El Tío
from: Nash, June.  1979.  We Eat the Mines and the Mines Eat Us.  New York: Columbia University Press.

1877-1953: private mines, foreign capital, tin Barons
1953: nationalization of the mines
1965: military takes over mines

El Tío: literally "Uncle" in Spanish, possibly a corruption of the Spanish díos (god) or diablo (devil); also known in Quechua as Supay or Huari

    the lord of the hills and the mines in them
    interpreted through Christianity as the Devil
    masculine
    must be propitiated with offerings (ch'alla); owner of the mines
miners eat the mines (earn their living from them) and are eaten by them (literally from health problems, but also socially and symbolically)

Pachamama: Mother Earth, the ground, agricultural fecundity; associated with Virgin Mary; feminine; more benevolent

p. 7: "miners cross themselves as they enter the mine and pray to the saint in the chapel at level zero, but once they enter the lift to go down into their work levels, they are in the domain of the Devil, or Tío, the Spanish term for the pre-conquest Supay or Huari. They cannot utter the names of the Christian saints or deities, nor can they bear any Christian symbols such as a cross, and they are even wary of working close to the veins of metal with a pick, which looks like a cross and might cause the Tío to withdraw the riches he has revealed."

Carnival: Friday: offerings to Tío; Tuesday to Pachamama

Tío's ch'alla: smoking cigarettes, chewing coca leaves, sprinkling (and drinking) liquor, and sacrifice of llamas
llama's blood is sprinkled on the mining machinery and its heart is buried beneath coca leaves at Tío's feet.

Tío brought up into the streets; drinking, flirting

August the month of  Supay (sacrifices on July 31)

1877-1953: private mines with gringo supervisors; managers would buy llamas for sacrifice to El Tío
p. 164: "The Tío is an explanation for the inexplicable, a rationale for the irrational destiny which is forced on the miner. Their faith in him enriches a barren existence of unremitting toil. In the colonial period, when he appeared before the workers, he had the face and figure of the enemy of the enemy, the devil, red-faced, horned, and dressed in the royal robes of a medieval underworld denizen. In the period of imperialist exploitation, he appeared as a gringo, wearing a cowboy hat, boots, red-faced and larger than life. When one makes a contract with him, one is assured of riches even at the price of one’s life, but he pays off with a greater certitude than government bureaucrats or officials. Supay transcends the medieval conception of the devil imported by the Spaniards; he is the source of wealth and desired power as well as the agent of evil."

1953: nationalization of the mines
1965: military takes over mines and celebrations to El Tío forbidden; increased dissatisfaction, help labor organization
p. 317: "The cult of the Tío reinforces the solidarity of the work group. In the prenationalization days when the team operated collectively and was paid in proportion to its output, the inner solidarity of the cuadrilla was in opposition to the other work groups. The ch’alla was performed to wheedle more output from the devil, as each group competed with other cuadrillas. After nationalization, the individual worker was paid a basic wage regardless of the mineral produced, and solidarity included not only the entire work force of the mine but all nationalized mines. The ch’alla was more a recreation than a basis for solidarity in the productive work group. However, following the military takeover of the mines in 1965, the ch’alla was repressed along with unions and Worker Control. Workers continued to perform the ritual in secret, and these sessions became a focus for discussing the problems and struggles of the workers . . . The resistance to military repression by men and women of the mining community came from these deep wells of cultural identity that gave them a sense of worth and the will to survive when they recognized the genocidal power of the Barrientos regime."

while mines were private, El Tío ceremonies tolerated, even supported
after mined nationalized in early 1950s, ceremonies beignly negleted
after 1965 militray takeover, officals tried to stop the ceremonies
BUT, El Tío became a symbol of resistance and union organizing.