In the instant metrics of the digital universe, twelve hours after their rescue, thirty-three Chilean miners were collectively four times more famous than Barack Obama, with 270 million Google hits to his 70 million.
The miners' helmet, worn by everyone from the billionaire president, Sebastián Piñera, to the almost-orphaned children who waited for the return of their fathers, is now a more potent national symbol than the Chilean flag. The men's narrative of endurance, dedication and faith rewarded has launched the Chilean miners, their nation and their rescuers as a universal fable.
The helmet symbolises the transformative power of this story. Until the men were resurrected from entombment and relaunched as global media stars, their headgear marked them out as labourers obliged to risk their lives in a mine with a notoriously poor safety record.
In their rescue, though, the helmet became the statement of Chile's new values, worn not as protective headgear but as a badge of the zeitgeist. How long has it been, away from the theatre of the football field, since any Latin American country led global headlines with a story that combined technical skill and human solidarity?
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