Assistant Professor of Hispanic Studies Jack Martínez-Arias recently published "El indio-máquina y la contaminación minera en Junín (1930)" in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, published by Liverpool University Press. As part of his research into the literary representations of extractive industries in the Andes, Martínez-Arias examines Bustamante y Ballivián's poetry collection Junín. The work portrays the transformation of the central Andean region of Peru under the operations of the Cerro de Pasco Corporation, particularly focusing on its massive metallurgical complex in La Oroya.
While other Latin American avant-garde writers of the 1920s celebrated the machines of urban modernity, Martínez-Arias argues that Bustamante y Ballivián offers a critical counterpoint by depicting the destructive machinery of mining operations. The article demonstrates how Junín represents indigenous workers not as idealized figures connected to nature (as was common in indigenista literature), but rather as imperfect "machine-men" subordinated to the mining company's industrial apparatus.
Most significantly, Martínez-Arias establishes that Junín (1930) appears to be the first poetic representation of the ecological impacts of large-scale mining in the Andes. The article analyzes how the poetry collection portrays environmental contamination - particularly through the foundry's toxic smoke and contaminated waters - as a tool of territorial invasion and dominance. Through this analysis, Martínez-Arias reveals how Bustamante y Ballivián's work stands as an early critique of both the environmental and social consequences of modern extractive operations in Peru.
