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Bolivia Child miners

33 images Created 5 Dec 2016

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  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
A taxi drives up the Cerro Rico mountain, taking miners to the various mine opening worksites. A decorative skeleton dangles from the windshield, an ominous omen of the countless deaths experienced by miners on the mountain. Along the way up religious crosses have been erected as prayers to ward off the danger that lies within the mountain for the miners.
    miners taxi up mtn4 copy.jpg
  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
Dusk in Potosi old town
    Potosi at dusk2.JPG
  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
The Benabides family home. When their father, a miner,  died 5 years ago of silicosis, five children live with their mother in this one room, two bed house. They sleep three to a bed. Beimar, 8, looks over his homework.
    Beimar studies at home1.JPG
  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
Jose Lucas Garisto, 12, works on Cerro Rico (Rich Mountain) with his mother Alberta Benabides, she is the widow of a miner who died 5 years ago of silicosis. Widows of miners are allowed to scour the tailings outside the mine to look for discarded rocks with silver ore. Lucas and Alberta carry home the rocks to sell. Lucas, who due to his having to work to help feed the family after his father died, is effectively illiterate due to sporadic school attendance.
    Alberta & Jose Lucas copy.jpg
  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
Disused tin mine at Cerro Rico. The mountain still extracts silver. The woman in the distance is collecting scraps of silver ore.
    woman picking through tailings.JPG
  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
Jose Lucas, 12, wields a heavy pickaxe as he works outside a mine. Lucas, due to his having to work is barely literate despite attending school sporadically. Here he works with adults clearing the truck-loading-bays while adults load a truck by hand with mineral-bearing rocks.
    Lucas pickaxe copy.jpg
  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
Miners widow Alberta Benabides holds a rock of silver ore that she has collected from the mine where she picks through the discarded tailings. A miners widow, she has six children, three of whom aged 12, 16 and 19 work in the mines.
    Silver.JPG
  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
Macro Garisto, 16, (Jose Lucas’s older brother) inside the Colquechaquita (Anthill of Riches) mine on Cerro Rico mountain. He helps a miner prepare dynamite. They drill into the mountain when they find a seam of minerals and use dynamite to blast apart the rock, which they shovel into wagons to push out of the mine. This is the mine in which Marco and Lucas's father died of silicosis.
    Marco helps with dynamite.jpg
  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
Jose Lucas Garisto, 12, works in the Cerro Rico (Rich Mountain) with his mother Alberta Benabides, a widow of a miner who died 5 years ago of silicosis. Digging into the side of the mountain,  Lucas and Alberta look for mineral-bearing rocks which they carry home to sell. Lucas, who due to his having to work to help feed the family after his father died, is effectively illiterate due to sporadic school attendance.
    Jose Lucas & mum copy.jpg
  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
Jose Lucas Garisto, 12, in the mine where his father died of silicosis on the Cerro Rico mountain. With a cheek full of coca leaves which the miners chew all day to stave off hunger, Lucas points to a shrine to the Devil who the miners refer to as “El Tio” (The Uncle). Lucas knows that once in the mine, “El Tio” decides the fate of the miners. Work here is extremely dangerous, and if accidents happen it is because “El Tio” has a say in the matter.  Lucas’s older brother Marco, 16, lost half a finger when he stumbled and a rock crushed his left hand. An accident with dynamite, a tunnel collapse, or lethal gas can kill instantly. Death also arrives silently, as in the case of their father who died of silicosis. He worked  as a miner until his lungs failed him, aged forty, leaving behind a wife and six young children.
    Jose Lucas in mine copy.jpg
  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
Hospital Obrero, Potosi’s government general hospital. Here in the silicosis ward, Pablo Cruz, 47, is bed ridden, unable to work. Like Lucas Garisto’s father, the dust in the mines has consumed his lungs and he faces death. The average Bolivian miner dies at 45, two decades younger than the average Bolivian. A miner since the age of 13, Pablo Cruz became sick 4 years ago. He says that the day he left the mine he cried. He was leaving behind his 'brothers' and the only life he knew. A fatalist, he says everyone must die and he feels lucky to have been a miner. Nevertheless, he wants none of his children to be miners, and encourages them to study, but acknowledges with little other employment opportunities, they may have little choice in the matter.
    Silicosis patient1 copy.jpg
  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
Early morning at the Garisto-Benabides family home in Potosi. When their father, a miner, died 5 years ago of silicosis, five of the family’s six children live with their mother in this one room, two bed house. They sleep three to a bed. Jose Lucas, 12 shares a bed with his younger sister Gladys, 6, and his mother Alberta. Lucas and his older brother Marco, 16, work in the mines to help his family make ends meet.
