THE MOUNTAIN OF FIRE

A metaphor of social change in an Andean community.

1

By Jorge Arboleda

INTRODUCTION

On September 17, 1990, the inhabitants of the town of Purace (in the Southwest of
Colombia) were surprised by a new fire in the sulfur mine "El Vinagre", located on the
slopes of the Purace volcano. This fire was the sixth in the last ten years. The fire caused
major problems in the economic life of the Puracenos because most of them worked at
the mine.

The fire burned for 66 days. It destroyed most of the mine and expelled sulfuric gases
around the area. It burned the vegetation and many of the cattle, birds and rodents died.
Many of the Puracenos required medical attention for respiratory ailments and treatment
was given at the local health centers or the hospital in Popayan (the capital city of the
State of Cauca). The mining company lost approximately $200,000 US dollars.

On September 17, Industrias Purace S.A., the mining company, called an emergency
meeting to plan the best way to help the people and to avoid any further damages, and
panic. They had many ideas in regards to this accident. The most important decisions
were to install temporary health centers, to print brochures about disaster prevention, and
to distribute anti-gas masks, etc.

I participated in the meeting, and afterwards, the president of the company asked my
opinion on how to avoid panic in the region. Based on my experience with the Puracenos
and my knowledge of their traditions and rituals I answered: "When the volcano is
angered it is necessary to bring San Miguel, the local religious patron, in procession." My
proposal was to hold the annual San Miguel's procession before the traditional date of
September 27th. My suggestion was based on the Puraceno's beliefs that "San Miguel
could calm the volcano's anger because he was the only one capable of that, in past fires."

My comments were received very skeptically at the meeting. It was impossible for
Industrias Purace management to think that San Miguel's procession calm down the fire's
anger.

On September 19, while the non-Indian employees were working on this plan, the local
Workers Union had a meeting with the company's president and directors. To the
management's surprise the Union's directors demanded an earlier San Miguel's procession

Prepared for the Latin American Studies Program, Brown Bag Lunch Series. University
of Washington. Seattle, WA. December 6, 1995.
as a measure to calm down the fire. The board of directors accepted the union's demand.
On September 20th the procession was held and stretched for 15 miles long, from the
town of Purace to the mine.

1. PURACE.

The town of Purace sits in the southwest part of Colombia, in the State of Cauca, on top
of the Cordillera Central (Central Mountain Chain). Most of its population is
indigenous; approximately 19,000 inhabitants.

Most of its territory is formed by mountains with soft slopes, deep canyons, and plateaus.
The topography is comprised of soft, deep and fertile soils formed by a volcanic cover.
The varied topography includes the Sierra de Los Coconucos, the Pan de Azucar volcano,
the Purace volcano (the sixth highest mountain in Colombia with 4.700 meters over the
sea level) and the Sotara volcano. There are many rivers and creeks such as the Cauca
river (the second largest river in Colombia), Molino, Anambio, etc., whose origins are on
the top of the mountains.

The forests disappeared during the Colonial and Republican period when the
development of cattle and agricultural farms took place. The vegetation is characteristic
of the transitional land between the mist forest and the "paramo" (the thermic floor
between 2.400 and 3.000 meters over the sea level).

Agriculture was the principal cause of the modifications in the landscape (Drennan,
1985:114). This region shows evidence of extensive ancient agriculture, possibly since
pre-Columbian times. This evidence can be observed on the many threshing floors which
exist there. The floors are separated by flutings which are potential proof of a possible
high population during the pre-Columbian era when the main economic activity was
agriculture.

During the Colonial and the Republican periods, and during the first half of the present
century, the Puracenos' economy was based on cattle and agriculture until the founding of
the sulfur mine in 1942.

Actually, the Puracenos are now Spanish-speakers, but they were Purace-Coconuco-
speakers until the first half of this century. Information relating to this is found in most of
the Cauca's chronicles written during the XIX century (e.g. Humbolt, Hamilton, Mollien,
Mosquera, Vergara, etc.), and in some from this century (e.g.: Lehmann, Rowe, Otero,
etc.).

