This book recounts the strike that broke out at the San Martín mining company, in the municipality of Sombrerete, Zacatecas, in July 2007, with the demand for greater safety and hygiene for the mine workers. This movement began shortly after the tragic death, in February 2016, of 65 miners due to the explosion of the Pasta de Conchos mine, also operated by Grupo México, the main Mexican mining group, whose owner is the second richest man. in our country, and that they were never rescued either by the company or by the corresponding authorities.

The author, Sergio Elías Uribe Sierra, frames his story in the national and global context of the structural change that began in Mexico in the eighties of the 20th century, when the reprivatization of Mexican mining began, and studies the impacts of the recent transformation of the sector. mining in the families of the workers based on testimonies of the workers themselves.

The current mining law, the result of the agrarian counter-reform based on the modification of Article 27 of the Constitution, makes it possible for the national territory to be concessioned to private national and transnational mining companies to which more than 30 million hectares have been concessioned. This transformation involved intense modernization, the massive dismissal of miners and the overexploitation of the workforce.

It is therefore no coincidence that, as the author points out, "in the State of Zacatecas, outsourcing has tripled in 10 years, with the mining industry being the one that occupies the first place of subcontracted workers in the entire entity."

Sombrerete is one of the most important mining districts in the state of Zacatecas, 40 percent of whose surface has been concessioned to the mining industry, and which contributes a quarter of the national mining wealth, it is the main one in the extraction of silver from Mexico – the number one producer of this mineral in the world – as well as lead and zinc, and the second in gold and copper.