Children of the silver mountain

A documentary directed by Juan.S Betancor.

Synopsis

In 1545 Span­ish con­querors dis­cov­ered pure sil­ver in a moun­tain in the Inca region of Kol­la­suyo, today’s Boli­vian Alti­plano. They named this moun­tain Cerro Rico (Rich Moun­tain) and the pros­per­ous and pow­er­ful city born at its base, Potosí. Soon they cre­ated the biggest min­ing indus­try in its time, sus­tained by a mer­ci­less forced labour sys­tem, “La Mita”.

After more than four cen­turies of oper­a­tion the Cerro Rico of Potosí con­tin­ues to offer sil­ver, zinc and lead to forty five coop­er­a­tives of min­ers, who work Under dread­ful con­di­tions sim­i­lar to those of their ances­tors in colo­nial times. “El Tío” (“The Uncle”), the Lord Demon of the mine, is the true owner of its veins, and the min­ers wor­ship him to win his favour. In exchange, the men must sac­ri­fice their lungs in the obscure maze of the moun­tain tun­nels. They, and those who live off this nat­ural won­der, are the “Chil­dren of the Sil­ver Mountain”.