At the present time the Puraceno's housing is based in the traditional Hispanic
architecture, but before the 60s and 70s it was possible to find their own architectural
designs. There are several descriptions about it in ancient and modern publications.
Sometimes it is possible to find old Puracenos houses close to the town. These houses are
built on stone foundations which were made over ditches. The walls are made of adobe.
A wood structure supports the straw roof. Generally, these houses consist only of one
rectangular room. The kitchen is a separate building connected to the house. The floor is
merely of soil.

Old medicine practices still persist in the Purace community. They are based in the use of
plants for the treatment of diseases. The medicine men, called "Macucos" are present
today in Purace. In 1990 there were 17 medicine men. Each medicine man teaches a
traditional school of medicine to young people. Some rituals are present today in the
medicine man education process, e.g. the initiation ritual of future "good" medicine men
take place in a little lagoon close to San Rafael lagoon. There, the students take a bath and
drink aguardiente (a local liquor) with coca, and other plants; then they go to a cave in
"Cerro Negro" mountain or in "Cushma" mountain, where they spend the night praying.
To be a medicine man the young man needs to have a supernatural sign indicating that he
"has a strong spirit", and "eyes to see" the supernatural world. Generally, this sign is a
dream or a vision during sleep.

The cultural spaces in the Puracenos life are governed by an Andean basic rule: the
relation between "Hot" and "Cold."

Their human behavior and their social relations are divided between hot and cold; there
are people whose "blood" is hot or cold. The best for the Puracenos is to be in the middle;
it avoids passion, violence, and non-desirable behaviors.

In their material culture a good example is the house; it is built with materials that have
hot-cold properties: the foundations are made in stone, a cold material; the walls and the
roof are made in adobe and straw, both hot materials.

In their economy the main source of commerce is sulfur. It comes from the coldest place
in Purace: outside the volcano, but it also comes from the hottest place there: inside the
volcano.

In their spiritual culture the world is governed by creatures from both environments, hot
and cold. The devil, the main spiritual creature, is the hottest. He lives inside the volcano
where he has his "balcony home." "The Widow" or "the Mountaineer Hunter" are
spiritual forms whose domains are in the coldest places and times: the paramo and the
night.

Their medicine practices (a part of their spiritual life) are governed by hot-cold relation
too. To treat cold diseases is necessary to use hot plants. To treat hot diseases is necessary
to use cold plants. E.g. the "susto" ("scare") or the "mal Viento" ("bad-wind"), a cold
disease, is necessary to treat with "yacuma", a hot plant available in the Paramo, the
coldest place. High fever is treated with cold plants as "colecaballo" or "coca", etc.
Today the region and its population is influenced by the mining exploitation of sulfur.
The mine is located in the slopes of the active Purace volcano, a mountain that has
spiritual importance in the live of its community.

The sulfur mine was founded as a result of the regulations that the Second World War
imposed on the transportation of war materials. At this time the sulfur was considered a
war material. The mine became the main economic activity of the region, replacing
agriculture and cattle. It had a major impact on the Puracenos life, in their economy, their
religious life, and their culture.

The main object of this research is to know the Puraceno's emic view of the cultural
impact that the mine caused in their lives. Also, this work attempts to understand how the
Puracenos have integrated the presence of the mine in their economy, their material
culture, their social life, and their spiritual culture.

The theoretic point of view belongs to cognitive anthropology. It tries to establish the
Puraceno's general thoughts about the mine, and to establish the social behavior generated
from such thoughts.

The method was the participant observation. It refers to the search for specific terms and
experiences related to the mine.

The ethnographic time was 1990.

2. THE WORLD BEFORE THE MINE.

The next topics address the Puraceno's tales about events, experiences and specific terms
related to the mine. They also show the Puraceno's worldview and their relationship with
the mine, and its impact on that worldview.

