“Hasta sentirla mía”: movimientos de las esmeraldas y las infraestructuras del comercio esmeraldero en el Centro de Bogotá. Las calles, los sobres la luz y los dispositivos documentales de la formalización minera

Abstract

In downtown Bogota stands a strategic point for the trade of Colombian emeralds. For decades, traditional traders and commission merchants of these precious stones have gathered there to buy and sell the raw material extracted from the mines, which is becoming increasingly scarce due to the current mining formalization process underway and the arrival of multinationals in the western region of Boyacá. Beyond the exchange of money for merchandise, traditional trade is composed of networks, practices, knowledge, rhythms and particular routes. The restless and incessant movements of both emeralds and people in the framework of traditional trade are what I am interested in following in this research. Thus, this thesis is part of the anthropology of infrastructures theories to analyze the hinges that allow the flow of various elements within this ecosystem. I focus, then, on following infrastructures that I identified during my fieldwork, in order to describe how the movement of emeralds occurs in the traditional commerce of Downtown Bogotá and how this flow has changed as a result of mining formalization. Specifically, I argue that light, streets and envelopes are infrastructures of the traditional emerald trade that sustain the circulation of emeralds, people and information.