Mines: wealth for some, misery and death for the sumos

Abstract

Until the last century the Sumus lived quietly in our mountainous land in the interior of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua, we were grouped in small communities, we hunted the wild animals of the forests and the fish of the rivers. We did not know faces of any other skin color, and we hardly met indigenous people from other places. We lived alone with our groups, conversing in full confidence with our children and grandchildren.... The only strange voices we heard were those of the monkeys and monkeys that accompanied us.