The Devil's Miner (review)

Some 800,000 children between the ages of ten and fourteen work as laborers according to Bolivian government sources, even though such activity by minors is prohibited by law. The mining sector alone accounts for 120,00 of which over 6,000 work in small-scale mining in the Department of Potosí. The Devil's Miner, a film which has won numerous awards at international film festivals, puts a human face on this grim statistic. Fourteen-years-old Basilio Vargas who is a four-year veteran of the silver mines at Cerro Rico narrates his life story in a stark and straightforward manner.

Fatherless since the age of two, Basilio has assumed that role for his family. His mother and sister depend on his earnings to feed, clothe and educate the family that lives in acute poverty. Basilio mentors his brother Bernardino who is twelve and has joined him in the mines. Basilio and Bernardino juggle 24-hour shifts in the mine with school. These are not modern enterprises; miners work in primitive conditions with few safety nets. They chew coca to fortify themselves before descending into the mines, work with explosives and breath in polluted air that will lead to silicosis and premature death. Life expectancy for a Bolivian miner is forty-five years.

Since the sixteenth century, Cerro Rico has been under the protection of the devil, a belief introduced by the Spanish to motivate and intimidate native workers. Hundreds of images of el Tío, a Quechua corruption of the word, Díos, inhabit the tunnels. Although the Vargas brothers are devout Catholics they, like all miners, pray and sacrifice to the devil to secure his generosity. Bolivian sacred landscape recognizes the power of Christ above ground—and that of the devil below it. The treatment of popular religious beliefs is of equal importance to that of child labor.

The chronicling of everyday life in Potosí is well done. Poverty does not strip Basilio, his family or neighbors of their humanity. Despite the burden Basilio carries he is a hopeful young man who knows an education will release him from the mines. Family life, a fashionable hair cut, playing soccer and watching a battery-operated television in a small stone cottage provide Basilio with simple pleasures, and he is very much a part of the community. On Carnival Day he participates in the dancing for the first time with a club called the Young Miners. The celebration begins with dancing, followed by Mass and ends with the traditional llama sacrifice to el Tío and a barbecue.

The film documents the grim reality of Basilio's life in Potosí, and gives it a Dickensian quality. The portrayals of child labor in Victorian England by Charles Dickens created outrage that initiated legal reform. Although there is no happy ending, the film's website records that Basilio's optimism and plucky spirit has been rewarded. The photography is wonderful. The Potosí site provides strong links between the colonial past and the present. The film offers visual proof why Bolivians elected Evo Morales. Classroom or campus use requires providing a context.