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Fig. 1.<\/strong> Miners inside Cerro Rico. Schacht 2024.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n Mining in Potos\u00ed in colonial times and today<\/strong><\/p>\n Silver was already being extracted in the region around Potos\u00ed during pre-colonial times (Cruz and Absi 2008). Although archaeologists disagree on whether this included Cerro Rico itself, it is widely assumed that Inca and pre-Inca populations were already aware of the silver deposits (Absi 2005). What is certain, however, is that Cerro Rico served as a huaca<\/em>, a sacred site, and played an important religious role for the Indigenous people in the region (Lane 2019). The impressive, cone-shaped Cerro Rico was revered as sumaj orqo<\/em>, meaning \u201cbeautiful mountain\u201d in Quechua.<\/p>\n From 1545 onward, when the Spaniards learned of the silver deposits in Cerro Rico, Potos\u00ed developed into the center of colonial silver production and extractivist economy. In this process, the Indigenous population was dispossessed of their sacred mountain, which was transformed into an industrial site. This marked the first process of uncommoning at Cerro Rico. By the 17th<\/sup> century, half of the world\u2019s circulating silver is said to have come from Potos\u00ed (Lane 2019), which was only made possible through the massive exploitation of Indigenous forced laborers and African slaves. Profits, however, went primarily into European hands (Bakewell 2010, 227-230).<\/p>\n Already in the 17th<\/sup> century, a first subversive attempt at recommoning was carried out by Indigenous kajchas<\/em> who secretly extracted minerals in Spanish mines, often keeping the most valuable for their own. This practice of kajcheo<\/em>\u00a0continued even after Bolivia\u2019s independence, particularly in the early 20th<\/sup> century. By then the mines were focused primarily on the extraction of tin and were controlled by wealthy entrepreneurs. With the Bolivian Revolution of 1952, a form of recommoning of the mines took place through the nationalization of all mines, paving the way for the emergence of cooperatives inspired by the kajcheo<\/em> tradition during the 1980s and 1990s (Absi 2005).<\/p>\n Today, mining at Cerro Rico remains active, and is mainly organized through these cooperatives. Working conditions have changed little since colonial times and are still extremely dangerous and detrimental to the miners\u2019 health (Francescone and D\u00edaz 2013, 39-40). Most miners are nowadays Quechua-speaking Indigenous men whose ancestors often worked in the mines for generations, in some cases dating back to colonial times (Pretes 2002, 440). Although many take pride in their work, they are stigmatized by large parts of Bolivian society and receive little attention or social recognition (Absi 2005). Around 12,000 miners work in 32 cooperatives at Cerro Rico, and mining continues to be the most important economic activity in Potos\u00ed (Flores 2024).<\/p>\n Fig. 2.<\/strong> View of the Cerro Rico from the center of Potos\u00ed. Schacht 2024.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n Potos\u00ed and Cerro Rico as historical heritage<\/strong><\/p>\n In 1987, Potos\u00ed was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In particular, emphasis has been placed on the city\u2019s historical relevance, as its silver deposits substantially contributed to the development of the global capitalist system. The heritage site \u201cCity of Potos\u00ed\u201d includes parts of the colonial infrastructure for silver production within Cerro Rico, the historic center of Potos\u00ed, and the \u201cCasa de la Moneda\u201d, the royal mint (UNESCO 2025).<\/p>\n From official sides, a specific heritage discourse has emerged around Potos\u00ed. The focus lies on the colonial architecture of the city center and particularly on the \u201cCasa de la Moneda\u201d, today one of Bolivia\u2019s most important museums. Within the highly professionalized and institutionalized \u201cCasa de la Moneda\u201d, colonial history is presented from the viewpoint of the colonizers. The colonial period is romanticized and trivialized for national and international tourists, thereby reproducing Eurocentric perspectives and colonialist narratives. For instance, during guided tours of the museum, pre-colonial mining is not mentioned at all, and Indigenous forced labor and African slaves are only mentioned \u00a0briefly. Instead, the wealth of colonial Potos\u00ed is repeatedly emphasized, and the colonial period is portrayed in a positive light.