Sur America: City of Silver, and The Mountain That Eats Men

Potosi:

We eventually left Sucre to visit the historic city of Potosi. The city owes it existance to a mountain, Cerro Rico, below which sits the city. There are a few legends as to how the city started or how the silver was found. One of my favorites says that a llama herder, Diego Huallpa lost one of his llamas, so he set out to find it. After searching for most of the day the sun went down and he became cold, so he started a fire on the side of the mountain. Soon there was liquid silver flowing out of the mountain. Another version says that a stubborn llama wouldn´t move from his spot so Diego built a fire to wait out the llama. Diego had known that Spaniards loved this metal but also remembered an Incan legend about the mountain. Inca Huayna Capac heard a booming voice tell him not to dig into Potojsi hill for metal, because it was destined for others. Needless to say the Spanish soon found out and the "others" began extracting from the "rich" mountain.

We saw a city that had been wealthy at one point but is in a state of recession now, as most of the silver has been pulled out of the mountain. So much so that the mountain is a few hundred feet lower than when they started mining it. Mining still goes on, and keeps a number of men employed. Women aren´t allowed to work in the mines as it brings bad luck and El Tio won´t give up the minerals. The women do work outside the mines, protecting the entrances and tools. The workers now are organized into cooperatives, where they get to pick their schedules and days off. Under Spanish rule a Ley de Mita was in effect where the locals were forced to work in the mines. Sometimes they would work for 4 months at a time, without coming out of the mines, 12 hour shifts, sleeping and eating underground...horrendous conditions...and they have changed little since Spanish rule.

The popular thing to do is to take a mine tour. We did, and what an experience it was. We had Ronald as our guide; he´d worked for 2 years in the mine before taking a job as a tour guide and spoke excellent english. Our first stop was to get fitted with helmet, light, boots, and cover jacket and pants. Next we got to shop at the miners market, where anyone (children included) can buy dynamite! We also got some water and coca leaves as presents to the miners...as well as dynamite of course!! We even got to try a sip of the alcohol that miners drink...96 percent. When everyone had bought gifts, we headed to a processing plant, where they use chemicals to extract minerals from the ore they brought out of the mine. Again very little silver is left but they still mine for tin, zinc, lead and other minerals. Hi-ho, hi-ho, it was off to the mine we go. We went on a Saturday, when most of the workers had taken a day off so there was less dust in the mines (good thing too). But first we visited Tio.

Tio is the god of the minerals, and often is depicted with horns, similar to the devil. He has statues all over the mines and the workers always pay their respects to him before they start working. He is covered with coca leaves, sprinkled with alcohol and given cigarettes to smoke. Miners believe that without his blessing they will not get any minerals from mining. El Tio (uncle, in spanish) has an interesting origin as well. The Spaniards tried to force the locals to work the mines but in such horrible conditios, many of them refused. So the Spanish put a statue down in the mines and told the people that if they didn´t work then the "Dio," or god, would become angry and make them pay. Being scared of what might happen they began working and worshipping the god of the mountain and minerals. The local Quechua language has no "D" in their language and Dio became Tio. They also say that God, has no place or power in the mines so they worship Tio for protection, luck and hopefully a good vein to follow.

After trying to light Tio´s cigarette, which wouldn´t because there was so little oxygen in the tunnels... we carried on to light some dynamite! We lit, then scrambled back up the tunnel and 3 minutes later a loud but muffled pop and concussion wave hit us, so exciting!

The tour continued down the shafts, past braces, dump points and through water, always ducking or crouched and watching your head. It would be a tremendous advantage to be 4 foot 1" down there. We eventually go to the third level and the temperature had reached something like 94 F, with very little oxygen and all of us panting through the bandanas or masks we had. It´s little surprise that the life expectancy of a miner is about 40. Most of them get silicosis neumonitis and die, and under spanish rule there were many mining accidents that took lives. We crawled and shuffled our way back out to daylight, the air getting cooler and easier to breathe as we neared the exit. Our lungs and throats burned and our backs hurt from just a few hours underground. We reached daylight and heaved in the fresh air, excited that we had survived but thinking about all those who had suffered, and still do, just to earn a buck.

Potosi was one of the largest and wealthiest cities in the new world, reaching some 200,000 in 1672, larger than London at that time. The Spanish mint was created there and they coined many a coin that was then shipped back to Spain. PTSI, was the mint´s abreviation for Potosi, and when overlayed looks like the dollar sign ($). Spain´s empire was almost exclusively funded by the silver extracted from Cerro Rico.

It´s estimated that more than 8 million have lost their lives to the mountain, either by silicosis or accidents.

Some say that with all the silver extracted from this single mountain, a bridge could have been build from Potosi to Spain, and there would still be sacks of coin to carry across the bridge.

There were also enough bones from those who died to build a bridge just along side the silver one, all the way from Potosi to Spain.

The miners chew coca leaves all day to satiate hunger and thirst, to help with the effects of the dust, and give them a little energy to continue to work, also at the lower levels many work without shirts.

Cerro Rico is known as THE MOUNTAIN THAT EATS MEN.

If anyone is interested check out the documentary THE DEVIL´S MINER, about a family who depend on the mines in Cerro Rico.