HISTORY

Justo Dieguez (Keysi) was born on October 12, 1957, in a small mining town in the province of Seville, Spain, where he lived a short while. His father was transferred to the province of Aragon, to a town called Ultrillas, in the province of Teruel.

Justo grew up in the streets of this small town. “The village where I lived as a child was a very special place where life was hard. There you learned to fight and defend yourself or suffered the consequences.” While still very young, Justo already witnessed some brutal situations and quickly realized that if he wanted to do something with his life, he needed to escape from there. So, at the age of 10, he left home to livein a Salesian monastery, where he spent the next 3 years. After that time, without finding the answers he sought, he returned home and began to work in the mines when he turned 14.

The mine was a very hard and difficult place for a child, full of violent and ruthless men who lived without fear of recrimination. This is when Justo, while yet a child, set himself a goal: not to become a victim.“I have never felt like a victim. It simply was not in me to be one. This was turning out to be an extremely brutal period in my life.It was during my time in the mines when, for one reason or another, I lost many of my closest friends. I spent 6 long years in this extreme and violent environment before being involved in a mining accident. The mine collapsed, trapping and killing most of the people in the tunnel. “I can still remember the thundering roar of the earth as if something were twisting inside it.”