The Gold We Inherited, the Gold of Our Dreams

The most important gold discovery in pre-Incan Peru was found in Huaca Rajada, a Moche archaeological site in northern Peru. 27 February 2019.

Gold has fascinated humankind for millennia. Ancient civilizations across the world saw the powerful sun in its yellow glow and sought immortality in its lasting shine. Pre-Columbian Peruvian societies used gold, symbolizing divine authority, in sacred ceremonies as early as 2000 BC. In the 16th century, Spanish conquerors took tons of gold from Incan temples to Europe, introducing it as a currency. Today, Peru remains one of the biggest suppliers of gold. Global gold demand from financial traders, technology companies, and the jewelry industry support both legal and illegal miners in the country. Hundreds of thousands of Peruvians now make their living through gold mining, providing export earnings for the state, but also fueling environmental destruction.

This project is an exploration of the allure of gold over the centuries in Peru. As the Italian historian Antonello Gerbi once noted, long before man ever set foot on South America, the future of Peru was written in the ore embedded in its earth. Gold continues to fuel our dreams, shaping events, and reflecting our values and desire.

I originally envisioned bright photographs for this project, to mimic the sun-like quality of gold. But I ended up being drawn to the darkness surrounding gold’s glow, that hints at the mystery, greed, and violence associated with it over time. That, too, is part of Peru’s gold legacy. The glimpse of flickering light in the darkness, the promise of wealth for anyone willing to grasp at it.

Left: A replica of the Lord of Sipan, a Moche ruler whose mummy was found in a tomb full of golden treasures at Huaca Rajada archaeological site in Peru. Lambayeque, Peru. 27 February 2019. Right: John Tigre, an artisan jeweller, heats gold to 400 degrees Celsius to make it malleable in the city of Chiclayo, Peru, on 10 April 2019. Tigre comes from a family of artisanal jewellers.

Left: John Tigre rinses sulfuric acid off gold pieces in his artisan jewellery workshop in Chiclayo, Peru, on 10 April 2019. This technique gives the gold the greatest shine possible. Right: John Tigre makes on average 2 rings and 8 wedding rings. Chiclayo, Peru, 10 April 2019.

A traditional gold-encrusted rope known as ‘Qorilazo’ (from the Quechua word ‘qori,’ for gold, and the Spanish word ‘lazo,’ for rope) adorns the hat of Rodrigo Quispe, a resident of Chilloroya, a small village in southern Peru. 30 March 2019.

Left: Victor (33), a local actor dressed as the Lord of Sipan, wears a golden nose piece in Chiclayo, Peru, on 8 March 2019. Right: The Lord of Sipan’s ceremonial staff, made of gold and silver. The staff symbolized authority and power in ancient Peru. Museum of the Royal Tombs of Sipan, Lambayeque, Peru, 5 March 2019.

Left: A replica of a lord of the ancient Sican culture in the traditional burial place for elites at the Sican National Museum, Ferreñafe, Peru, 10 April 2019. Right: Workers from the Museum of the Royal Tombs of Sipan in Lambayeque, Peru, unpack gold replicas of treasures found in the tombs of elite rulers of the Moche culture.

An artisan miner separates bits of gold from the soil by washing them in a Batea pan with water in Ollachea, Peru, on 20 February 2019. She has been a miner since she was a child and was able to raise his three children thanks to this work.

Left: Communities in Peru’s southern Andes believe that Huilla Apacheta Lake holds gold in its depths, They don’t try to retrieve it as the lake is considered a sacred place. Peru, 29 March 2019. Right: The forest of Pomac in northern Peru once held large deposits of gold that the pre-Incan Lambayeque people mined to make jewellery and artwork. Pomac Forest Historical Sanctuary, Peru, 9 April 2019.

Women known as ‘pallaqueras,’ which roughly translates as ‘gold-pickers,’ look for traces of gold in rocks discarded from an underground tunnel in Ollachea, Peru, on 20 February 2019.

Left: Mud with gold in it is pulled aboveground from a tunnel in the artisanal gold-mining town of Ollachea in southern Peru on 21 February 2019. Right: Gold miners enter an underground tunnel in Ollachea, Peru, on 20 February 2019.

Authorities blow up mining equipment in the Amazonian region Madre de Dios in southeastern Peru, where illegal gold miners have destroyed large tracts of rainforest. 15 December 2015.

Marco Garro is a Peruvian documentary photographer focusing on social and environmental issues in his native country. His project The Gold We Inherited, the Gold of Our Dreams, produced with the support of the Musée de Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, has been awarded the Ph Museum 2020 Photography Grant. The project was selected for a special feature on Witness as part of the prize.