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Question SA-5. Here is the text reference (p. 145/1):
Social protest was the main theme of the best of the Naturalist writers,
the Chilean Baldomero Lillo. Lillo's father had gone to California to participate
in the Gold Rush, but he returned with no fortune. He did learn much about
mining, and he moved to northern Chile to work the nitrate mines. Baldomero
Lillo grew up in these mining communities and worked the mines himself.
He was exposed to the writings of the French author Emile Zola, who used
the philosophy of Positivism and the literary current of Naturalism to try
to change the terrible conditions of French coal miners. Lillo was able
to observe similar conditions in the Chilean mines and set out to improve
the conditions of the workers by dramatizing their plight. Lillo wrote many
short stories (collected in two major books, Sub Sole and Sub
Terra) which sparked the interest of social activists who were appalled
by the conditions in the mines. The story that follows is typical of his
efforts.