Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
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55
Prodem
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History
No one is certain how much silver has been extracted from Cerro Rico over its four cen-
turies of productivity, but a popular boast was that the Spanish could have constructed a
silver bridge to Spain and still had silver left to carry across it. The Spanish monarchy,
mortgaged to the hilt by foreign bankers, came to rely completely on the yearly treasure
fleets, which brought the Potosà silver. On the rare occasions when they were intercepted
by storms or pirates, it was a national disaster.
Although the tale of PotosÃ's origins probably takes a few liberties with the facts, it's a
good story. It begins in 1544 when a local Inca, Diego Huallpa, searching for an escaped
llama, stopped to build a fire at the foot of the mountain known in Quechua as 'Potojsi'
(meaning 'thunder' or 'explosion', although it might also have stemmed from
potoj,
'the
springs'). The fire grew so hot that the very earth beneath it started to melt and shiny li-
quid oozed from the ground.
Diego immediately realized he had run across a commodity for which the Spanish con-
querors had an insatiable appetite. Perhaps he also remembered the Inca legend associated
with the mountain, in which Inca Huayna Capac had been instructed by a booming voice
not to dig in the hill of Potojsi, but to leave the metal alone, because it was intended for
others.
Whatever the truth of this, the Spanish eventually learned of the enormous wealth bur-
ied in the mountain of Potojsi and determined that it warranted immediate attention. On
April 1, 1545, the Villa Imperial de Carlos V was founded at the foot of Cerro Rico and
large-scale excavation began. In the time it takes to say 'Get down there and dig,' thou-
sands of indigenous slaves were pressed into service and the first of the silver was already
headed for Spain.
The work was dangerous, however, and so many workers died of accidents and silicosis
pneumonia that the Spanish imported millions of African slaves to augment the labor
force. The descendants of the very few to survive mainly live in the Yungas.
In order to increase productivity, in 1572 the Viceroy of Toledo instituted the
Ley de la
Mita
, which required all indigenous and African slaves over the age of 18 to work shifts
of 12 hours. They would remain underground without seeing daylight for four months at a
