Culture Shock! Bolivia - A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette

Enjoying Bolivia 181

Not So Cold

“The cold in Potosí is overrated,” says Jaime, a former zinc miner

and now attorney. “ Potosí is mild compared to what you are dealt in

the winter in the United States.”

Today, many Potosínos work their own mining collectives,
extracting zinc and gold under precarious conditions. Largely
a Quechua city, a significant Creole population has an
understanding of the Quechua language but is separated by
class and cultural barriers.
Potosí’s depressing history contradicts the beauty of
its colonial architecture, highlighted by the Casa Real de
la Moneda (Royal Mint), whose only imperfection is the
incongruous French mask of Bacchus hanging over an
archway. People who hate museums will be thrilled by Casa
Real de la Moneda. The old wooden minting machines
and the circular ruts in the stone fl oor made by burros and
humans used as beasts of burden who propelled them are
a central attraction in a structure of various stone mosaic
patios and colonial balconies.
An array of primitive coins will make coin collectors
levitate in ecstasy. The museum’s colonial art, highlighting the
work of Holguín, contains a treasure of anonymous mestizo
paintings. Painted by indigenous artists, these works sneak
Andean motifs into the mould of the Spanish baroque style
of the times.