Abstract

The expansion of open pit mining in Latin America has generated processes of rural depopulation, evidenced demographically in population and housing censuses. However, there is little research on this. The objective was to analyze the socio demographic changes in communities affected by forced displacement linked to open pit mining. Qualitative methods were used to collect information in the field, and quantitative methods to compare census indicators between 1990 and 2020. Salaverna, a town located in Zacatecas, Mexico, which is going through an experience of forced displacement, is studied. The results show that companies promote the displacement of entire towns with the premise of improving the living conditions of the population to extract minerals with a sustainable approach. However, those are usually carried out involuntarily in contexts of unequal power over capacities, interests and needs of the population. The forced displacement changes the people's way of life and generates feelings of solastalgia due to the anguish of socio -environmental devastation and the gradual destruction of towns that, for local inhabitants, can represent the center of their world.