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04-07-06,8:36am
Basilio and Berdino Vargas are not reality TV stars, but the film they star in is one of the most poignant reality shows you’ll ever see.
“The Devil’s Miner,” an 82-minute documentary, tells the story of Basilio, 14, and his brother, Berdino, 12, as they work in the silver mines of Bolivia’s Cerro Rico (Rich Mountain). In one of the first scenes of the film, the two boys are tapping into the mine’s walls to set dynamite detonators. They light the fuse and run so they will not be injured or killed when the dynamite explodes.
Milton Rosado, president of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), says:
It’s so easy to go on with your everyday life and not be aware of the despair in the world. But once people empower themselves with knowledge about the difficulties so many children face, it’s hard to turn a blind eye. And let’s not forget that if global corporate community can get away with treating children and workers this way in Bolivia, they will try it in other countries, including the United States.
LCLAA, an AFL-CIO constituency group, hosted a showing of the documentary March 31 at the AFL-CIO building in Washington, D.C.
Basilio and Berdino are among the more than 800 children who work in the Cerro Rico mines. Some 9,000 miners work on the mountain, in a maze of 20,000 tunnels filled with gases and dust. As a result, workers routinely contract black lung disease and die by age 40.
Basilio is the primary supporter for his family (his father died when he was much younger). He is paid $4 a day to work in the mines, sometime in a double shift (24 hours). When possible, he attends school in the mornings and works in the mines in the afternoon and into the night.
Back in the 16th century, the Spaniards enslaved the local population to mine for silver, making Spain hugely wealthy. At one time, Cerro Rico was the richest silver mine in North and South America, providing more than two-third of the world’s silver.
But as “Devil’s Miner” poignantly demonstrates, not much has changed since then—except the Spaniards are long gone. The work conditions remain inhumane and dangerous—more than 8 million workers have perished in the mines over the past four centuries, according to estimates.
Although the most valuable ore left in the mountain now is tin, the miners keep searching for the rare silver veins at a high price. So many die looking for the silver the local population calls the Cerro Rico “the mountain that eats men.”
The documentary takes its name from the miners’ belief that the underworld is ruled by the devil. The miners honor the devil at hundreds of chambers within the mines enshrined with a statue of a devil with bullhorns, shattered glass for teeth, to which the miners make offerings of alcohol and coca leaves, hoping the devil, called Tio, Spanish for “uncle” will reveal a silver vein that will bring wealth and job security.
The documentary has been shown throughout Bolivia and South America. “The Devil’s Miner” recently was released to movie theaters in New York City and Chicago and will be released nationally on DVD in April.
The DVD is available through LCLAA or First Run Features.
Click here for movie trailer page for The Devil' Miner
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