by photographer David Maawad
2001 FiftyCrows PhotoFund Winner

Since 1980 David Maawad has been documenting Mexican mining estates, both functioning and non-functioning, as well chronicling the miners, whose lives are shaped by their labor. The project also focuses on the ecological damage caused by the exploitation of land for minerals.

During the Spanish conquest, the original inhabitants of the territories of Mexico were forcibly introduced to an unfamiliar world and economic market. Acquisition of metals established a hierarchy between the Spanish conquerors and the native populations, such that the they were denied their material goods and forced to abandon much of their spiritual belief systems. These indigenous people were captured and forced to labor in the mines; in some ways, the fact that they were useful prevented their extermination. It also resulted in a mixed race of Spanish and Indian, called the Mestizo.

This project is intended to amplify the experiences of those who suffered from the exploitation of land and workers for material wealth in Mexico. No other economic activity in this century, with the exception of petroleum dredging, has had such a widespread impact on the environment and culture.