Women Miners of the Red Mountain, 1975-2022

Abstract

This article examines the trajectory of women miners in Potosí (palliris, llampiras and serenas) drawing on documentary sources and life narratives, with three axes of analysis: memory, work and gender. The memory of these workers is nourished by their peasant roots and mining experience, expressed through objects, symbols and narratives that connect past and present. In the labour sphere, these women participate both in extractive work and in tasks of selection and security, whilst also assuming domestic and childcare responsibilities that configure multiple working days. With regard to gender, institutional discourses of the 1960s situated them primarily as housewives and mothers, in contrast to their agency in associations and their demands for rights. The feminisation of Cerro Rico, reflected in virgins, festivities and the naming of mine entrances, transforms a historically masculine space. Despite persistent inequalities, the workers have consolidated a sense of belonging and community, projecting horizons of social mobility for their children and reconfiguring the memory and mining identity of the Red Mountain.