Open Veins of Latin America

Section 1 Summary: “The Sign of the Cross on the Hilt of the Sword”

In 1492, Portuguese explorer Christopher Columbus accidentally arrived in the Americas through commission by the Spanish King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Columbus was seeking Asia, motivated by the writings of Marco Polo detailing the Kubla Khan’s accounts of Japan’s riches. He intended to find spices such as pepper, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon, all used for preserving meat. He also was looking for gold, knowing the currency and power of the precious metal. In his logbook, he notes of gold possession that “he who has it does as he wills in the world” (30).

Columbus first landed in modern-day Haiti, which he named Espanola at the time, and described the Indians he met there as peaceable as they “knew nothing of swords” (29). He and his men proceeded to kill 200 Indians and brought back 500 enslaved Indians to Spain. He also returned to Spain with gold, which King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella used to pay the sailors. This set into motion a trend of European travelers to the Americas to seek out such riches in gold and silver, forcing the natives to pay tribute, and eventually exhausting the lands of their precious metals.

In a similar act of plunder in 1519, Hernán Cortés returns to Spain after learning about Montezuma’s Aztec treasure. It paved the way for Francisco Pizzaro to travel to the Americas 15 years later where he met the Incan Emperor Atahualpa. Pizzaro strangled Atahualpa and returned to Spain with Incan treasure that he stole from the Incan Empire.

Section 2 Summary: “The Gods Return with Secret Weapons”

After the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas, European colonizers began covering territories throughout Latin America. In 1494, the Treaty of Tordesillas allowed Portugal to occupy Latin America below a dividing line outlined by the Pope. By 1522, Ferdinand Magellan continued Spanish conquest of Latin America by acquiring enough territory in his colonial travels to unite both oceans. In 1523, Pedro de Alvarado conquered Central America. In 1533, Francisco Pizzaro entered Cuzco. From thereafter, European colonial exploration continued from Peru moving southward.

During this period of colonization, Europe was undergoing the Renaissance, which yielded a wealth of new innovations that aided colonial enterprises. Europeans had access to gunpowder, printing, paper, and other inventions that helped them in warfare against the native populations in the Americas.

According to Galeano, the Indians were “defeated by terror” (33) upon the arrival of European colonizers. Some like the Aztec leader Montezuma thought that the arrival of the Europeans was part of a prophecy of the god Quetzalcoatl’s return. Additionally, the Indians also died from the diseases that Europeans brought with them from abroad.

Section 3 Summary: “They Crave Gold Like Hungry Swine”

The Aztec leader Montezuma had tried to bargain peace with Hernán Cortés, but the Spanish conqueror was not interested. The Aztecs gave Cortés gold jewelry and other gifts to appease them. In a Nahuatl text recording the moment that the European colonizers saw the gifts of gold jewelry imparted to them, it read: “They crave gold like hungry swine” (35). Refusing Montezuma’s generosity, Cortés went ahead to Tenochtitlan and burned the places where the Aztecs kept jewels other than gold. The conqueror then reduced the stolen gold into bars. Although Cortés did not successfully take over Tenochtitlan, he returned to conquer it in 1521, decimating the native population there. Other European colonizers did the same in other Latin American territories. Pedro de Alvarado enacted the same violence towards the indigenous people in Guatemala as did Pizzaro in Cuzco. They took jewels and precious art from the native people and reduced the gold they found into bars.

Section 4 Summary: “The Silver Cycle: The Splendors of Potosí”

Potosí, a city in Bolivia, is a historical site for silver, once deemed “the jugular vein of the viceroyalty, America’s fountain of silver” (37). The city was once comprised of silver in abundance as the precious metal was so plentiful that the population used it for many parts of the construction of the city. When Spain learned of Potosí’s silver supply, Spanish colonizers quickly conquered the city. It then became a cosmopolitan city with a vastly expanding population with silver as its main export.

Section 5 Summary: “Spain Owned the Cow, Others Drank the Milk”

While Spanish colonization dominated much of Latin America, it ultimately could not sustain territorial control of its colonies for several reasons. For Galeano, the reason for this was that “The Spaniards owned the cow, but others drank the milk” (40). Spanish supply of gold and silver from Latin America went to other European creditors and bankers and to sending non-Spanish cargo to Latin America.