This first section shows tales and stories about the time before the mine was founded.

THE CREATION.

"God created a flat world where he left plants, animals and soil. It was a world designed
so humans could live there."

"Thousands of years after the Creation, volcanoes like the Purace were formed. There
were many volcanic eruptions which destroyed the flat world created by God. Volcanic
eruptions produced big holes where water appeared. The water accumulated and flowed
down to other holes creating canyons, valleys, mountains, and all the world that we have
today. The constant flow of the Vinagre river destroys the earth with its dirty water."
THE PURACE VOLCANO.

"The Purace volcano is the devil's house, his "balcony house." It's the "true hell", the
reason why Purace means "Mountain of Fire." The volcano is where the devil keeps his
wealth; and he must protect it always. He is the owner of everything in the world, he rules
in all places. Now, his wealth is the sulfur that he takes from the mine; in the past his
wealth was the ice that people sold in Popayan. Today the ice does not exist because
people can walk to the top of the volcano."

THE PARAMO.

"The paramo is angered when people visits it. In the past it was covered with a lot of
snow and gray clouds that formed a "Black Shadow". The "Black Shadow" is the storm
announcement, and it is named "The Female Black Phantom", the "mother" of the
storms, thunders, and rains. The Female Black Phantom can look like a black dog or a
black cat."

"The paramo is the home of many animals including the blackeye bear (tremactus
ovucitos), the deer (mazama rufina), the tapir (tapirus pinchanque), the "guagua"
(cuniculus fuscater), the vulture (vultur griphus), the wild turkeys (chamaepetes goudotti),
the "paletones" (aulachoryncus prasinus), the trout (salmo guarnierii), etc."

"There are many plants such as the wild pineapple -pinuela- (puya-cuathecasana), the
bear's food; the "chupaya" (bresia sp.), the "guagua's", and deer's food; and many others
that serve as bird's food."

"Also, there are many "chupaderos" or salt veins, where the tapirs and the deer lick salt."

"Many years after the paramo was isolated, people could bring cattle there. Raising cattle
in the paramo was difficult because the bear was its predator, however, people learned to
burn sulfur which repels the bears. The sulfur was placed on the outside of the pastures
whenever they gave salt to the cattle."

"People brought bulls to the paramo, but not females because when the calves were born
they often become lost in the range, and for this reason they kept their cows close to their
home".

"There are many medicinal hot plants in the paramo such as: "arnica" (oenanthe
stolonifera), "cola de caballo" (echicetum sp.), "frailejon" (espeletia hargewejiana), and
many others."

"Some of the most important places in the paramo are:

San Rafael lagoon which is the origin of the La Plata river. This is a good place to visit,
but it is difficult to get there because the lagoon becomes angry when people walks close
by. If the lagoon knows that people or medicine men need to visit, it becomes easier to
reach. When the lagoon is angered it is necessary to put salt inside its waters, and to
pray."

"The Vinagre river comes from the paramo also. It forms three falls near the town of
Purace: the Vinagre Falls is where "the Mountaineer Hunter Ghost" sometimes appears.
During Holyweek at the San Antonio Falls, San Antonio appears embracing a child. At
the Nuns Falls during Holyweek, three nuns appear over the mountain in back of the fall."

THE MINE SITE.

"Long time ago an astronomer (probably Alexander Von Humboldt) spent a night on this
site. He told our ancestors that in a future day the volcano could erupt and its lava could
reach the city of Popayan. It would destroy the city, and would transform it into a lake."

"In ancient times this site was a forest, where many animals lived. When people started to
climb the volcano, they constructed the "Chuquion" trail. They went to the volcano and to
the mine site to hunt animals such as tapirs, deer, armadillos (dasypus novecintus), and
birds. Also they brought ice packed in straw, to sell in Popayan. Later a big pasture was
made for cattle. More than 500 bulls and calves were breed there. The cattle was
community property. Many times cattle disappeared, but not due to wild animals or theft
by robbers, but because the volcano ate them. When cattle walked around the crater, the
volcano expelled a strange vapor that caused the cows to hallucinate and the volcano
then ate them."

