Visual Anthropology, 23: 65–67, 2010

Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

ISSN: 0894-9468 print=1545-5920 online
DOI: 10.1080/08949460903369034

Tambogrande: Mangos, Murder, Mining

Tambogrande: Mangos, Murder, Mining. Production and direction,
Ernesto Cabellos and Stephanie Boyd; color DVD, 85 mins.,
2006. Distributed by Icarus Films; www.icarusfilms.com.

As illustrated in the film, mining in a country with deep disparities like Peru
entails more than technical calculations of how to extract minerals, particularly
when minerals are considered a national patrimony. This emotionally charged
activist documentary constitutes a snapshot of contemporary social dramas
associated with the arrival of large mining companies in agricultural places. In
a context of centralized government, increased globalization of capital and
mining expansion, the film shows the potential of international interconnections
for the empowerment of marginalized communities facing such development.
Tambogrande depicts a conflictive episode in the Peruvian Andes over access to
natural resources that led to a nonviolent civil resistance mobilization and the
subsequent cancelation of a multi-million dollar mining project. In the film, local
residents dramatically and strategically fashion their claims into concerns
relevant to the nation’s capital, while appropriating an international discourse
of self-determination.
Tambogrande is the second work from the producer–director partnership of the
Peruvian Ernesto Cabellos and the Canadian Stephanie Boyd, after their debut
with the internationally awarded Choropampa: The Price of Gold. That first film
portrays a mercury spill disaster and protests against Yanacocha, the world’s
most productive gold mine. If Choropampa leaves the audience with the frustra-
tion of a marginalized indigenous village claiming for insufficient compensation,
Tambogrande shows the escalation of local issues into the national imagination
and the potential of strategic narratives to affect global investments. In both
accounts, local populations are portrayed as the main heroes, personified by the
legally harassed young mayor of Choropampa and the murdered Tambogrande
leader, the agronomist Godofredo Garcı́a Baca.
Tambogrande is composed of two parts, separated by the destruction of the
Vancouver-based Manhattan Minerals’ offices in Tambogrande, one month
before the assassination of Garcı́a Baca in 2001. The first segment profiles the epic
development of agricultural production for export (e.g., mangos and limes),
thanks to a government and World Bank irrigation project in the late 1940s that
transformed the desert district of Tambogrande. The second section is devoted to
the Tambogrande Defense Front’s abandonment of formal dialogue with
the mining company and the state, and the Front’s organization of a popular
referendum with 70 percent participation, a higher percentage than in formal
elections and the first of its kind, according to the film. The vote, which registered

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66 Film Reviews

98 percent opposition to mining, was followed by local residents’ boycott of the

public hearings sponsored by Manhattan Minerals and the government. All of
these events culminated in the national authorities’ cancelation of the mining
project.
The mineral deposit (of gold, silver, copper and zinc) at the center of the conflict is
located beneath Tambogrande town. Extraction plans included creating a
three-kilometer open pit and changing the course of a main river after relocating
one third of the town’s population. Manhattan Minerals promised more than three
hundred jobs, new houses for the relocated and community development pro-
grams. ‘‘Farming, Yes! Mining, No!’’ (¡Agro, si!¡Mina, no!) was the mantra at the pro-
test meetings. The conflict evokes a debate about the model for development under
a mining boom, especially in terms of who benefits and who loses in the long term.
The protesters’ principal strategy was to frame the conflict in terms of a battle
for life and livelihood. ‘‘My father . . . gave his life, his youth, to his farm,’’ a
woman stated, to explain her participation in the fight. The conflict symbolism
was enacted through a defense of agricultural products, involving the iconic lime
(limón), an essential ingredient in the emblematic national dish ceviche. ‘‘Without
lime there is no ceviche’’ (Sin limón no hay ceviche) was chanted for the national
campaign. Flyers and marches displayed people costumed as limes so as to
appeal to a broader public.
The film was translated for screenings in Spanish as Tambogrande is Worth More
than Gold (Vale más que oro). The issue of assessing value was locally contested
during the dispute, raising concerns about participatory development versus for-
eign economic rationality as the path for Peru’s national well-being. By publicly
debating the options for development of the region, local residents were also con-
testing processes of participation and democracy. The referendum was portrayed
as a matter of cultural rights and self-determination in an agricultural region that
did not desperately need mining help. One can hear the Minister of Energy and
Mines disagreeing with the referendum by emphasizing that ‘‘democratic pro-
cesses are good but they must have a minimum respect for the law’’—and there-
fore follow a bureaucratic procedure to reject the project. The local residents’
acts questioned the governmental decision-making apparatus, insisting that the
referendum should prevail.
Vividly assembling testimonies from a complex and conflictive process, cover-
ing a period of five years, into a linear narrative, represents a remarkable effort.
According to the filmmakers’ account, people from the international media have
praised the film’s ‘‘strong dramatic structure’’ and the ‘‘simplicity’’ of the mes-
sage through a ‘‘perfectly told story which can be understood by any citizen of
the world’’ (www.guarango.org). There is certainly a skill to bringing a local
drama to the attention of global audiences. The plot is easy to follow along the
lines of an epic rural enactment of the David–Goliath myth. The narrator’s voice
passionately editorializes the material, emphasizing a ‘‘celebration of democ-
racy’’ and the local residents’ achievements. An interested viewer will benefit
by complementing the audiovisual information with readings that problematize
the complexity of arguments and issues introduced. The activist narrative,
though compelling, selects for heroism at the expense of significant actors,
such as nongovernmental organizations which are notably absent from the
 Film Reviews 67

documentary though critical to the evolution of the conflict. Acknowledging the

broad range of competing actors, alliances and perspectives in this struggle will
certainly promote classroom discussion.
‘‘Peru is a beggar seated on a golden bench,’’ states a popular Peruvian dictum
(attributed to the Italian naturalist Antonio Raimondi, 1824–1890), invoking the
paradox of natural resource abundance within generalized poverty. Overall, this
film serves as a memorable introduction to debates on development and sover-
eignty, and to disputes over natural resources in the context of severe social
inequalities and widespread impoverishment.

Vladimir R. Gil
Graduate School’s Environmental Development Program
Department of Social Sciences
Pontifica Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Perú
and
Center for Environmental Research and Conservation
The Earth Institute at Columbia University
New York, NY
USA
vg2156@columbia.edu
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