DOCUMENTARY/ COSTA RICA / 2021 / 8:00 MIN

DIRECTION: Wainer Méndez Solano y Ana Nicté Castillo Delgado

Coligallero is the popular name for an artisanal miner. Miners who in 1913 carried out a revolt due to the harsh conditions and precarious work and extreme treatment by the Goldfields Company of U.S. tycoon Minor Kith. Since the late eighteenth century, they began to mine and extract pre-Columbian pieces and later were granted a mining enclave in the mountains of Abangares to extract gold. Now they recognize the impact caused by large-scale mining and organize in cooperatives. The miners changed the aggressive methods for artisanal methods, mainly known for the use of rudimentary and manual techniques to a more focused impact so it generates very little ecological impact. Today, artisanal miners continue to be illegal and persecuted. Despite their struggle, they and other political forces were able to pass a law that would allow them to receive training and state support to formalize their activity. This law that has not been enforced since 2010, although the cooperatives continue to fight for their legality and recognition

In this short film Juan Morales and his daughter Mercedes bring us closer to the past of a struggle against the extractivism of foreign companies and to a present of daily struggle to find gold for the subsistence of their families. Abangares is a town that got tired of so much misery and poverty of those years ago. They pressured the last company "El Valiente Ascari" and managed to found the first miners' union. The following years were of much struggle to ensure safer tunnels and better conditions for the miners. The company did not want to assume its responsibility and under pressure from the union the company ended up withdrawing from the town, leaving the workers without labor guarantees or any support, taking the last drop of gold and leaving all the families of the town of Abangares adrift. When this happened, Juan Morales along with other coligalleros put into practice the artisanal teachings of their parents and began to organize themselves to extract the little gold that was left with in a more supportive way and with less environmental impact. Today it continues to be the only workplace in the town of Abangares.

How does the project contribute to more supportive, socially and ecologically just ways of life and economies?

The Coligalleros are clear that the impact the companies left on their mountains left environmental damage from unbridled exploitation that they do not want to repeat. At the most crucial moment, when the company turned its back on them and left, it was necessary not only a change of power but of cooperation and conservation of the metallurgical resources they still had. The years of injustice are now remembered in an ecomuseum located in the village, which recovers the collective memory through objects, photographs and remains of the old companies, living memory of the time of looting and poverty for the people. Respecting the artisanal traditions inherited by the first coligalleros, today the cooperatives have been able to organize themselves to extract the gold and distribute the mining resources in an organized manner, but with less impact on the environment. This way, the create a better distribution of wealth and an artisanal culture that is now considered a contribution to cultural diversity in Costa Rica.