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Social Science Caribbean & Latin American Studies

The Three Deaths of Cerro de San Pedro

Four Centuries of Extractivism in a Small Mexican Mining Town

by (author) Daviken Studnicki-Gizbert

Publisher
The University of North Carolina Press
Initial publish date
Dec 2022
Category
Caribbean & Latin American Studies, Environmental Science, World, Mexico
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781469671093
    Publish Date
    Dec 2022
    List Price
    $133.95
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781469671109
    Publish Date
    Dec 2022
    List Price
    $47.95

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Description

This is a history of precious-metals extractivism as lived in Cerro de San Pedro, a small gold- and silver-mining district in Mexico. Chronicling Cerro de San Pedro's operations from the time of the Spanish conquest to the present, Daviken Studnicki-Gizbert transcends standard narratives of boom and bust to envision a multicentury series of mining cycles, first operated under Spanish rule, then by North American industry, and today in the post-NAFTA world of transnational capitalism. The depletion of a mine did not mark the end of its life, it turns out.

Evolving technology accelerated the flow of matter and energy moving through the extractive systems of exhausted mines and revived profitability over and over again in Mexico's mining districts. Studnicki-Gizbert demonstrates how this serial reanimation of a non-renewable resource was catalyzed by capital and supported by state policy and ideology and how each new cycle imposed ever more harmful consequences on both laborers and natural ecologies. At the same time, however, miners and their communities pursued a contending vision—a moral ecology—that defended the healthy reproduction of life and land. This book's breathtakingly long view brings important perspective to environmental justice conflicts around extraction in Latin America today.

About the author

Daviken Studnicki-Gizbert is associate professor of history at McGill University and author of A Nation upon the Ocean Sea.

Daviken Studnicki-Gizbert's profile page

Editorial Reviews

As environmental historians, scholars of capitalism, and fellow Latin Americans will note, this book speaks directly of our open veins. . . . Anyone interested in a sweeping (and thrilling) history of extractive capitalism in Latin America should pick up this book without hesitation."–H-Environment