The Ethics of a Mine Tour in Potosi
Standing as a macabre monument to the colonial greed that has so damaged Bolivia (and all of Latin America), Potosi is a point of contention in the backpackers travel plan. For most, the main reason to travel to Potosi is to complete a tour through the old mine that once funded the Spanish Empire. The ethics of doing so, however, are convoluted, divisive, and deeply disquieting.
Read my guide to doing a mine tour in Potosi here, and my guide to Potosi here.
A 16 year old miner entering the mine at the start of his shift.
UNDERSTAND
Sitting at 4100 metres on the Bolivian Altiplano, Potosi is one of the most elevated cities in the world. For centuries, Potosi was the seat of much of the Kingdom of Spain’s riches; due largely to the colossal silver mine that snakes in the surrounding foothills and within Cerro Ricco (Rich Hill) that stands sentinel over the town. Between the 14th to mid 17th century, Potosi produced over half the world’s silver - wildly enriching the Spanish Crown (and their lendors) in the process. However, this fabulous wealth came at the extreme expense of the local indigenous population, whom were forced to work in the mines under a bonded labour system. A combination between the extreme altitude, extraordinarily dangerous conditions within the mines and mercury poisoning took the lives of an estimated 8 - 9 million of the local Indigenous people. This, combined with the nearly 30 000 African slaves that were also shipped over to work the mine leaves the town a permanent reminder of the rapacious greed and cruelty of colonialism. Today, the silver ore in Cerro Ricco is completely extinguished, but local collectivos - small groups of miners that buy a small stake in the mountain - continue to work the dusty tunnels and passageways. They eke out a living mining zinc, but suffer devastating impacts to their health as a result of the poor conditions in the mine -some estimates suggest that the life expectancy of a miner working in Cerro Ricco is 40 on average.
Potosi from Cerro Ricco
THE ETHICS OF TAKING A TOUR
When deciding upon whether I would take a tour into the mines of Potosi or not, I read article after endless article about the history of the Potosi, the current conditions within the mines and the ethics of doing a tour there. In the end, I decided to opt for taking a tour into the mine. The experience was deeply unsettling, distinctly harrowing, and memorable in an in-communicably upsetting way. The three hours that I spent in the mines were by no means an accurate reflection of what life is like for an average miner in Potosi - I was a tourist, dipping my toes into an uncomfortable situation for a brief morning, my bus ticket for Sucre the next morning already booked. This post then, is by no means an argument in support of taking a tour - the ethics of doing so will always be highly murky.
In the end, I decided to take a tour of the mines. I did so largely after reading the article by VICE on child labour on the mines. Reading this on the bus north from Uyuni, I made up my mind to visit the mines. Not because I thought that the experience would be enjoyable or remotely entertaining, or for wanting bragging rights at the next hostel, but for a small desire to understand the country I was travelling in better - to bear witness to the ongoing horror of the atrocities that were committed against the Andean people by the Spanish, and to see if there were indeed children being used in the mine. However, my decision was not necessarily the right one. If you read my other post about my experience in the mines of Cerro Ricco, you can read about how utterly disquieting and upsetting my minuscule step into the mines was.
When considering whether to take a trip into the mines, the traveler should ask themselves what their values around travel are. Do they consider a trip into the mine a form of international voyeurism? Do they think that a part of travel involves learning about and experiencing some of harsh realities of a developing country? Do they think that doing such a tour is merely the unethical end-point for adventure tourism? Or do they consider such an experience a necessary and justifiable part of overseas travel?
The Argument for and against
FOR
The experience can be sobering, eye-opening, and utterly disquieting
If you go with the right tour agency some of the money you spend on the tour will be given back to miners
Doing a tour of the mines may give you a far more accurate understanding of the plight of miner in Bolivia
The mines of Potosi are a significant historical monument, and visiting them is an important experience for visitors to Latin America to complete in order to understand the continents recent history.
Staying in Potosi brings tourist money into the town- which is a much needed boost and diversification for the economy
AGAINST
First world voyeurism; this is the big one. Is it fair for privileged tourists stepping into the mines for a day to take entertainment out of the genuinely harsh lives of the miners?
Safety: the mines have horrifically poor breathing conditions, low ventilation, lack structural integrity, and dynamite is still used in there daily.
Chance that your money spent will not go back to the miners
Dependency; the increase of tourism in the area may give rise to local dependency upon tourism (what happens if tourism dries up as the silver did?)
Overall, my experience in the mine of Cerro Ricco was vastly disquieting (read more here). The mine was proven to be a horrible place to earn a living, the conditions that I saw were extremely unsafe and hazardous and children were definitely working within the tunnels. The tour was by no means fun, entertaining, or funny - however, it was incomparable to anything else that I had done in my life. Far from the ‘pity-porn,’ that I had been worried about, the miners that I had met were filled with vast senses of humour, dignity, and a strong sense of pride about their work. The experience felt entirely dissimilar to exploitative tourism - rather, it felt like an immersive way of understanding the atrocity and effects of colonialism in Latin America. My reasoning behind visiting the mines of Potosi was similar to my decision to visit Dachau and Berkenwald - all are significant historical monuments that are necessary for one to see and be amongst, rather than to read about. Not to have gone into the mines of Potosi would have been to neatly avoid the trauma and atrocities that have been committed in Latin America in our recent past. Not to have gone would have been the easier decision - the one that would have generated fewer internal questions for me about how the effects of colonialism continue to increase my privileged position in the world and ravage developing nations. No amount of reading, above-ground tours, or experiences in the local Potosi mint would have done the same. Whilst affecting, these experiences did not lead to the self analysis that the tour through the mines produced in me, which I feel certain in saying is one of the most important effects of my travel throughout Latin America in 2014.
I experienced a hugely unsettling tour in Potosi. The experience provided insight into a location which funded empires, irrevocably impacted world economics, and irreparably ravaged the lives of the Andean people. While unsettling, the experience of meeting with the miners was illuminating, and one that has drastically altered and improved my world view. Writing now, 5 years down the road from leaving the mines of Potosi, I feel increasingly certain that I made the right choice in going there - the experience was life altering, and one that I by no means regret. If done for the right reasons, a tour through the mines of Potosi is something that is important for a traveler from a developed country to do, and is not, at least in my opinion, an exercise in first-world voyeurism.
Have you done a tour in the mines of Potosi? Let us know about your time in the comments below? Planning on going? Read my other blog on the topic here, or ask away in the comments below.
Sucre is the best town in Bolivia and here’s why.