Case file · Folklore / legend
El Tío of the Oruro tin mines
Anthropologist June Nash's 1979 'We Eat the Mines and the Mines Eat Us', based on fieldwork at San José mine in Oruro, documented the cult of El Tío, the horned lord of the underground.
1979 CE · -17.95, -67.12 · status: account
The account
Miners offer him coca, alcohol and cigarettes during the ch'alla, especially in Carnival and August, in exchange for ore and safety. Michael Taussig (1980) read the cult as a response to wage labour; the figure blends Supay and the Christian devil.