<\/p>\n Overall, Potos\u00ed\u2019s World Heritage status is justified through its colonial history, while pre-colonial pasts or current mining activities are largely excluded. This can be understood as a hegemonic historical discourse in which alternative or Indigenous perspectives are distorted or silenced, a process that can be interpreted as a form of uncommoning. Within the official heritage narratives, Cerro Rico is reduced merely to a scenic backdrop and the mining itself is largely ignored. Yet it is precisely this backdrop that plays a crucial role in the patrimonialization of Potos\u00ed, something that has become particularly evident since 2014.<\/p>\n In that year, UNESCO placed Potos\u00ed on its \u201cList of World Heritage in Danger\u201d due to the risk of collapse of Cerro Rico, caused by ongoing mining activities (UNESCO 2014). The mountain is now crisscrossed by an extensive system of tunnels and shafts, with a total length of over a thousand kilometers (Quintana C. 1998, 21). The continuous extraction of minerals over time has rendered many areas highly unstable.<\/p>\n Fig. 3.<\/strong> Poster in the historic center of Potos\u00ed. Schacht 2024.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n Historical heritage site or active industrial site?<\/strong><\/p>\n Since the late 1970s, Bolivia has experienced an intensified process of patrimonialization, which has at times been strongly politicized. General critiques emphasize that these processes largely reflect elite discourses and neglect marginalized perspectives (Absi and Cruz 2005). More specifically, there is an ongoing controversy over the patrimonialization of Potos\u00ed and Cerro Rico. In this context, the industrial dimension of Cerro Rico is often disregarded, as the mountain is framed primarily as a historical heritage site of the past.<\/p>\n The resulting conflict lies in the fact that the continued industrial use of the mountain by miners stands in direct opposition to its patrimonialization. UNESCO\u2019s approach represents a static and preservation-oriented conception of heritage. Many miners, however, view themselves as custodians of a living industrial heritage that cannot be confined to the past (Absi and Cruz 2005). Mining is inextricably intertwined with the history, present and probably even the future of Cerro Rico (Quintana C. 1998).<\/p>\n Industrial heritage is closely linked to local identities (Xie 2015). Some actors argue that Potos\u00ed\u2019s designation as a World Heritage Site has strengthened the city\u2019s and its habitants\u2019 self-esteem, allowing the heavy burden of history to be reinterpreted in a more positive light. Cerro Rico, as industrial heritage site, plays a particularly important role in the local identity of many miners and residents of Potos\u00ed. Nevertheless, as I observed during my own ethnographic field research, many residents express criticism of the Eurocentric logic underlying UNESCO\u2019s concept of heritage and of the state institutions that reproduce this discourse.<\/p>\n Above all, miners criticize the designation as World Heritage Site and its consequences for their work. Many argue that by defining the unchanged preservation of Cerro Rico as its primary goal and blaming miners for its \u201cdestruction,\u201d UNESCO fails to acknowledge that mineral extraction has always been integral to Potos\u00ed, and that the site\u2019s heritage value is rooted precisely in this ongoing practice (Absi and Cruz 2005). This creates an opposition between the \u201cgood\u201d who \u201cprotect\u201d the heritage in accordance with UNESCO\u2019s criteria, and the \u201cbad,\u201d who do not acknowledge it and are thus criminalized (Gnecco 2019). Moreover, the official heritage discourse ignores the fact that it is the miners themselves who maintain the infrastructures in the Cerro Rico declared as World Heritage, precisely because they continue to use them.<\/p>\n Miners perceive the patrimonialization as a form of uncommoning of their active industrial heritage site, which thus becomes a historical heritage site as defined by UNESCO and other institutions. Yet miners contest the official patrimonial narrative and reclaim agency over how Cerro Rico is represented. They use own forms of mining tourism to counter Eurocentric heritage views.