Bolivian ?

What does it mean to be Bolivian? From a tourists point of view there are the dramatic mountainous landscapes scaling over 7000 m, the traditional music with windpipes and symbols, the costumes brought out for special occasions which can be worth over $20 000 US with the amount of gold they contain and the dances that accompany them. There are the strange looking religious symbols from before the Spanish brought Jesus to them, the stories or if you're lucky the live viewing of Llama sacrifice and the intriguing coca leaf sold by the little old lady hand made clothes on the corner.

Looking a little deeper from some conversations and little reading it seems that the 80% of Bolivia's with pure indigenous blood have been subjected to heavy political and social discrimination for 500 years. Right up until the current president Evo Morales the first indigenous president since colonisation it was normal for indigenous people to change there clothes to enter the city to be served in stores and avoid racism. Parents told there children that "I don't want you to suffer like me, you have to abandon our language and customs and have a European education" to have a chance of a life without discrimination. People were told to go elsewhere to make there purchases for speaking there native tongue to people who they knew understood the language but had turned there back on it. A little further back speaking of a god other than a Christian one carried the death penalty.

Colonisation has been a tough process from the early 1500's up until 7 months ago was ploughing ahead regardless of the human cost. The election of an indigenous leader for the first time has struck fear in the hearts of those perpetuating the image that to be indigenous is a bad thing all the way to the White House who have called Morales everything from a drug barren to a dictator. Despite this many people see hope with his efforts to bring indigenous languages and customs into formal education and to make economic reforms to end servitude of the people and lands of Bolivia. They have made efforts to nationalise resource industries the most important of which is their natural gas which is one of the biggest reserves in the region. They also have valualble minerals and petrol which have been extracted since the land was called Alto Peru with minimal benifit to the people. The most obvious example is the former richest and most populated city in the world Potosi which is a poor city with little infrastrucure to show for its boom.

Morales wants to give dignity to his people and help them to be proud of who they are and where their customs come from. This has led to a call for independence from the region of Santa Cruz where the population claims to be more European than Bolivian and oppose the constitutional changes proposed by Morales.

The integration of Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba and Ecuador in a new body called ALBA (Alternativea Boliviarna for Latin America) as well as the revitalising of Mercasaur and other regional economic and social networks. The creation of Banco del Sur, an alternative source to the World Bank for aid funding is another worrying sign for Washington's control over the region which they has been maintained politically through various clandestine operations and economically through tied aid deals and corrupt business dealings. Perhaps even more threatening is the shift in thinking towards a socialist society away from the dreams of free market capitalist competition. People all across the region have lost faith in its ability to improve there lives after many years of painful reforms which brought a flood of foreign companies and a jump in prices with no benifits to the average worker.

Morales is a key figure in this shift speaking a little more quietly about the flaws of Bush and his men than his roudy Venezuelan friend but with no less determination to change his coutries future and restore pride in what it is to be Bolivian.

Buried dead or alive!

Today I visited the mines of Potosi. It's a well known tourist attraction which over the years as more people make there way to Bolivia becomes more organised and somewhat sterile. That said I don't think what I did today would be permitted in too many places in the world. Scaling ladders and ducking through a maze of 1.5m tunnels over 5 different levels. My tour-guide a miner from the age of 12, a 3rd generation miner brought this inanimate mountain to life.

A little history: the silver was discovered in the 1540's by an indigenous guy who was meant to report his findings back to the Spanish conquistadors who were spreading there ways and taking what they could from there newly found treasure trove (Latin America). It was a secret for 2 years before falling out with a friend who went and told the Spanish. They immediately put the indigenous people to work along with African slaves brought specially to work. The conditions described were 24-36 hour shifts. Many workers didn't last 6 months in the conditions of high altitude, heavy labour, new diseases and terrible living conditions away from the mine. It is estimated that there were 200 000 people living in Potosi in the 17th century making it the biggest city in the world ahead of modern-day monsters London and Madrid. (Funnily enough the population here has remained at around the same number.)

In modern times the history involves a worker revolt in 1952 against private owners which was a blood bath. There are reports of the army tying workers together and using the same dynamite used to liberate the Silver and Zinc of the mountain to end the lives of those calling for better pay and better conditions. The blood shed did bring about the changes that the workers called for, the mine was nationalised and workers started to have the benefits of a regular wage, life insurance (10 years was the average working period in these times before death or illness forced a change) and health insurance. This lasted until 1985 when a crash in silver prices lead to a crises in the mine. The result was a new structure of co-operatives. The idea was that whatever could be gained would be shared but unfortunately this didn't come true resulting in the current situation.

Workers today in the mine are allotted a part of the mine to work in by there co-operative owner. The owner may have up to 20 different areas each of which will be delegated to a "second-hand" the second hand is the one that works! The second hand then has the obligation of bringing 8 tonnes of raw material to the surface to be processed each week. They may decide to bring assistants on board with them, usually 2 to 4, which will bring the expected yield up by 8 tonnes per person. Each tonne on average contains 50grams of silver which at market price now (which is up currently) is worth $18. This works out to around $560 per month per 8 tonnes (or per worker) if all goes to plan. The helpers who are the hardest workers with least experience can expect to gain around $80, the second hand $240 and the owner of the co-operative $240. When you multiply that out the second hand gets around $800 (with 2 other workers) and the owner makes $800 from this section, if they have 20 areas they make $16 000. I met some of the owners at the top drinking beer hanging around to make sure the workers are working hard!

The difference in wage is massive. The workers are likely to suffer all sorts of injuries and illness for $80 while the owners rest for $16 000. If the miners are unlucky and don't find any silver for a week they get nothing! 5 and a half days a week doing 10 hour days which sometimes doesn't pay! Needless to say there is a lot of animosity between the workers and owners. Some bosses pay a little if they don't come out with any silver others call there workers lazy.

There are no engineers to tell them what they can blow up and can't which resulted in a collapse last week and is apparently common in the wet season. Those who have been working in the mine the longest are those considered educated to make the big decisions. To add to this workers have to pay for all there own equipment including dynamite, helmets, lights, tools, coca, cigarettes and alcohol. Part of the deal with the tour is to pay a little to the tour guide and bring with you some coca leaves, alcohol and cigarettes for the workers and to bless there gods. Ancient tradition is still a big part of the underground culture where Quechua is the most spoken language (in contrast to the Castillano, a dialect from Spain which is spoken in the city of Potosi) and gifts of the above substances and annually a sacrifice of Llama blood are given to appease their gods. They pray to this god for luck finding there fortune in the mountain and to the Christian god for health and more spiritual rewards. This is a shift that has come over time.

For the workers here they are stuck. Most started working here in there early teens and don't know anything else. They are a part of the culture and they dream only of progressing up the chain to a second-hand or owner in the time they have in the mine. They pray every day to the land and their gods that it won't be there last. For my guide Willie he got out of the mine after his father and grandfather fell victims to lung cancer caused by the silicon and arsenic in the air in the mine the most common way to die slowly in the mine. He has learnt English and started the company that I visited through and he plans for his children to study for a different life which seems to be the best thing the miners can hope for. Most of this generation of 18 000 workers already trapped in the mine.

In the next part I will explain some of the discrimination of the past and a more general picture of Bolivia as well as the role of coca in Latin America..