Weft of meanings and significances during the mining nationalizations of Huanuni and Colquiri in Bolivia

Abstract

After half a century, in Bolivia, there was the nationalization of two mining companies (Huanuni, 2006 and Colquiri, 2012), both preceded by strong conflicts between mining actors (salaried and cooperative) and with the State. In the present article I analyze the different ways of experiencing these processes among the salaried workers of the Huanuni and Colquiri mines, to illuminate the web of meanings and significances in which the world economy, the collective memory and the particular political contexts participate. In this way, it is possible to account for the construction of a dynamic field of dispute around mining policies, as part of the reconfiguration of the Bolivian State. This research was carried out with an ethnographic approach, through extensive fieldwork in the mining localities.