El Precio de la Tierra

Alessandro Cinque

El Precio de la Tierra is an eight-year journey spanning 20,000 kilometres and 35 mining communities across Peru. Through encounters with both historic and contemporary mining sites, the project examines the complex relationship between Quechua communities, their land, and large-scale extraction, revealing how economic transformation has reshaped landscapes, livelihoods, and long-standing ties to nature.

It began in 2017, during a work trip to the Sacred Valley of the Incas, when Cinque met a 53-year-old woman who believed her stomach cancer was linked to severe water contamination in her village. Because of his own background, Cinque felt a strong personal connection to her story and has continued to explore its broader implications ever since.

Indigenous Quechua communities living along Peru’s mining corridor endured centuries of discrimination, pollution, and economic stagnation, despite the mineral wealth around them.

Peru possesses vast mineral wealth across its Andean landscapes. It is the world’s second-largest producer of copper and silver, and a significant producer of gold. Yet alongside this abundance, many communities continue to experience deep economic hardship.

Today, the Andes remain home to the country's poorest indigenous, Quechua-speaking communities whose lands are sacked by multinational companies for metals.

The price to pay has been the health of indigenous Peruvians, whose water sources were either diverted to mining or polluted by it. Scores have heavy metals in their blood, causing anemia, respiratory and cardiovascular disease, cancer, and congenital malformations.

Mining has also plundered their wealth by creating dead fields and killing livestock, the engine of the economy for the local population. Moreover, it has reconfigured its relationship with the territory and had a negative impact on the gradual loss of Andean folklore and identity. Andean people have a special connection with Mother Earth (Pachamama). So, with the presence of the mining, their relationship with Pachamama gets out of balance.

Over the years, the project has also been extended to the Andes of Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile. In this selection of 10 photographs, you will find only the Peruvian chapter.

El Precio de la Tierra Peru (The Price of the Land)

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