Potosí by Mike Powell
Set at 4090 meters
(13420 ft) above sea level, Potosí is the highest city in the world and once
was its most wealthy, thanks to the silver mines of Cerro Rico. Remnants of
Potosí’s glorious past are still visible today, as are the vestiges of the
exploitation which made Spain
rich beyond measure and resulted in the deaths of millions.
Cerro Rico
The mountain of Cerro Rico towers over Potosí. Red and
gray, pockmarked by mine entrances and scarred by dusty roads, it’s a vicious
reminder of both humanity’s power and greed. Silver was discovered in the
mountain by an Andean farmer in 1545, and explorations revealed that underneath
Cerro Rico were quantities of silver almost beyond imagining. There for the
taking.
Statue of Potosi
The Spanish set up
mines, and employed the indigenous population to work within them. As might be
imagined, conditions inside 16th century colonial mines were atrocious and
people soon refused to work. But what’s the point of subjugating a people if
you can’t force them to do your bidding? Spain implemented a system borrowed
from the Incas called the mita, whereby every village was forced to send a
percentage of its male population to the mines of Cerro Rico. The mortality
rate was fantastic. A man sent to work in the mines had about a 30% chance of
ever returning home. By some estimates, over eight million indigenous men and
African slaves died in the mines of Potosí, or of mercury poisoning during the
refining process.
Eight million.
Meanwhile, the Spaniards who lived in Potosí were walking the streets in ornate
robes and silver jewellery. The churches of Potosí were awash in precious
metals and, unlike most Catholic churches which face east towards the rising
sun, they were built with their doors facing the south: towards the Cerro Rico,
the source of their wealth. The hypocrisy in Potosí was staggering; the more
people died inside the mines, the more glorious the churches. The city’s elite
knew full well that their riches were generated by millions of corpses, and
they tried to buy their way into heaven with gifts to God, and public
demonstrations of their noble Catholic faith.
Potosi Bolivia
We spent four days
in Potosí, and were absolutely captivated. In the 17th Century, Potosí was one
of the world’s greatest cities, dwarfing both London
and Madrid in
size and wealth. Its power disappeared once the mines dried up in the 18th
century, but the city has clung to life. We found a population both proud and
horrified of its past, and a workforce still sadly based on mining. Over the
next week, we’ll be writing about some of things we saw and did in Potosí: one
of the world’s most tragic and interesting cities.
