The purpose of this webpage is to showcase the contributions of women in mining towns and the highly gendered nature of mining and labor in Latin America. Included in this webpage is an essay explaining the gendered nature of mining, a poem adapted and read alongside a video about the hardships of being a wife of a miner, and an article about the role and contributions of women in mining towns.
The Gendered Nature of Mining
On May 7, 1937 author Domitila Barrios de Chungara was born in a tin mining community called Siglo XX. Barrios de Chungara illustrates her recollections of her life and the life of others living as a miner’s wife in the mining town “Siglo XX” of Bolivia through her testimony, Let Me Speak! In particular, Barrios de Chungara recounts many examples of the highly gendered nature of mining and labor in mining towns. This paper will explore the gendered nature of mining and labor in Bolivia during the twentieth century (also referred to as Siglo XX) in accordance with the testimony by Barrios de Chungara. In this paper, I argue that men and women experience the hardships of mining in different ways due to their gender.
During the twentieth century, in a typical mining town in Bolivia, the man of the household would work in the mines daily to financially provide for his wife and children. Barrios de Chungara illustrates many of the hardships such as health concerns, meager pay, and long hours, that a man faces on a daily basis as a miner. The physical and strenuous labor that the miners endure leaves them physically exhausted by the end of the day, which can lead to more serious health concerns in the end. According to the website LiveScience, working in a mine has serious effects on the health of miners, therefore they face diseases such as silicosis, lung cancer, and mercury poisoning. Although the miners are putting their lives at risk daily and working a very physically demanding job, they earn a very small wage. Barrios de Chungara further explains, “Sometimes my husband gets 700 pesos, sometimes 500, sometimes we end up owing the company money. And from that my family of nine has to live. But there are workers who are even worse off” (Barrios de Chungara, 29). The miners work hard for their small pay and, according to Barrios de Chungara, put it all towards education and food for their children. This leaves barely any wiggle room for emergencies. Furthermore, the work schedule of the miners is another hardship that the man faces on a daily basis. In particular, Barrio de Chungara describes her husband’s work schedule and the effects it has on the family and miner. She writes, “The miner works all night long and comes home to sleep during the day. But since the house is small and the houses in the camp are right next to each other, there’s no place for the kids to play; they have to stay right there making a racket” (Barrios de Chungara, 27). The night shift is particularly bad for miners because they do not get a chance to catch up on their rest due to the house and the village being noisy. Miners endure hardships as simple as not being able to sleep in a noisy household during the day, but in the long run these problems create exhaustion and frustration for the miner.
Just like men and their occupation as miners, women encounter many hardships within their occupation as a mother and caretaker of the home. Since Barrios de Chungara herself was a stay-at-home mom, she brings light to the common hardships that women faced during the twentieth century in the mining town “Siglo XX.” Women play a large role in keeping a household going and providing for the family. Barrios de Chungara argues that the women of the household work equally as hard but do not see any pay. She also points out a thought-provoking economic comparison when she assigns a dollar amount to all of the chores done in the house and compared it to what the men make in the mines. She finds that women would make much more than men if they were paid for all of the unrecognized work they do (Barrios de Chungara, 35). This economic analogy demonstrates just how hard women in the household work without any pay off and how if they were to be paid it would equal a greater sum than what their husbands make. The miners must work everyday to support their families and provide for them. Similarly, the woman’s role is to cook, clean, and take care of the children and household while the man is at work. A woman’s work in the household can be equally as strenuous as she often wakes up at the same time as her husband to begin the day. Barrios de Chungara makes a powerful statement about this point when she states, “And really that’s unpaid work that we’re doing for the boss, isn’t it?” (Barrios de Chungara, 34). The fact that miners work so hard and only make a meager pay and that their partners also put in a great effort to keep the household running smoothly demonstrates the trapped cycle that the miners and the women are stuck in due to the mining industry.
During the twentieth century, it was not typical for a woman to work in the mine or do much besides stay in the home and take care of the kids. This made working in the mine a very gendered activity. Men working in the mines and creating all the revenue for the house is a stereotypical gender concept that is still seen in contemporary times: the man going to work and providing for the family. However, this works the same way in terms of the woman’s role in a mining town. The woman’s role as child-bearer, stay at home mother, and caretaker of the home and children is also very gendered in nature. In this time period, it was not accepted for the man to stay at home and help with the children. The typical gender stereotypes, the circumstances of the time period, and the place where this takes place all contribute to the gendered nature of mines and labor. In contemporary times, women working in the mines as artisanal miners and men staying at home is becoming more widely accepted. I argue that the time period of the twentieth century, the cultural norms of Bolivia, and the dire economic circumstances all contribute to the gendered nature of the mine and labor.
“The Miner’s Wife”
Poem written and spoken by Julia Florkowski
This poem was written to demonstrate the hardships that the wife of a miner faces on a daily basis. It showcases the capabilities of the miner’s wife but also shows the struggles that she goes through. I decided to speak in the voice of a miner’s wife because often times media is heavily focused on the miner’s side of the situation. I think it is important to understand the role and capabilities of women everywhere, but more specifically, in mining towns. The poem was inspired by the testimony, Let Me Speak! by Domitila Barrios de Chungara.
Click here to read the article, “Women Under the Surface,” about the undervalued contributions that women make in mining towns.
About the author:
Julia Florkowski is an undergraduate student at Lehigh University, majoring in Spanish and minoring in Latin American Studies. She is currently enrolled in the 5-year graduate education program through Lehigh and is taking graduate level classes as an undergraduate student. Her goal is to teach Spanish in an elementary school close to her home town in Chester County, PA. She is a current member of the Zeta Tau Alpha Fraternity, participates in Spanish Club, and is the Vice President of Marketing for the Class of 2020. Julia studied abroad for a month in Segovia, Spain in the summer of 2017 and is planning on studying abroad for a full semester in Granada, Spain in the spring of 2018. She also really wants to explore Latin America at some point in her career at Lehigh.
Works Cited
Chungara, Domitila Barrios De, Moema Viezzer, and Victoria Ortiz. Let Me Speak!: Testimony of Domitila, a Woman of the Bolivian Mines. London: Stage 1, 1979.
Cohen, Roseann. “Extractive Desires: The Moral Control of Female Sexuality at Colombia’s Gold Mining Frontier.” The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology, vol. 19, no. 2, 2014, pp. 260–279., doi:10.1111/jlca.12098.
Jenkins, Katy. “Unearthing Womens Anti-Mining Activism in the Andes: Pachamama and the “Mad Old Women”.” Antipode47, no. 2 (2014): 442-60. doi:10.1111/anti.12126.