<\/p>\n Mining tourism in Potos\u00ed<\/strong><\/p>\n Mining tourism is a topic that has so far received little scholarly attention, particularly from an ethnographic perspective. Yet the encounters that take place within this form of tourism actually represent a very good subject for qualitative empirical research at the micro level.<\/p>\n For my bachelor\u2019s thesis (Schacht 2024) I conducted three months of ethnographic field research and focused on mining tourism in Potos\u00ed. I conducted participant observations using different approaches during several guided tours in five different mines. In addition, I carried out participant observations during guided tours of the \u201cCasa de la Moneda\u201d and other sites of tourist infrastructure, including the city center, souvenir shops, travel agencies, and a training center for tour guides. I also conducted several semi-structured interviews and informal conversations with miners, international tourists, tour guides and institutional actors such as the tourism police, staff of the tourism information office, and instructors at the training center for tour guides.<\/p>\n I argue that mining tourism can be a form of\u00a0recommoning industrial heritage sites but that Eurocentric perspectives on this type of tourism pose a problem in this context.<\/p>\n Fig. 4.<\/strong> Group of tourists and their guide at the mine entrance. Schacht 2024.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n Mining tourism as a recommoning process<\/em><\/p>\n Since the mid-1980s, guided tourist tours have been offered in the active mines of Cerro Rico. Initially informal and improvised, these tours have gradually become more professionalized. Today, agreements exist with certain mines regarding visitor access, including fixed entry fees. It is important to note that these tours were initiated and organized by the miners themselves, motivated by a desire to share their impressions and experiences (Pretes 2002). Even today, tour guides are almost exclusively former miners or their children. Many continue to see themselves as part of the mining community and maintain a strong sense of solidarity with current miners.<\/p>\n Beside guided tours, in some cases, miners also created small museums inside the Cerro Rico for tourists. However, these museums no longer exist today, as those spaces have since been returned to active mineral extraction.<\/p>\n In contrast to other heritage tourism sites in Potos\u00ed, such as the \u201cCasa de la Moneda,\u201d mining tours are guided by miners themselves, allowing them to convey their own perspectives, including those of colonized and marginalized subjects. This form of tourism can therefore be understood as a process of recommoning the industrial heritage of Cerro Rico by the miners and their community. Through the mining tours, miners can disseminate an alternative, or at least a broader, narrative that challenges the official colonial-historical and heritage discourse. This alternative narrative does not glorify or trivialize the colonial period, as happens for instance in the \u201cCasa de la Moneda.\u201d Instead, it addresses the working reality of miners, their religious beliefs, the dark sides of colonial history, pre-colonial mining, the organization of cooperatives, and personal autobiographical experiences and stories. Guided tours by miners thus present broad insights and knowledge informed by their daily work in the mines.<\/p>\n The mining tours primarily focus on the miners\u2019 current work. In doing so, they reinforce the perception of Potos\u00ed as an active industrial site rather than merely a historical one. The guides are also keen to encourage dialogue and direct exchange between tourists and miners, acting mostly as translators while allowing the miners themselves to speak. For many guides, the main motivation is to generate recognition and respect for the miners\u2019 labor.<\/p>\n Fig. 5.<\/strong> During a tour at the shrine of the T\u00edo. Schacht 2024.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n Eurocentric critiques on mining tourism<\/em><\/p>\n Mining tourism allows miners to present their own perspectives and to challenge dominant narratives about Cerro Rico. However, this potential for dialogue is rarely realized in practice, as many visitors, shaped by Eurocentric perceptions, interpret the miners\u2019 agency and self-presentation primarily through the lens of suffering.