It's a cold ride under dark clouds out to Potosi, full of anticipation to reach one of the dark hearts of Latin America. After spending time in Zacatecas and Guanajuato in Mexico, cities with similiar historical importance, I arrived here with more knowledge of what such a city stood for, a symbol of European colonialism, its motivations and what collateral damage that brings. Potosi, the highest city on earth, retells the common story of how the wealthier a land's resources are, the more destitute its people become.
Behind me is the Cerro Rico, the Rich Hill which still has 180 active mines today. It's also known as the mountain that eats men, between the indigenous men of Latin America and the black slaves brought across to extract the metals from its core, it's said that 8 million have perished due to mining here in unsafe conditions and diseases like silicosis from spending a lifetime breathing it's toxic air. Since mining began, the mountain's peak has dropped by over 300 metres and everyday the tunnels become weaker and more vulnerable to collapse.
The anecdote has it that that in 1545, an Indian man was passing this mountain in pursuit of an escaped llama, in the cold night he lit a fire and by it's light he saw a white and shining vein of pure silver - what follows is the tragedy and oppression by the Spanish rulers in stripping all the rich minerals from the earth within and bringing it's wealth to Europe. Almost overnight the city of Potosi was established, flooded with treasure hunters, professional gamblers, prostitutes whose salons were occupied by wealthy miners, magnificently decorated churches, dance academies and opulent theaters. It became the nerve centre of the entire Spanish new world kingdom - cloths of gold and silver hung from balconies of houses, silks and fabrics from Europe, porcelian from China, ladies displayed diamonds from Sri Lanka, rubies and pearls from Panama.
Within 28 years of the discovery it was one of the world's biggest and richest cities, with a population equal to London, more than Madrid, Rome or Paris. 99% of minerals exported from Latin America at this time was silver - the vast amount from the centre here and then from the two mentioned Mexican cities. It is said to not only have stimulated Europe's economic development but having made it possible - although landing in Spanish ports, the wealth was passed onto the powerful bankers of Europe and predominantly controlled by the Dutch, Flemish, French and Genoese.
Within a few centuries it had a lasting legacy of being ''The city which has given most to the world and has the least'' and is nowadays condemned to nostalgia, still tortured by poverty, cold and hopelessness.
Due to the importance of this place I decided on taking a tour through an active mine. There was nothing I found shocking about the conditions and I wasn't suprised to hear not much has changed over the years. Nowadays the quality of silver extracted is relatively low. We met a team of 25 men from as young as 14 years old working a 12 hour shift, breaking the earth with pneumatic drills, shoveling and carting up to 40 tonnes in a day on small carriages along a railtrack then hauling it up several levels to cart it again to daylight. Of this, rocks would contain 7% of poor grade silver and 15% tin once extracted in the nearby refineries.
We met another man working alone in a very confined tunnel. At 44, he was the father of 9 children, his two eldest sons working in nearby mines. The average wage of miners is 2-3 times more than general workers in the city which makes this work enticing, this man said he needed to work here to feed his family. He'd been working here for over 20 years and spent all day with a small hammer and chisel, carving away at the rock to make 3 15 inch holes so he could insert dynamite in, blow up the rocks and then return to carry large rubber bags out of the mine hoping to contain small amounts of silver and tin to sell. It's clearly a difficult job and an extremely tough life working here and miners know they're shortening their lives with every day spent here but have little other option in supporting their families. The government proposed to shut down the mines a few years ago but when it realised other means of income for the 15,000 miners wasn't available in a town that relied on this industry as its lifeblood, the status quo continued and is expected to for a least another decade.