Spanish control also suffered from its imperative to wield Catholicism to rid the country of Jewish and Arab artists whose contributions would have fostered industrial development. Instead, Spain invested their silver in “unproductive channels” (41) such as building palaces and other expensive landmarks, as well as the assignment of land and titles to the wealthy and the noble class.

Additionally, the management of colonies at a distance became too unwieldy. To appease the wealthy Spanish landowners in Latin America, Spain devoted more energy shipping goods to Latin America instead of investing its stolen gold and silver into developing its home economy. With little investment in local production, the Spanish domestic economy floundered. By 1700, the country went into bankruptcy.

Section 6 Summary: “The Distribution of Functions Between Horseman and Horse”

The discovery of gold and silver in Latin America inaugurated a new age of commercial capitalism for Europe. Europe knew that it needed to continue to acquire more of Latin America’s natural resources “to simulate the movement of capitalism in the hour of birth” (45). The desire for gold and silver was not only about acquiring more monetary wealth but the idea of possessing power over a new part of the world. For Europe, “each product, loaded in the holds of galleons plowing the ocean, became a vocation and a destiny” (45).

Economist Paul Baran characterizes Spain’s relationship to its Latin American colonies in the growing capitalist market as one between a “horseman and a horse” (45). The system of relations appears feudalist at first given that Spanish merchants facilitated much of the trade between the colonies and Spain. However, the merchants had no interest in developing the colonies internally. The system is ultimately capitalist as merchants turned increasingly to slave labor to mine the precious metals. Europe received the surplus of goods, which then went to the Church and the Crown. The merchants received luxury goods in turn.

Section 7 Summary: “The Silver Cycle: The Ruin of Potosí”

In Potosí, there was a famous hill named Cerro Ricco which contained an abundance of precious metals. When European colonizers discovered that this hill was rich in silver, they rushed to mine it. However, the silver had become so depleted that it became an “open wound of the colonial system in Latin America” (49). Once considered one of the wealthiest cities of Latin America, Potosí’s fate has changed drastically since its depletion of precious metals. Cerro Ricco would continue as a source for other metals like tin, which left behind much debris.

Section 8 Summary: “A Flood of Tears and Blood: And Yet the Pope Said the Indians Had Souls”

The exploitation of Indian labor through enslavement during European colonization reduced the population of Indians in Latin American from 70 million to 3.5 million. Indians performed the dangerous and arduous tasks of mining, which were often hazardous and led to death. According to Galeano, it was Indian “killing labor [that] sustained the kingdom” (55).

In response to the mass deaths of Indians during forced labor, the Spanish Court granted legal protections for Indians. However, the decrees were not for the benefit of Indian lives but motivated by a desire to protect a precious labor source in the colonies. In 1601, Philip III of Spain banned forced mine labor to protect the Indian labor source but also offered the disclaimer that the order could be lifted “in case that measure should reduce production” (55). Years after, Spanish royalty still perpetuated the same system of protection and exploitation of Indian labor.

The Cerro Rico in Potosí was one example of a mining expedition that cost many Indian lives. Domingo de Santo Tomas referred to Cerro Rico as the “mouth of hell” (57) for its many dangers. The Spanish used the mita labor system, which utilized mercury to extract silver from the mines, causing mercury poisoning among mine workers. Furthermore, fumes from silver work caused pastures and crops to fail to grow in the miles surrounding the Cerro Rico, and when inhaled, posed grave danger as well. The Compilation of Laws of the Indies had decrees granting supposed protection of Indian labor in the face of the mines’ dangers but it was known then that the “law was respected but not carried out” (57).

The Spanish turned to religion to moralize their use of Indian labor, claiming that Indians were “beasts of burden” (57) who needed to perform this arduous work as punishment for their sinful ways. To add to injury, the encomienda system also required each Indian laborer to pay tribute to their Spanish encomendero, or owner.

Section 9 Summary: “The Militant Memory of Tupac Amaru”

European colonization brought into effect the dismantling of the Aztec, Incan, and Mayan civilizations, particularly all the innovations that each civilization had to offer. These innovations included irrigation systems, astronomy, religious monuments, and more. Colonization also destroyed many crops native to the land such as kidney and white beans, corn, yucca, sweet potatoes, and peanuts.

