The postcard landscape seems, those who are enamored of showing the monumental series of curves and straights punctuated by thick layers of white, and at first glance they get hit. However, these murals depicting the mountains live not enough to fool anyone, as those cartographers dedicated to Borges, who plotted a map of an empire as big as the empire itself, we sense that reality is even more excessive and exuberant and perfect what can be seen in the vast a movie screen. These moles of mineral and snow, a man dressed in humble clothes work, close your little box of wood with a chain and padlock and goes to work. To unload trucks. That is Esquel and the action takes place in 2002, shortly after the crisis unleashed that kept the country on its knees for a few years longer, and the level of unemployment which is suffocating the city reaches 40% rubbing. Although it is one of the most visited Argentina, some of the residents recognize that tourism is the silver dealt three or four, which employ, it is true, but pay poorly. It is logical that at this stage the arrival of a mining project to extract gold from large scale represents a possibility to hold a hope that does not want to lose and feel Esquel return opportunities. But fairy tales, proven, do not exist. The debut of Paul D'Alo and Cristián Harbaruk Abba, the award-winning documentary come for gold, they come across portrays the collective odyssey undertaken by the community of Esquel from the company's proposal to create Meridian Gold a large open pit mine amid the mountains, to exploit a vein of gold. The project divided the people of Esquel between those who supported the project (promoted by the provincial government) as a needed source of labor, and those who rejected it, knowing the many cons that just digging a little, began to appear. Is that for a mine of this kind is necessary to go (literally) half of a mountain, using large amounts of explosives. One of the engineers in charge of the project explains to a group of neighbors (and cameras) that to obtain 10 grams of gold is necessary to fly one ton of rock. Only 10 grams, which is then separated from the stone using millions of gallons of water and cyanide. The environmental impact of such a combo would not only affect the landscape and species but also, eventually, to the health of the population of Esquel.
The interesting thing coming for the gold, they come across , is the efficiency with which the directors explain in a didactic way that foreign companies benefit from a mining law enacted at the time of Menem. Meanwhile, portray the process of fighting a group of residents who strongly oppose the mine, without forgetting at any moment the arguments worthy of consideration elsewhere. For a family of chronically unemployed, what is the difference between slow starvation or die slowly poisoned? The curious thing is that the group of people who supported the arrival of the mine was a remarkable social diversity, and bringing together people from upper middle class (those who in one way or another would benefit from the venture) and the mass of unemployed or underemployed , where the situation called for an urgent solution.
in the polarity of this group is where it became apparent that fundamental problems in Esquel were others, and that had nothing to do with the tricky timing of the open pit mining. Problems should be resolved and that D'Alo Harbaruk Abba and have managed to express clearly in the narrative weave. As much as ts done to portray the social conflict and the pursuit of a resolution exemplary democratic. Without major disruptions and by a popular referendum, the project was finally rejected by 82% of voters and still enjoys the profile Esquel virgin mountains. Even so, the offices of Meridian Gold never left town. Will it last for the vultures also lost hope?
Article originally published in the Culture section Argentine Time.
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