69 images Created 12 Sep 2012
Argentina-The Wild North, Pachamama vs Milei's chainsaw
Will the Pachamama, the Mother Earth of the Andean indigenous peoples, resist Milei's chainsaw? Argentina's new president, declared his government will not have policies to fight the climate crisis, protect Indigenous people, or decrease deforestation. The "lithium triangle" of the northern province of Jujuy, the border area between Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile, contains the world's largest reserves of this metal, vital for the electronics and electric vehicle industries, and critical to the Milei government's development strategy. It could be a "catastrophe" for the Qolla indigenous communities trying to switch to renewable energies in the rugged landscapes of northwest Argentina. By the end of the 1980s in the Quebrada of Humahuaca and Puna, as a consequence of decades of destruction of the environment, the small woods, the only fuel available, disappeared, and with the high costs of conventional fuel and the unreliability of the electric grid this background of helplessness, small cooperatives started installing in many villages reflectors that move to track the movement of the Sun. Despite the growing difficulties, this environmentally friendly solar energy, called in the highlands the "Last Miracle of the Inti God," the Inca god of the Sun, could also be the propeller of a new search for the identity of these communities, long forgotten in Argentina. A real revolution in Jujuy, Argentina's poorest province, because the campesinos, the peasants, could preserve their products and wait for better prices without selling them to Salta traders.
The Spanish conquistadores destroyed the Inca empire, but on these mountains the cultures are like geological layers; there is no melting pot between Qollas, Incas, and the European and Argentine immigrants arrived from the coast cities, just overlapping. Glued to this extreme north near the border with Bolivia, the Qolla resisted for centuries, and still today, they are mainly precarious farmers, llama breeders, and miners. Above all, they are one of Argentina's most important indigenous communities. Today, the Pachamama, the "Mother Earth" and fertility goddess of Inca mythology, is more and more revered by the indigenous people, and at Salinas Grandes, the third salt pan of the world, the salineros (salt workers) every year, still meet to toast to her honor.
Not far, the Quebrada de Humahuaca, a narrow mountain valley, has been a social and cultural crossroad for 10,000 years. It was a caravan road for the Inca Empire in the 15th century and an essential link between Río de la Plata and Peru for the Spanish Empire. The Quebrada de Humahuaca, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2003, has been rediscovered by tourists and mining companies. Even in Buenos Aires, many rediscovered Argentina’s indigenous roots hidden in this isolated plateau torn between the defense of a thousand-year-old identity and access to acrobatic jumps into the world of new technologies.
The Spanish conquistadores destroyed the Inca empire, but on these mountains the cultures are like geological layers; there is no melting pot between Qollas, Incas, and the European and Argentine immigrants arrived from the coast cities, just overlapping. Glued to this extreme north near the border with Bolivia, the Qolla resisted for centuries, and still today, they are mainly precarious farmers, llama breeders, and miners. Above all, they are one of Argentina's most important indigenous communities. Today, the Pachamama, the "Mother Earth" and fertility goddess of Inca mythology, is more and more revered by the indigenous people, and at Salinas Grandes, the third salt pan of the world, the salineros (salt workers) every year, still meet to toast to her honor.
Not far, the Quebrada de Humahuaca, a narrow mountain valley, has been a social and cultural crossroad for 10,000 years. It was a caravan road for the Inca Empire in the 15th century and an essential link between Río de la Plata and Peru for the Spanish Empire. The Quebrada de Humahuaca, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2003, has been rediscovered by tourists and mining companies. Even in Buenos Aires, many rediscovered Argentina’s indigenous roots hidden in this isolated plateau torn between the defense of a thousand-year-old identity and access to acrobatic jumps into the world of new technologies.