Brazilian anthropologist Darcy Ribeiro describes Indians as the “fuel of the colonial productive system” (61) because they provided valuable labor that helped facilitate the early days of exports from Latin America. Yet this exploitation didn’t go without resistance. The first Indian resistance took place in 1781 when a mestizo Indian chief descended from the Incas named Tupac Amaru led an uprising in Cuzco. He sent Corregidor Antonio Juan de Arriaga to the gallows and decreed that Indians were free. Betrayed by another Indian chief and captured, Tupac and his chiefs and family were all tortured in the most brutal fashion. There were other Indians and Mexicans who led rebellions too. These leaders were Juan Velasco Alvarado, Miguel Hidalgo, and Jose Maria Morelos.

Section 10 Summary: “For the Indians, No Resurrection at the End of Holy Week”

The labor of working in the mines to extract precious metals was dangerous work that affected the livelihoods of Indians in Latin America. In Cuzco, Indians relied on chewing coca, which was a numbing agent that enabled them to keep working under stressful conditions. This led to the formation of a large coca trafficking circuit to meet demand as Indian labor was on the rise, the transport of which made the Spanish even richer.

According to Galeano, European greed and desire for the resources found abundant in Latin America motivated the treatment of Indians. He states bitterly, “The Indians have suffered, and continue to suffer, the curse of their own wealth; that is the drama of all Latin America” (65). Due to excessive mining, the lives of Indians as well as the land they inhabited continued to suffer. In Brazil, there were once 230 Indian tribes. Ninety tribes had disappeared, having endured the violence of firearms and environmental exploitation. European presence also brought Catholicism into Latin America, yet the performance of Catholic rites was not about assimilation but about demonstrating the suffering of Indians under European colonization. In Guatemala, the annual performance of Jesus Christ at the Cross had become a way of enacting the grief of Indian exploitation. Indians were able to integrate some aspects of Mayan-Quiche religion into Catholicism to preserve their culture and history.

Section 11 Summary: “Ouro Prêto the Potosí of Gold”

In Brazil during the early days of Spanish colonization, “gold fever” (68) brought many bandeirantes, bands of Portuguese slave or gold hunters, to the Amazon. The expansive forest held many possibilities for gold and other metals. At first, the bandeirantes could not find any precious metals, but the fate of Brazil changed drastically with the discovery of these metals.

The bandeirantes found gold in the Minas Gerais region, which contained twice as much of the precious metal as found in Spain in the past two centuries. They named Minas Gerais “Vila Rica de Ouro Prêto,” or “The Rich Town of Black Gold,” as the presence of silver in the humid air tended to turn gold into a black color. Bandeirantes who arrived at the mining sites set up camps nearby, and eventually these camps turned into cities. Within these mining sites, there was an explosion of vices that included prostitution, corruption of religious officials, and the funding of ostentatious churches that lined their interiors with gold mined from Minas Gerais.

Additionally, black slaves from Africa arrived to sustain this rampant mining along with the existing Indian labor force. The slaves, referred to as the “coins of the Indies” (71), were measured, weighed, and exchanged as currency and merchandise. Due to the difficulty of mining labor, many slaves expired and passed away in just a few short years of work.

The focus on gold mining had other detrimental consequences for the region. In addition to exploitation of Indian and black labor, gold mining also led to the abandonment of agricultural development in Minas Gerais. The wealthy people of the region had plenty in gold but could no longer grow enough crops to feed themselves. The wealth disparity of the region grew under these conditions.

Section 12 Summary: “What Brazilian Gold Contributed to Progress in England”

In 1703, the signing of the Methuen Treaty between England and Portugal offered British merchants many privileges, which included access to Portuguese colonies. This enabled England to benefit from the mining of precious metals in Brazil, growing rich from taxes imposed on Portugal. Eventually, the English would take over Portugal’s trade as they sold “black meat” (74) or black slaves to Portuguese merchants looking to make their fortune in Brazilian mining ventures. The English would soon take control of manufacturing in Portugal as well. Meanwhile, those who worked in Brazilian mines did not see any of those profits or benefits. They were “condemned to poverty so that foreigners might progress” (74).

While miners eventually mined Minas Gerais of all its gold, the exploitation of the region continues into present-day. In the 1960s, the joint venture of Hanna Mining Company and Bethlehem Steel would exploit the region’s iron deposits, repeating the history of exhausting the region’s natural resources.