"While people gave medicine or salt to the cattle, other members of the same family
bathed in the Vinagre river, or ate on its shore. At that time the Vinagre river water was
clearer and hotter than it is now."

"When people returned to their homes, they brought with them fine wood to make tools
and houses."

"The mine was on a flat site close to a sheer rock wall approximately 80 meters high.
Over the past 50 years the volcano erupted and destroyed the flat site, exposing the mine,
and forming the current site which is no longer flat."
 3. THE BEGINNINGS.

"Cornelio Pisso (according to my informant) discovered the mine. He died in poverty, but
he was the one who brought the first sample of sulfur to Manuel Mosquera. Manuel took
the sulfur to the city of Cali for examination. When he found out that the sulfur was of
excellent quality, he decided to look for the mine."

"Near the San Juan thermals Manuel smelled sulfur. He walked for a long time, following
the smell, until he discovered the first sulfur deposits in these thermals. The sulfur was
brought to Purace, where Manuel put it in an oven and discovered the high quality of the
sulfur."

"Manuel and five men explored the area. They started at San Juan thermals, continued to
"Paramo Chiquito", until they got to the "Alfombrado". Manuel carefully examined all
the sulfur deposits, but he didn't find the sulfur quality that he needed. At the end of the
journey, he was tired and without hope. He became separated from the group and walked
around the volcano slopes looking for flowers and animals."

"As Manuel was walking in the "Alfombrado" a strange man approached him. The man
told Manuel that he would show him where the sulfur was, so that Manuel could open a
sulfur mine, if Manuel would repay him with the souls of future laborers. Manuel didn't
believe him because he had already searched without any luck. However, Manuel
accepted the man's proposal because he had not explored the other side of the volcano for
fear of wild animals."

"The man asked Manuel to point his rifle at the wall of rocks. Manuel shot the rifle and
where bullets hit the rocks, sulfur immediately flowed. Then, the man told Manuel that
this was the exact place to build the mine. This is the actual mine site today."

"The man who appeared to Manuel was the devil. To start the mine activities Manuel had
to sign a pact with the devil."

"To open the mine the workers started to excavate the rocks until they discovered fire
and sulfur. From those location Manuel took the first amount of sulfur for industrial use."

"That sulfur was "cooked" in "pots" for the first time at Carlos Orozco's home. They used
wood fired ovens. Later Manuel installed a "glass-oven" at Rosa Roja's home in
"Chichiguara". Later they transported the "glass oven" to the "Compartidero." The sulfur
was carried on their backs, and later by mules."

"Many people worked at the oven. Some people crashed the sulfur rocks, others shopped
firewood, and some carried the sulfur on their backs. Men, women, and children worked
there."
"Due to the difficulty of transporting the sulfur on their backs, Manuel built a road to the
mine and moved the ovens there."

4. LIFE DURING THE MINE ERA.

The information on this section is divided in the following cultural spaces: social life,
economy, material culture, and spiritual culture.

SOCIAL LIFE.

"The people who lived in the towns migrated to the city, and the people from the
countryside moved to the towns. The mine changed our way of life. People learned
mining and how to operate the machines. For that reason many Puracenos became truck
and bus drivers. Only after the mine was operating were schools opened in Purace and in
the surrounding countryside. Teachers came from the city and students came from the
rural areas."

"The poor people who worked at the mine spent their newfound wealth on alcohol and
felt important for the first time. Many became alcoholics."

"Girls from Purace married men from other cities and towns who came to work at the
mine".

"In 1977 the miners went on strike. The town was deserted, and became a virtual ghost-
town. At that time only women lived in Purace, because the men had to go out to work in
the city. The men also went to work in farms, driving trucks, or buses. This was a time of
hunger in Purace"
ECONOMY.