<\/p>\n Tourists play an active role in the meaning-making processes of heritage sites (Smith 2021), and both \u00ad\u2013 their perceptions and the Eurocentric frameworks shaping them \u2013 warrant careful analysis. During my research, I observed that many tourists, mostly coming from Europe and North America, experienced ethical discomfort and a sense of guilt while visiting the mines. This is mainly due to a feeling of \u201cvoyeurism.\u201d In her well-known essay Regarding the Pain of Others (2003)<\/em>, Susan Sontag noted that the desire to observe the hardships of others affects many people. Yet, at the same time, people reject and condemn this very desire (Vergopoulos 2016, \u00a743).<\/p>\n This feeling was expressed by one tourist I interviewed after visiting the mine:<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t feel great, kind of being in their space like that. In a way that was like \u201eOh, we just come here to look at you suffering and leave.\u201d [\u2026] It\u2019s basically \u201eWe are here to see what kind of suffering you go through and then leave and go back to our comfort.\u201d [\u2026] I mean I paid a tour company to take me there, like it\u2019s\u2026 It doesn\u2019t feel great. (Personal communication, March 1, 2024)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Although this criticism may appear well-considered and self-reflective at first glance, a closer examination reveals that the very feeling of voyeurism is itself a product of Eurocentrism \u2013 a reproduction of colonial thought patterns rooted in the failure to genuinely listen to the miners\u2019 own voices.<\/p>\n My research indicates that many tourists hold a paternalistic view of the miners and their labor. As Rivera Cusicanqui (2010, 24-25) and Macusaya Cruz (2020, 40-41) argue, the perception of labor as \u201csuffering\u201d or \u201cmisery\u201d stems from a Eurocentric conception of work that, since colonial times, has devalued physical labor and denied it dignity. Yet many miners take pride in their work, viewing it as a source of identity and even, at times, of pleasure. The paternalistic compassion expressed by many tourists can be understood as \u201caffective side of coloniality\u201d (Castro Varela and Heinemann 2016, 56, transl. Schacht).<\/p>\n A meaningful and decolonial critique of mining tourism can only emerge through dialogue with the miners themselves (Rivera Cusicanqui 2010). Even though mining tourism holds the potential to foster such dialogue, Eurocentric perspectives and paternalistic attitudes often prevent it. My research showed that many miners hold a rather positive view of mining tourism. However, only a few tourists perceive this, as the majority fails to truly listen. By ignoring the miners\u2019 perspectives and focusing instead on power inequalities, the tourists not only perpetuate these inequalities but also construct the miners as subaltern subjects who \u201ccannot speak\u201d and are thus excluded from political subjecthood (Spivak 1988). Such inequalities undoubtedly exist on a structural and systemic level, but on the micro level, within the concrete setting of the mining tour, the miners clearly occupy a position of authority, as the tourists depend on them.<\/p>\n Discourses that interpret tourism primarily as an imperial exercise of power fail to recognize the agency demonstrated by the miners and reduce them to a victim role they do not identify with. Through mining tourism, the miners actively assert their agency and \u201cspeak\u201d for themselves. Yet their voices often remain unheard by many tourists, paradoxically due to their feeling of guilt. This lack of listening as a Eurocentric consequence is precisely the problem: the miners\u2019 efforts to recommon Cerro Rico through tourism often go unacknowledged and misunderstood, limiting their impact on many visitors.<\/p>\n Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n Throughout the history of Potos\u00ed and its mining activities, various processes of uncommoning and recommoning can be identified. The designation of Potos\u00ed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site marks the starting point for an ongoing debate over whether Cerro Rico should be understood primarily as a historical heritage site or as a living site of industrial activity. Within this context, mining tourism can be seen as an attempt by the miners to recommon Cerro Rico. Yet Eurocentric perspectives among tourists often interfere with this process by reproducing colonial hierarchies and patterns of thought.