There were everyday acts of resistance, surviving and eating, but also relating to his coworkers and building relationships and bonds despite the harshness of some situations," he adds.

The author is critical of a system that exploits the most vulnerable. "There is a general critique of power and the hegemonic view of industrialization and capitalism, which romanticizes an idea of progress and turns a blind eye to all the abuses and the pain involved in building large infrastructures under terrible conditions," concludes the author, who recounts how everything is transformed over five generations that never actually transform over five generations.