"The mine brought a new way of life: people forgot agriculture and many plants and
agricultural products disappeared. The soil changed, and new agricultural diseases
appeared. Their transportation changed because the mine brought cars. All the life
changed."

"At the beginning the mine was a source of progress because people did not have to work
in agriculture to earn a living and they had a paycheck every month. However, when the
town grew, and many people were unemployed, some of them tried to go back to farming
but they had lost their knowledge of farming. The land had also changed, the soil was
bad, and the pastures were burned by sulfur. Some foods that were produced at the Purace
farms before the mine, are impossible to produce now."

"The market disappeared because people preferred to buy foods and goods at the city
market. People forgot their past life."
 MATERIAL CULTURE.

"Long time ago Purace was a poor town with straw-houses. After the mine era: the straw-
houses disappeared and also the old trails. People purchased building materials at the city,
and the houses were built using brick and cement. Old trails were replaced by new roads
built by the mine company."

SPIRITUAL CULTURE.

Most of the Puraceno's tales about the mine refer to supernatural beliefs. The mine is
often linked to the metaphysical world more than the material world. The mine is linked
to many supernatural beings such as the devil, Manuel Mosquera, San Miguel Arcangel,
the Widow, The Ghost Car, The Colored Mule, The Mountaineer Hunter, etc. The next
section will discuss three of the above beings.

THE DEVIL.

"He is the most powerful of all spirits. Sometimes he is a good spirit and sometimes he is
bad. When he is bad, he punishes the people. When he is good he gives goods to those
who make a pact with him. He is a demon or "coco", and he is so powerful that he can
kill anyone he wishes to kill."

"The devil lives inside the volcano which is his "balcony house." He is a tall black man
with red eyes. He always walks down the volcano slopes, or in the tunnels of his
property."

"He rented the mine to Manuel. To sign the leasing contract, Manuel met with the devil
for several days in a dark room. That contract was valid only for a few years, and has now
expired. Manuel didn't return the mine to the devil, and for this reason the devil burned
the mine five times. Manuel forgot that the devil rules all places and things."

"When the devil is trying to burn the mine, he comes down on the volcano riding on a
reddish mule. That mule looks like a dragoon because it prenths fire from its nose and
mouth."

"Sometimes the devil predicts someone's death. Then, he comes from the volcano in the
form of a "guando." After six p.m. The "guando" is the devil turned into many devils.
They walk in procession on the trails carrying the body of the person who will die. The
"guando" always carry the body over their shoulders and in one hand they hold blue lit
candles. Sometimes they ask people to help them to carry the body. The procession
finishes at sunrise and many people are shocked that they have carried a body all night
without their knowledge. To predict the death, the devil can appear anywhere in the mine,
accompanied by the mine's engineer."
"The devil has a car, "the phantom car", and it is a noisy car with a multitude of lights and
a black cape. The devil and Manuel use this car to go to the city to take the money from
the mine to the Governor's Office. They leave at 10 p.m. and return at 12 p.m."

"The devil has many black dogs guarding the mine during the night. They are bad dogs
with fire in their red eyes and flames coming out of their mouths."

MANUEL MOSQUERA.

"He was a strong worker. He did not have to eat much in order to work hard at the mine.
He was a poor man and he had many debts when he started working in the mine. To be
able to pay off his debts, and to develop his mine projects, Manuel sold his soul and his
employee's souls to the devil."

SAN MIGUEL ARCANGEL.

"He is a tall white man who lives in the hay fields at the paramo. He looks so respectable
and beautiful that if a Puracenan girl is pretty, people will call her "San Miguel."

"San Miguel is the saint patron of Purace. His holiday is on September 27. If people don't
celebrate his holiday San Miguel burns the mine and causes earthquakes. When San
Miguel is angry all bad things happen and then it is necessary to hold the San Miguel's
procession".

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