VivirLatino

“Because we are poor we live working until God will take us.”

-Baltazar Ushca Tenesaca

The Last Ice Merchant follows Baltazar Ushca Tenesaca, a 65 year old indigenous Ecuadorian man who goes to collect ice from the mountains of Chimborazo. A documentary lasting 15 minutes was directed by Sandy Patch. They synopsis of the film states:

For the last five decades, Baltazar Ushca has made a living harvesting glacial ice from the tallest mountain in Ecuador. His brothers, Gregorio and Juan, have long since retired from the mountain. This is a tale of cultural change in a small indigenous community and how three brothers have adapted to it.

Starting out as a family business where Baltazar, his two brothers, and father mined ice, today it is only Baltazar who is doing this work. The youngest brother, Juan, works in construction and Gregorio the middle brother works in a factory that produces ice and he had churns homemade ice cream. Most of Baltazar’s clients are also “mom and pop” shops in the nearby city that purchase his ice to make drinks and other desserts to sell to locals. We see how fascinated the more urban Ecuadorians and youth are in seeing ice wrapped in hay, something that is rare in the city.

Baltazar speaks about missing his community and fellowship that came with the work he was doing of collecting ice. He is the only one who does this work now of the original crews and does this work alone. He hopes his son or grandson will be interested in the work, as of now none are. They discuss this to be connected to the changing times. The youth perspectives are very much ones we hear today: why work so hard in such hard conditions, for such little pay? Is life easier now? Their children think so.

It is Juan who shares that “our culture and the work of our ancestors I don’t want to forget it, I don’t want to lose our culture” when he speaks of children picking up where they may leave off. Baltazar is clear when he dies, ice from Chimborazo will no longer be mined.

The film leaves us with important questions about how culture is connected to the land, modernization, and preservation. Baltazar speaks of how the ice is becoming more scarce and he must climb higher up the mountains to mine, which brings on it’s own forms of additional danger. A few areas in the film that were left unclear: what tribe are Baltazar and his family a part? In what ways can the education found in their community connect to preserving this cultural practice and these artifacts? How does class, indigenous identity, and discrimination result in who desires ice and in what form?

Below is the trailer