Baptista presented his book about San Cristóbal in the presence of community inhabitants.

150 150 Minera San Cristóbal S.A.

San Cristóbal is the third largest open-pit silver mine of the world and the fifth largest zinc mine, besides being the largest mining project developed in Bolivia since Simón Patiño at the beginning of the 20th century.

Agencia de Noticias Fides
01.16.2016

baptista

 

La Paz, January 16 (ANF).-

With the presence of community members from San Cristóbal and a large audience, journalist, historian and essay writer Mariano Baptista presented his most recent book entitled “San Cristóbal: an unparalleled mine in Bolivia’s history”.

San Cristóbal is the third largest open-pit silver mine of the world and the fifth largest zinc mine, besides being the largest mining project developed in Bolivia since Simón Patiño at the beginning of the 20th century.

The book outlines how the San Cristóbal mine was discovered, how it managed to secure the necessary investment and how, finally, the town and the church had to be relocated to a place 13 kilometers away. It was presented on Friday night in a hotel in the residential south area of La Paz.

San Cristóbal is an open-pit silver mine located in Potosí, at 90 kilometers from the town of Uyuni. At present, it is administered by Sumitomo, a Japanese mining company. Most of the deposit is located where the local church used to be.

Alberto Colque also spoke during the presentation. He is a community member and the person who gave the idea for the book in a casual conversation he had with Baptista and Raul Peñaranda, journalist of Página Siete and ANF.

Narrating his family’s story and history, Colque referred to the key moments of the history of San Cristóbal, local traditions and the importance of the indigenous beliefs. He also said that the leaders do not regret having reached an agreement to facilitate the mining operation which has generated 1,500 well-paid direct jobs subject to strict labor safety measures. Another 4,000 people depend indirectly on the mining operation.

Colque said that the activities of San Cristóbal have produced benefits for the three parties involved: the State, thanks to the collection of taxes and royalties; the community, thanks to the creation of many sources of decent employment; and the company, which has obtained considerable profits.

Journalist Peñaranda highlighted parts of the biography of Baptista, saying that it was an “honor” to be invited to present the book. He explained that the text has “journalistic features” since it includes descriptions, interviews, chronicles and other genres and features of journalism.

Peñaranda read a couple of paragraphs of the book, particularly the ones with anecdotes, which he called “interesting and giving a flavor” of the complex process to secure resources for the mining company to take off in the 1990s, followed by the relocation of the town and the church that had to be disassembled and then reassembled.

Finally, Baptista talked about the importance of the participation of the community members of San Cristóbal for writing the book. He mentioned that he conducted around 40 interviews and that he visited the area a couple of times to write the book.

Baptista said that of all the people he interviewed, he gave more importance and space to three of them:  Jhonny Delgado, the engineer who played a fundamental role in securing the investment for this endeavor;  Tom Kaplan, a historian who obtained the resources (initial investment of 500 million dollars); and Alberto Colque, as the community representative.

The book includes a history of Bolivian mining and 20th-century politics in the country, as well as an explanation of the cultural characteristics of the indigenous people living in the Lípez provinces in Potosí, where San Cristóbal is located. The central part of the text is a detailed and interesting overview of how the capital inflow was negotiated and how the town was relocated.

In an especially touching moment of the ceremony, Baptista asked the dozen of community members present in the book presentation to stand up and accept the audience’s applause.