Six Years in Bolivia

The account of a British engineer posted to Bolivia as assistant manager of a tin mine in the early years of the 20th century. The author describes being forced to adapt to a new way of life and his concerns with cultural, economic and gender differences.

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Anselm Verener Lee Guise was a young British mining engineer appointed to the post of assistant manager of a tin mine in the first decades of the twentieth century in Bolivia. Six Years in Bolivia: The Adventures of a Mining Engineer (1922) was the result of his experiences and contact with the Bolivian landscape and people. His travel book underlines Guise's concerns with cultural, economic, and gender differences while presenting a personal transformation forced by his adaptation to new ways of life, which compelled him to perform activities far beyond his knowledge. In Bolivia, and as a result of his journey through unknown lands, Guise becomes a doctor, entomologist, horticulturist, judge, and culinary instructor. After a difficult and wearisome journey characterized by spasms, halts, and dangerous paths, Guise spent the first two years of his stay in the Ocavi mining camp, 150 miles from La Paz, in the northwestern part of Bolivia. His poor command of the Spanish language and the slow and late arrival of the ten-stamp mills that were needed to begin his job in Ocavi offered him the opportunity to put in writing his observations regarding the territory and its people. Guise offers descriptions of indigenous diversions, religious beliefs, customs, dressing and eating habits, diseases, hygiene, and descriptions of the landscape.