Shafted: A Mexican Tale

By T.S. Aguilar

Fate cannot be controlled and is frequently quite unpleasant. Yet, a bad hand that is dealt by fate can be the start to new and better phase in life. It all depends on how it is played.
Rigoberto, copywriter, takes a ride in his van to get away from a broken down marriage. When his vehicle breaks down as well, he drifts into a hellhole of a silver mine in northwestern Mexico. Out of money he takes a job underground and finds out very quickly that he and all the miners are getting shafted. They are exploited, maltreated, and abused by the management, expat Americans and Canadians, and every move is controlled by brutal security guards. There is no cohesion in the workforce that could result in standing up to the evil schemes and demanding fair wages and a safe workplace.
Grime and breath taking stench, darkness and mortal danger, pain and unbearable suffering six hundred meters underground is his daily life until he has a near fatal accident. It is his first lucky break! With time on his hands, while he is recuperating, he explores the insidious set-up of inciting the workers against each other.
Barely recovered from serious injury and declared fit to go back to work by the nurse Mireilla, a woman he really likes and respects, he is beaten within an inch of his life by colleagues who accuse him of the foul murder of one of the gringo directors. It is his second lucky break.
As all good things come in packages of three, Rigo does not want to find out what is next in store for him. He wants get out and away from this hellhole. Desperately!
But there is no escape, or so it seems until his charismatic foreman Miguel who had strike action on his mind for a long time shows him the way.
Finally united, the miners succeed and Rigo can start a new life with his newly found love, the nurse Mireilla.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Books on Demand
• Release date: Dec 12, 2018
• ISBN: 9783752891423

T.S. Aguilar

T.S. Aguilar started writing professionally after working many years in engineering and computer science. First he wrote articles on eco-tourism and the environment for papers in Europe and Latin America before he got down to writing novels that were published in Europe. Side-tracked by script writing and producing documentary videos together with his wife, he continued his extensive travel in Latin America, Europe and the Middle East, where he made a living as a teacher. After his wife was diagnosed with and succumbed to cancer, he returned to writing with his account of bungled and neglectful cancer treatment as documented in his non-fiction book 'Lifeline - The Case for Effective Cancer Immunotherapy'.He has now completed his Latin American trilogy. 'Shafted - A Mexican Tale', 'Impetuous - The Odyssey of a Solitary Man', and 'Paradise in Limbo' are novels that are largely based on personal experience and contacts with the protagonists. The critical topics addressed in his writing so far - the exploitation of labour, the rise and expansion of the illicit drug trade, and the destruction of the environment and biodiversity - are presented as intriguing and entertaining novels.