Hector Tobar Deep Down Dark Sparknotes

I read Hector Tobar’s Deep Down Dark in April. Unfortunately I did not get the chance to attend his talk at Viewpoint, but I enjoyed the book--probably one of my favorite nonfiction books I read this year--and found Tobar’s portrayals of the miners’ experience and of Chilean culture very compelling. Tobar’s Deep Down Dark provided insight into not only the individual lives of the Chilean miners, as well as the narrative of their collective ordeal, but gave implicit insight into the values, beliefs, and culture of the Chilean culture at large through the mindsets and experiences of miners. One similarity I noted between American culture and Chilean culture was through the miners’ devotion to their faith. Faith played a prominent role in the narrative, at times fluctuating on the individual
Comparatively, 70.6% of the American population identifies as Christian, but only 20.8% profess Catholic beliefs, with Protestantism being the dominant denomination. Additionally, like the American Constitution, the Chilean Constitution provides for freedom of religion, and church and state are separate as well. However, there is some de facto favoritism directed toward the Catholic Church, though the Chilean government is fairly active in enforcing its policy of freedom of religion.

Like many other non-western and even western cultures, Chile places special importance on the family unit. Tobar in writing the backstory of each miner describes the relationships between the miner and his family. Often these relationships are also marked by the gender roles that also are inherent in western society; Tobar describes early on that Chile has a “male-dominated culture” (12). The miners are characterized as the financial providers for their family, while the wives and girlfriends are homemakers, mothers, and