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Maloneras: Guardians of the Andes
Ongoing project supported by the Art Work Projects Emerging Lens Fellowship
Environmental Justice and Climate Change program.
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Aurora Choque (56) is an indigenous activist from Jujuy, a remote province located in the northwest region of Argentina. Jujuy is home to 274 indigenous communities, which have been increasingly affected by challenges related to mega mining activities and political persecution, threatening their land rights and disrupting traditional livelihoods.
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Ongoing project supported by the Art Work Projects Emerging Lens Fellowship
Environmental Justice and Climate Change program.
Aurora Choque (56) is an indigenous activist from Jujuy, a remote province located in the northwest region of Argentina. Jujuy is home to 274 indigenous communities, which have been increasingly affected by challenges related to mega mining activities and political persecution, threatening their land rights and disrupting traditional livelihoods.
"I remember I used to go patapila (barefoot) to school. Maybe that's why I am very strong and don't want to leave my territory. When I saw them drilling back there, it was like they were drilling into me.
It's good that we walk barefoot, without shoes, to be strong, to be with our Mother Earth. To talk with the sun, to talk with the hills. We lack nothing, our Mother Nature provides us with everything.”
Aurora Choque
It's good that we walk barefoot, without shoes, to be strong, to be with our Mother Earth. To talk with the sun, to talk with the hills. We lack nothing, our Mother Nature provides us with everything.”
Aurora Choque
The area surrounding Aurora’s community is crucial for mining companies due to a significant watercourse flowing from the Collamboy hill, which is located 20 kilometers west from where she lives.
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The Collamboy hill is a debris glacier. Its spring waters flow into the Río Grande de Coranzuli river, and these are the waters used by the residents of the area. Aurora told me that years ago, the Collamboy hill was covered in snow. Not anymore.
These types of glaciers play a very important role in providing water for the communities because in this Andean area, it only rains three months a year. The rest of the year, communities live off the water that glaciers slowly release every day.
“Mining is for a few, not for everyone. Where do we go afterwards? They want us to go to the city and leave behind our land, our nature, our culture. That's why we, women, have taken the lead, because we know how to manage our household economy. Mining is for a short time, and then everything will be a desert, the waters will dry, and what will we do?”
In 2018, Aurora's community, Ayu Intillaku Apu Collamboy, denounced the lithium company Sales de Jujuy for using enormous amounts of water from the Collamboy hill reservoir, where it is a scarce resource. Along with other residents around the hill, Aurora formed a commission to defend it. To this date, she is the secretary of the commission Family Water and Sun of the Collamboy hill.
