A Palpable Past: Histories of Water in the Mining City of Potosí, Bolivia
Bringing together environmental and public history, this project pursues the dual objective of disseminating historical visual and written records on water struggles in colonial Potosí and opening a public space for reflection on the current water crises. In collaboration with local historians and Bolivian archives, Julio Aguilar facilitated the design and implementation of a series of workshops on the history of water in this mining city. The Workshop on the History of Water in Potosí aspired to generate a broader dialogue on how people interpret the past; how they conceive the relationship between nature and society; and what social and cultural meaning they attribute to their contemporary water crisis.
* Julio is a 2020 Mellon Public Scholar who was unable to travel to Bolivia due to Covid restrictions that summer.