For traditional gold mining communities, gold has been an important resource for guarantying their subsistence in a context of precarity, poverty, and violence, as is seen in agricultural frontier zones and colonization areas. In these regions, the communities have had to face the abandonment of the state, the lack of infrastructure, education, access roads and support for the development of agricultural activities so that gold has become a possibility to guarantee their subsistence. In this context it was stated by a community member:
“Mining is an ancestral practice that has allowed us to live, which has allowed the territory
to give us basically to eat” (Social organization representative, personal interview, March 3,
2019)
Being a resource for subsistence associated with permanence in the territory, in many artisanal mining communities, the notion of sustainability in the extraction is crucial. For them, the gold extraction must occur without the natural environment in which they live got destroyed and guaranteeing access to the resource for the next generations.
“There is a plant that fulfills the function of mercury for gold separation. I've seen it, and it's the liquid from the plant that they use for the separation. Obviously, it is not the same as using mercury, but they do not care because the issue is not to profit from gold but to have some grams to buy the necessary. And because the idea is not to get everything out. What
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has become very clear to me in all the places where I have seen artisanal mining is that it is necessary to leave some gold, that it is necessary to leave for the grandson. So, since people are thinking that they have to leave for the grandson they have no desire to take everything out.” (Social organization representative, personal interview March 28, 2019)
For the barequeros of the Cauca River canyon in Antioquia, gold has a meaning that goes beyond its economic utility. It is common for artisanal miners to refer to gold and the river by assigning them characteristics of living beings as if they interact with sentient beings that inhabit the territory and are part of their communities. In addition to this, gold acquires a symbolic value. Moreover, even medicinal properties are attributed to gold. Thus, in addition to being used for some specific ailments, it is common for barequeros to always carry some gold in their pockets as a measure of protection and care.
“So, money is not everything. See, this is protection, I charge it as protection. I have had this gold almost 13 months ago. We have been in a need to feel it because it is the protection of the family. That is the cavetán3: One without gold, to ask for strength, another with a little to
ask for health, and another so that one is alive and has enough to live.” (Artisanal miner,
personal interview, April 20, 2019)
Gold is then a fundamental component of these communities’ identities. After barequeros from Cauca river canyon had to be displaced, many have felt the economic and psychological consequences of having left their territory and traditions behind.
“For my wife the loss of the river, the loss of barequeo has been very hard. Moreover, where we are in Medellín she keeps a pan, the cavetán, the Jaguero and tells me that we must continue going to the rivers to see if we find gold there. That is already part of life. We had a fellow, Remisio Moreno, who died of sadness. The situation is complicated” (Artisanal
miner, personal interview, April 20, 2019)
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However, the perspective of mining that communities have is not exempt from contradictions and conflicts, as already seen in chapter 2. Despite being a fundamental part of the collective identity of peasant-miners and barequeros, the increase in this activity has been considered a risk to the health, the environment and the cohesion of the communities. In the context of precariousness in which these communities live, the increase in this activity attracts the arrival of new actors and reconfigures territorial dynamics threatening the peasant identity.
“Mining has been the livelihood of many families. We see it as a factor that greatly influences community dynamics. For example, we are concerned that there are villages that get empty because people go to areas where there are many mines. People go there to work because there are no access roads in good condition, there is no support from the state or the mayor's offices for the farmer to subsist from his land. It is very difficult for a farmer in the region to be able to live clearly from bananas, cassava or rice. How will they get it out? If the paths are five or six hours from the municipality and products arrive in very bad conditions. There
Figure 18. Gold carried by a barequero in the pocket. Bogotá, April 18, 2019
The small piece of clothes in which the gold is carried in this picture is called Cavetan
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is nothing in our country for the rural economy. There is not a project to strengthen rurality. So many people abandon the work of their land, the farm because they must go find their livelihood by working in the mine.” (Social organization representative, personal interview,
May 20, 2019)