El Tío (Spanish for “The Uncle”) is the legendary Lord of the Underworld and protector of the mine in the folklore and religion of the mining society of Bolivia
El Tío is the legendary religious figures held in awe in all the mines in Bolivia, a sort of demon and also a guardian spirit of the mines.
There are now hundreds of such statues in the mines of Cerro Rico
Miners leave offerings of tobacco (cigars), liquor (bottles of aguardiente), or coca leaves to this devil
The sacrifice to Supay, called k’araku falls on August, where a camelid (llama or alpaca) is sacrificed.
Every year, the Carnaval de Oruro is held, with the main spectacle of the entrade parade occurring on the Saturday before the final Ash Wednesday, in which costumed people enacting the chief devil Lucifer (El Tío)
The Devil’s Miner is a 2005 documentary film
The film follows a fourteen-year-old Bolivian boy named Basilio Vargas who along with his twelve-year-old brother Bernardino work in the mines near the city of Potosí. The film includes many subtle realities of the miner’s lives such as the need to chew coca leaves to numb the pain of hunger and the long shifts they work regardless of age.
The workers believe this is because “Tio” controls the mine and that Christ has no power in the mine. The workers often give offerings such as coca leaves, alcohol, cigarettes and perform sacrifices, such as slaughtering a llama and applying its blood to the mine entrance to appease a makeshift statue of “Tio”.
You must log in or register to comment.
I always wondered about those offerings. Someone must be getting rid of them. I propose a ritual where the god in question takes possession of my body while they enjoy the liquor and cigarettes.