    Lucas&family in bed copy.jpg
  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
The Benabides family home. When their father, a miner,  died 5 years ago of silicosis, five children live with their mother in this one room, two bed house. They sleep three to a bed. Mother Alberta washes Gladys, 6,  hair in the morning.
    combing gladys.JPG
  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
Gladys Garisto, 6, one of the 6 children of Alberta and her late husband, a miner who died 5 years ago of silicosis from working in the mines. Gladys's brothers Jose Lucas, 12, and Marco, 16, work in the mines to feed the family. If they cannot bring in enough money Gladys will also face a future of child labour.
    Girl & doll2 copy.jpg
  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
Veronica Luna, 10, the daughter of a miner is a gelatin streetseller to help her family make ends meet. She also studies at school, her main hope of breaking out of the cycle of poverty that keeps the children of miners working in or around the mines.
    Veronica & brothers.JPG
  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
The Benabides family home. When their father, a miner,  died 5 years ago of silicosis, five children live with their mother in this one room, two bed house. They sleep three to a bed. Gladys, 6, with her brothers Beimar 8 and Bimer, 6, on the way to school.
    walking to school.JPG
  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
The Benabides family home. When their father, a miner,  died 5 years ago of silicosis, five children live with their mother in this one room, two bed house. They sleep three to a bed. Lucas, 12, takes his siblings Gladys, 6, Beimar 8 and Bimer, 6, to their San Cristobal school.
    walking to school1.JPG
  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
The Benabides family. When their father, a miner,  died 5 years ago of silicosis, five children live with their mother in a one room, two bed house. They sleep three to a bed. Lucas, 12, when he is not working in the mines attends class sporadically. He is basically illiterate and sits in the same class with his younger brothers Beimar 8 and Bimer, 6, at the San Cristobal school, struggling to cope ina  class where he is a head taller than the rest of the kids.
    Lucas & brother's class.JPG
  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
The Benabides family. When their father, a miner,  died 5 years ago of silicosis, five children live with their mother in a one room, two bed house. They sleep three to a bed. Lucas, 12, when he is not working in the mines attends class sporadically. He is basically illiterate and sits in the same class with his younger brothers Beimar 8 and Bimer, 6, at the San Cristobal school, struggling to cope ina  class where he is a head taller than the rest of the kids.
    Lucas and exercise book.JPG
  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
Veronica Luna, 10, the daughter of a miner is a gelatin streetseller to help her family make ends meet. She also studies at school, her main hope of breaking out of the cycle of poverty that keeps the children of miners working in or around the mines.
    Veronica study.JPG
  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
Reflection of Cerro Rico, the mineral rich volanic mountain which looms over the town of Potosi from the window of a miners family.
    Reflection Potosi.JPG
  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
Plaza 10 November, Potosi's main square. Once one of the world's richest cities. The pink builing on the right is the Prefecture, the yellow building, the Mayors office.
    Potosi square1.JPG
  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
Sunday in Potosi miners spend the afternoon playing football beneath the Cerro Rico mountain.
    sunday miners soccer.JPG
  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
Sunday in Potosi old town a group of catholic worshippers carry a crucifix before them.
    sunday group.JPG
  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
High school students in the streeets of Potosi old town
    Potosi college students1.JPG
  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
Father Fabio Calizaya, priest of the San Pedro church in Potosi. For the service he replaced his poncho with white vestments, but in line with his bilingual Spanish and Quechua service, his white vestments are adorned with colourful patterns of indigenous indian weaving.
    priest blesses congregation3.JPG
  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
Father Fabio Calizaya, priest of the San Pedro church in Potosi. For the service he replaced his poncho with white vestments, but in line with his bilingual Spanish and Quechua service, his white vestments are adorned with colourful patterns of indigenous indian weaving.
    priest drinks.JPG
  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
Saturday afternoon, in a bar at 1050 Calle Hernandez, miners kick off the weekend by getting exceedingly drunk. They drink the local beer and above all bottles of 40% proof grain alcohol. These are rowdy affairs with  fights and drinking to unconsciousness not uncommon. Harrassed bar maids are employed to keep the drinks flowing.
    knocking it back.JPG
  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
Saturday afternoon, in a bar at 1050 Calle Hernandez, just below the mines at Potosi, miners kick off the weekend by getting exceedingly drunk. They drink the local beer, and above all, bottles of 40% proof grain alcohol. These are rowdy affairs with  frequent fights and drinking to unconsciousness. Bar maids employed to keep the drinks flowing, are constantly harassed by drunk miners. The young boy, the son of one of the miners watches from a cautious distance as the adults get drunk.
    miners bar & boy copy.jpg
  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
Miners relax on the slopes of Cerro Rico mountain
    miners rest1.JPG
  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
In the streets of Potosi a silver vendor sells the town's most famous product.
    silver seller1.JPG
  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
View from the window of a mining cooperative.
    Potosi town.JPG
  • Potosi, Bolivia.<br />
Cerro Rico mine mountain at dusk.
    Cerro rico dusk.JPG