False Memory. In this ongoing series, I explore areas in Bolivia, Chile, and Mexico shaped by centuries of natural resource extraction and the exploitation of human labor. Eduardo Galeano’s writing on Latin America informs the work. I draw on his descriptions of landscapes transformed by extractive industries: mountains carved into hollow shells and vast forests cut down to empty plains.

The project brings together a wide range of analog and digital formats, in both color and black and white. Each format offers a distinct point of view, almost like a character in a novel. Research in institutional and private archives in each location also forms part of the project’s structure.

Wear your headphones and listen to a soundscape produced exclusively for this project by Espacio No Domesticable with poetry in Spanish by René Zinho.

False Memory (Copy)
Scarification or surface scraping in the lithium extraction process. Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia
A barren, rocky desert landscape near Chuquicamata, the largest open-pit copper mine in the world. Chile
Copper Smelter Ruins: Sunlight filters through the broken ceiling of an abandoned wooden smelting furnace, once part of the Compagnie du Boléo in Santa Rosalía, BCS, Mexico. A graffiti tag reading “ESCOPETA” marks this 19th-century relic of copper m
A narrow irrigation canal cuts through a barren landscape, its purpose long forgotten. Once used to carry copper mining waste to Chañaral's beaches, it now stands as a quiet relic of industrial past. Chañaral, Chile
Quote about strangers' bodies being fully covered, with skin described as white and lime-like, yellow or black hair, long yellow beards, and curly hair with fine strands, from a book by Miguel Leon-Portilla.
Miner dressed in white protective suit, yellow helmet, and face cover standing in front of a large lithium pile
Guanajuato, Mexico
A historical map of a Potosí, the Cerro Rico, and surrounding mountains. Casa de la Moneda, Potosí, Bolivia
Handwritten document from the 17th Century, listing mines owned by the King. Casa de la Moneda, Potosí, Bolivia
Black and white photograph of a mountainous landscape with a dirt road in the foreground, rolling hills, and a sky with a few clouds.
A large, reddish-brown mountain with steep slopes under a cloudy sky.
Old photograph deteriorated by exposure to the elements and the passage of time. The image shows a miner inside a mine next to a cart filled with minerals, highlighting hard work, the industrial past, and the memory of an era.
Underground tunnel of mine with rocky walls and metal supports, dimly lit and ending in darkness.
A dirt road leading into a dark cave entrance surrounded by green trees and rocks under a blue sky.
One of several mountains of mining scoria left by Compañía El Boleo S.A., in a poor neighborhood of the Mexican town of Santa Rosalía, on the coast of the Baja California peninsula. In 1868 copper deposits were discovered in the Santa Rosalía region,
A hill of mining waste with sparse vegetation and scattered debris in the foreground, under a clear sky with sunlight providing warm illumination.
A dirty, abandoned miner's shoe with a rusted, metal toe cover resting on top, lying on gravel.

Waiting for Eduardo Galeano, Montevideo, Uruguay.