The light is weak and the oxygen scarce. In a corner of a gallery, miners have placed wine, beer and coca leaves on an altar. On the surface, five lamas wait to be sacrificed to curry favor with El Tio, the god of the underworld.
These typical Andean animals are El Tio’s favorite food, say miners from the city of Oruro in western Bolivia.
With his horns, his wide smile, and almost always a cigarette stuck between his lips, El Tio is reminiscent of the Christian devil.
He is present in all the mines where offerings are brought to him to ensure his clemency with the miners. And that always as much silver, tin and zinc are extracted from this site exploited for 20 years on the outskirts of Oruro.
– Blood and beating hearts –
The ceremony begins early in the morning with dances outside the mine. The beer is flowing, accompanied by the “ch’alla”, a tradition of throwing some of the alcohol on the ground to thank Pachamama or Mother Earth.
The five llamas that will be sacrificed have been installed on a tray that moves on rails to the entrance of the mine. Their eyes were blindfolded and their white wool decorated with pink bows.
At the entrance to the mine, the animals are surrounded by dozens of men wearing their miners’ helmets. Trumpets, drums and cymbals sound.
A “yatiri” or healer leads the ceremony. “As a healer, I pray for all the members who work in the cooperative,” Luciano Alejo, 55, responsible for the ritual, told AFP.
The knives are sharpened and basins prepared to receive the blood of the animals.
During the sacrifice, the hearts of the animals are extracted, sometimes still beating. Some miners bite into hearts or smear their faces with animal blood.
They ask forgiveness for their mistakes, dance above pools of blood. Some carry the basins filled with blood in the elevators to deposit them in the deepest galleries, closest, according to them, to El Tio.
The ceremony ends with the incineration of the offering table. Everyone leaves immediately because the smoke spreads within minutes and it becomes difficult to breathe or keep your eyes open, AFP notes. But outside, the party continues.
The rite takes place every year in February or early March, the day before the Oruro Carnival parade, Bolivia’s most important cultural event.
Because many miners fear that El Tio will take revenge if they don’t.
“If we don’t give him this little table (with the offerings), a lot of things can happen,” Miguel Valdez, a 33-year-old miner, told AFP. “We do it to sleep peacefully, so that no accident happens to us”.
–