<\/p>\n The recommoning of Cerro Rico through tourism constitutes an important step toward reclaiming agency and redefining heritage from the miners\u2019 perspectives. However, this effort must go hand in hand with dismantling colonial structures and discourses. Ultimately, mining tourism in Potos\u00ed reveals both the potential and the limitations of recommoning processes under global heritage regimes.<\/p>\n Acknowledgements<\/strong><\/p>\n The author thanks all those who contributed to this research, especially the interview participants and the miners at Cerro Rico. He also thanks Ingo Rohrer and Antje Gunsenheimer for their valuable comments on earlier versions of this text.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n References<\/strong><\/p>\n Absi, Pascale. Los ministros del diablo: El trabajo y sus representaciones en las minas de Potos\u00ed<\/em>. IRD, IFEA and French Embassy in Bolivia, 2005.<\/p>\n Absi, Pascale and Pablo Cruz. \u201cPatrimonio, ideolog\u00eda y sociedad: Miradas desde Bolivia y Potos\u00ed.\u201d Tinkazos<\/em> 19 (2005): 77-96.<\/p>\n Bakewell, Peter. A History of Latin America to 1825<\/em>. 3rd ed. Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.<\/p>\n Castro Varela, Mar\u00eda do Mar and Alisha M. B. Heinemann. \u201cMitleid, Paternalismus, Solidarit\u00e4t.\u201c In Gefl\u00fcchtete und Kulturelle Bildung: Formate und Konzepte f\u00fcr ein neues Praxisfeld<\/em>, edited by Maren Ziese and Caroline Gritschke. Transcript, 2016.<\/p>\n Cruz, Pablo and Pascale Absi. \u201cCerros ardientes y huayras calladas: Potos\u00ed antes y durante el contacto.\u201d In Mina y metalurgia en los Andes del Sur desde la \u00e9poca prehisp\u00e1nica hasta el siglo XVII<\/em>, edited by Pablo Cruz and \u00a0Jean Joinville Vacher. IRD and IFEA, 2008.<\/p>\n Flores, Yuri. \u201cEn el Cerro Rico todav\u00eda operan 32 cooperativas mineras.\u201d La Raz\u00f3n<\/em>, April 22, 2024, https:\/\/hemeroteca.larazon.bo\/economia-y-empresa\/2024\/04\/22\/en-el-cerro-rico-todavia-operan-32-cooperativas-mineras\/<\/a>. Accessed August 1, 2025.<\/p>\n Francescone, Kirsten and Vladimir D\u00edaz. \u201cCooperativas mineras: Entre socios, patrones y peones.\u201d Petropress <\/em>30 (2013): 32-41.<\/p>\n Gnecco, Crist\u00f3bal. \u201cEl se\u00f1uelo patrimonial: Pensamientos post-arqueol\u00f3gicos en el camino de los incas.\u201d Di\u00e1logos en Patrimonio<\/em> 2 (2019): 13-48.<\/p>\n Lane, Kris. Potos\u00ed: The Silver City that Changed the World<\/em>. University of California Press, 2019.<\/p>\n Macusaya Cruz, Carlos. En Bolivia no hay racismo, indios de mierda: Apuntes sobre un problema negado. <\/em>Jichha and Nina Katari, 2020.<\/p>\n Pretes, Michael. \u201cTouring Mines and Mining Tourists.\u201d Annals of Tourism Research <\/em>29, no. 2 (2002): 439-456, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/S0160-7383(01)00041-X<\/a>.<\/p>\n Quintana C., Ernesto. \u201cEl legendario Cerro Rico de Potos\u00ed: Historia, recurso, s\u00edmbolo.\u201d In Anuario 1998<\/em>, edited by Archivo y Biblioteca Nacionales de Bolivia. Archivo y Biblioteca Nacionales de Bolivia, 1998.<\/p>\n Rivera Cusicanqui, Silvia. Ch\u2019ixinakax utxiwa: <\/em>Una reflexi\u00f3n sobre<\/em> pr\u00e1cticas y discursos descolo-nizadores<\/em>. Retazos and Tinta Lim\u00f3n, 2010.<\/p>\n Schacht, Lars-Michael. \u201cEthnografie des Minentourismus in Potosi\u0301, Bolivien: Eine kritische Diskussion.\u201c Unpublished bachelor\u2019s thesis, University of Bonn, 2024.<\/p>\n Smith, Laurajane. Emotional Heritage: Visitor Engagement at Museums and Heritage Sites<\/em>. Routledge, 2021.<\/p>\n Sontag, Susan. Regarding the Pain of Others<\/em>. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003.<\/p>\n Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. \u201cCan the Subaltern Speak?\u201d In Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture<\/em>, edited by Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg. University of Illinois Press, 1988.<\/p>\n UNESCO. \u201cCity of Potos\u00ed (Plurinational State of Bolivia) added to List of World Heritage in Danger.\u201d Last modified June 17, 2014, at 19:00. https:\/\/whc.unesco.org\/en\/news\/1148\/<\/a>. Accessed August 1, 2025.<\/p>\n UNESCO. \u201cCity of Potos\u00ed.\u201d Accessed October 8, 2025. https:\/\/whc.unesco.org\/en\/list\/420\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/boasblogs.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Schacht_image-2-920x690.jpg\")
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