Ewan McLennan - Whistling the Esperanza lyrics

On a still night under darkness men fastened their boots Their headtorches flickered, their tobacco smoke rose With the cogs and wheels whirring they were lowered below As they whistled the Esperanza In the hot dusty air, their picks and drills flew With the pa**ing of hours the specks of gold grew Till a deafening roar shook the hill with a blow And snuffed out their Esperanza As the dust fell and settled the silence gave way To the miners who lay there untouched and unscathed But where the rubble had fallen it blocked their retreat Their hopes were now with San Lorenzo Up above shrill alarm bells greeted the dawn From their posts men scattered their radios drawn From the mine the news travelled to the families at home To the nation and echoed beyond Before long the rescue was planned and in place There were drillers from Texas brought to join the race But with six hundred metres of solid rock in their way Their faces were grim but determined From the length of the country and the hills they soon came On the sands families gathered to wait and prey for their men They pitched up their tents there in the hot stinging sun And they named it Camp Esperanza For the nine weeks that they waited nerves and tempers were frayed But a school for the children and shrines for the miners were made There were feuds, there was marriage and a baby was born All under Camp Esperanza The men crouched below in the heat and the dark Surviving on rations lowered down the mine shaft They appointed a doctor and a cook from their ranks And swore that they'd struggle through together After six days of drilling they finally struck through To the cavern where the miners joy greeted the view The tunnel was carved and the line cast down To where the dust and the tears now ran together The weak were the first on the journey above Entombed and twisting from the pull and the shove They rose from the earth on a woven line of steel To the strains of the band's Esperanza One by one each miner emerged into the sun To the thirty three families who stood to welcome their men Amidst the sand and the rubble the crowds gathered and cheered And sang for their newly knighted heroes A mother held her son in a careful embrace A young girl looked on, the warm sun framing her face As he lifted her up she whispered, Daddy promise me Your days underground are done Above the San Jose mine the sun shone, the wind blew In the way that it had since 1892 Still in danger men toil, traded for gold Still the harsh winds there scatter the topsoil On a still night under darkness men fastened their boots Their headtorches flickered, their tobacco smoke rose With the cogs and wheels whirring they were lowered below As they whistled the Esperanza