A statue of El Tío in a mine.
In Potosí, Bolivia, El Tío (The Uncle) is a god/demon worshipped by miners in the Cerro Rico mountain. The miners offer sacrifices in exchange for not being killed by him. He rules over the mountain, and the many deaths that take place within it are said to be caused by his hunger.
Statues[]
The Tío may take several different forms, but he most often appears inside the mines as a clay figure resembling the Christian Devil. Typically, an image of the Tío is to be found seated in each active mineshaft in a niche near the miners' work area.
The figures vary widely in their size, composition and design. Some are elaborately sculpted and decorated and may be as large as a human. Most images are smaller and less gaudy, but still easily identifiable due to the horns that grow from the Tío's head. The icon's eyes may be made of discarded light bulbs from the miners' helmets or pieces of metal ore and his teeth are often formed of shards of glass or crystal. At the center of an icon is a lump of metal corresponding to that sought by the miners.
Different icons may take on slightly different personas and receive distinct names, not unlike different icons of Catholic saints. All images of the Tío embody his greed and insatiability – his mouth is open to accept cigarettes and coca, his hand is outstretched for offerings of alcohol, his erect phallus representing his lust. Surrounding the images are streamers or bits of confetti from past rites and the remnants of the offerings that the miners have made to satiate the Tío's voracious appetite. When an icon goes unattended for some time, the miners say he becomes hungry and the section of the mine in which the icon is located becomes dangerous because the Tío hungers for human lives.
Offerings[]
Two types of offering are made to the Tío: the ch'alla and the k'araku.
The ch'alla is a sort of social visit, during which the miners sit down and share a drink, a smoke and some coca with the Tío. The most notable ch'allas are performed on the Tuesday of Carnival and during the month of August, but miners also make a small ch'alla to the Tío each Tuesday and Friday when they enter the mine to work. The image is draped with streamers and a cigarette is placed in his mouth. Then the miners sprinkle him with liquor, offer him coca leaves and light his cigarette. They sit with the image and share his indulgence, drinking, smoking and chewing coca.
The k'araku is a more ceremonial form of offering, performed by a shaman following the ch'alla to the Tío during Carnival or to placate him after an accident in the mines. The k'araku performed on the first of August, the beginning of a period during which the land opens up to receive offerings in anticipation of the beginning of the agricultural cycle, involves the ritual sacrifice of one or more llamas. The llamas are sacrificed at the entrance of the mine and their blood is collected in a large bowl. This blood is then splashed across the entrance to the mine and splattered on machinery within the mine or on the rock faces of active veins. In many cases, the llama's heart or a dried llama fetus purchased for the occasion is buried at the image's feet. The miners must then leave the mine so that the Tío can enjoy his meal uninterrupted while they feast on llama meat on the surface.
The Tío is not characterized by generosity. He is distinguished by his insatiable appetite. The miners must always think of that appetite and sacrifice llamas so that he will not claim human lives instead. His demands are akin to those that indigenous men faced under the colonial order in which they were forced into the mines under the mita system and held to impossible production quotas. To escape such a fate, members of the lower classes were obliged to seek the favor of a patron, a powerful ally who would intervene on their behalf. Such interventions were obtained through bribes in much the same way that miners petition the favor of the Tío.
As the lord of the hills, the Tío's domain is entirely underground. The surface belongs to the Christian God. Consequently, the Tío never appears in church and it is taboo to make mention of God or the saints inside the mines, lest the Tío lash out. Even the pickaxe, which has the shape of the cross, is avoided as much as possible within the mines.