Description
Book SynopsisIn Santa Bárbara’s Legacy: An Environmental History of Huancavelica, Peru, Nicholas A. Robins presents the first comprehensive environmental history of a mercury producing region in Latin America. Tracing the origins, rise and decline of the regional population and economy from pre-history to the present, Robins explores how people’s multifaceted, intimate and often toxic relationship with their environment has resulted in Huancavelica being among the most mercury-contaminated urban areas on earth. The narrative highlights issues of environmental justice and the toxic burdens that contemporary residents confront, especially many of those who live in adobe homes and are exposed to mercury, as well as lead and arsenic, on a daily basis. The work incorporates archival and printed primary sources as well as scientific research led by the author.
Trade Review"Based on a wide range of primary documents, this very accessible and well-researched book on the historical evolution of mercury mining in Peru from the pre-Columbian era to the present explores the characteristics of production and its environmental consequences. [...] Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries" - A. Vergara, California State University, Los Angeles, in: Choice, February 2018
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements ix Glossary xi Introduction 1 1. Huaca-villca: From Geological Formation to Spanish Conquest 21 2. The Pachacuti: Colonization, Catastrophe and the Rise of Mercury 36 3. “A Horrible Business”: The Mita 73 4. The Bourbon Era: Reform and Resentment 96 5. “They All Come to Die”: Mining, Mishaps and Mercurialism 108 6. Desuetude, Decay and Neglect: The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 141 Epilogue 155 Bibliography 165 Appendix 199 Table 1 Total mercury (Hg) in soil in mg/kg remedial investigation Huancavelica, Peru 199 Table 2 Total mercury in Earthen homes (dust, walls, floors, and vapor) remedial investigation Huancavelica, Peru 201 Table 3 Mercury, Arsenic and Lead in Huancavelica and area rock samples 2015 pilot study Huancavelica, Peru 2015 pilot study Huancavelica, Peru 204 Table 4 Food stock, water, and sediment sample results 2016 pilot study Huancavelica, Peru 206 Table 5 Residential vapor results 2015 pilot study Huancavelica, Peru 208 Table 6 Soil sample results using X-ray florescence 2016 field event Huancavelica, Peru 209 Table 7 Total mercury in fish tissue 2016 field event Huancavelica, Peru 212 Table 8 Residential sample results using X-ray fluorescence 2016 field event Huancavelica. Peru 213 Index 215
