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Three dead a day in the Eden Mine
By Daniel
Ever since El Paso, we’ve never descended below 4000 foot elevation. We entered the Eden silver and gold mine in Zacatecas at over 7000 feet.
A very bad joke indeed to name the place the Eden Mine. I guess it was a sort of Eden for the investors (those with the naming rights) who made astronomical profits. But it was hell for the enslaved and indentured workers who died at the rate of approximately 3 per day over more than 3 centuries of production. That adds up to over 300,000 dead at just one of hundreds of mines.
Most of the silver coinage in Spain and so many of the riches of Europe were extracted from mines like Eden here in what was then called New Spain. We took the kids on a spooky tour of the depths, hokey, but illustrative mannequins of indigenous people taking picks to the metallic veins, eight year old children carrying out the dirt up etched logs
Some wealth stayed in Zacatecas, Guanajuato and other mining towns. The Spanish brought their architects with them on their colonizing vessels to replicate the Spanish cities down to the very last arch. The Dominicans and other Catholic orders brought their blueprints from their hometown cathedrals. On a plaza in Guanajuato, you feel as if you’re in a European medieval town.
So it’s sort of a funny feeling, this colonial immersion. I don’t mean to be a sourpuss, I like the idea of sipping cappuchino on a Mexican plaza as if I’m in Sevilla, Spain as much as the next guy. And it sure is cheaper than traveling all the way to Sevilla. But it does make you think twice – when we marvel about Mexican colonial jewels like Oaxaca, we’re marveling about European constructs, slave labor and razed indigenous settlements, in many cases erected directly on top of indigenous cultural treasures. And that’s not to say that Oaxacans aren’t proud of their colonial jewel – of course they are. I’m just fumbling to make sense of it all..
By Daniel
Ever since El Paso, we’ve never descended below 4000 foot elevation. We entered the Eden silver and gold mine in Zacatecas at over 7000 feet.
A very bad joke indeed to name the place the Eden Mine. I guess it was a sort of Eden for the investors (those with the naming rights) who made astronomical profits. But it was hell for the enslaved and indentured workers who died at the rate of approximately 3 per day over more than 3 centuries of production. That adds up to over 300,000 dead at just one of hundreds of mines.
Most of the silver coinage in Spain and so many of the riches of Europe were extracted from mines like Eden here in what was then called New Spain. We took the kids on a spooky tour of the depths, hokey, but illustrative mannequins of indigenous people taking picks to the metallic veins, eight year old children carrying out the dirt up etched logs
Some wealth stayed in Zacatecas, Guanajuato and other mining towns. The Spanish brought their architects with them on their colonizing vessels to replicate the Spanish cities down to the very last arch. The Dominicans and other Catholic orders brought their blueprints from their hometown cathedrals. On a plaza in Guanajuato, you feel as if you’re in a European medieval town.
So it’s sort of a funny feeling, this colonial immersion. I don’t mean to be a sourpuss, I like the idea of sipping cappuchino on a Mexican plaza as if I’m in Sevilla, Spain as much as the next guy. And it sure is cheaper than traveling all the way to Sevilla. But it does make you think twice – when we marvel about Mexican colonial jewels like Oaxaca, we’re marveling about European constructs, slave labor and razed indigenous settlements, in many cases erected directly on top of indigenous cultural treasures. And that’s not to say that Oaxacans aren’t proud of their colonial jewel – of course they are. I’m just fumbling to make sense of it all..
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