IN STEREO

Potosí receives nothing. It’s been the same for so many years. Potosí carries on just the same. No government has done anything for Potosí, [the city] that has given so much to Bolivia. The whole world has taken so much wealth. It is truly a shame. We are here, taking out ore and what does Potosí have in exchange for the mineral? Nothing, nothing. – Don Dario

I am Potosíno: I live here, I am from here. We have always lived here, as Potosínos: we were always children of miners, we were always here. As you see, our Potosí is small, but it has always existed. It has maintained the whole world, our Potosí, because our mountain was a millionaire of silver. I’m telling you, our mountain [could have made] a bridge, couldn’t it, to Spain. All the silver had to be gotten, and look, imagine how much silver they have taken. And it remains the same: money is still leaving from Potosí. So it hurts, how La Paz is now, what big buildings it has. Now Cochabamba, the same; Santa Cruz, better! But with whose silver? With the silver of Potosí. They have done that with the minerals, and they don’t even recognise it. They say to us in vain: “It’s not for nothing.” Have you ever seen something? We have nothing, not even our own resources. At least say that they will leave us a certain amount of royalties, right? They do not give us anything. That is why, in destroying it, and appropriating, they continue to advance. So that is what we have reclaimed. – Doña Carmen