Juan Godoy (1800 – 1842) was a Chilean

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer mig ...

and

miner A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face; cutting, blasting, ...

who in 1832 discovered an

outcrop An outcrop or rocky outcrop is a visible exposure of bedrock or ancient superficial deposits on the surface of the Earth. Features Outcrops do not cover the majority of the Earth's land surface because in most places the bedrock or superficial ...

(''reventón'') of silver south of

Copiapó Copiapó () is a city and commune in northern Chile, located about 65 kilometers east of the coastal town of Caldera. Founded on December 8, 1744, it is the capital of Copiapó Province and Atacama Region. Copiapó lies about 800 km north ...

Chañarcillo Chañarcillo is a town and mine in the Atacama Desert of Copiapó Province, Atacama Region, Chile, located near Vallenar and 60 km from Copiapó. It is noted for its silver mining. The town grew up after the Chañarcillo silver mine was discovere ...

sparking the

Chilean silver rush Between 1830 and 1850 Chilean silver mining grew at an unprecedented pace which transformed mining into one of the country's principal sources of wealth. The rush caused rapid demographic, infrastructural, and economic expansion in the semi-arid ...

. Villalobos, Sergio; Silva, Osvaldo; Silva Fernando and Estelle, Patricio. Historia de Chile.

Editorial Universitaria Editorial Universitaria is Chilean university press based in Santiago. It was established in 1947 with funds from private people and from the University of Chile. During its existence, it has published the works of generations influential Chilean sc ...

1995. First Edition: 1974. p. 469-472. Godoy was born to Flora Normilla, an indigenous woman, in the

pueblo de indios In the Southwestern United States, Pueblo (capitalized) refers to the Native tribes of Puebloans having fixed-location communities with permanent buildings which also are called pueblos (lowercased). The Spanish explorers of northern New Spain ...

San Fernando in 1800. Later he was baptised in the town of Copiapó. Godoy is referred to in sources as a

mestizo (; ; fem. ) is a term used for racial classification to refer to a person of mixed Ethnic groups in Europe, European and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous American ancestry. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also r ...

, implying his father was not indigenous. His surname Godoy is a hispanization of Normilla. He worked variously as

goatherd A goatherd or goatherder is a person who herds goats as a vocational activity. It is similar to a shepherd who herds sheep. Goatherds are most commonly found in regions where goat populations are significant; for instance, in Africa and South Asi ...

and farmer with his mother but also as miner and woodcutter before the discovery of Chañarcillo. Godoy was very likely illiterate. It is said that Godoy found the outcrop while hunting

guanaco The guanaco (; ''Lama guanicoe'') is a camelid native to South America, closely related to the llama. Guanacos are one of two wild South American camelids, the other being the vicuña, which lives at higher elevations. Etymology The guanaco g ...

s. Godoy was able to recognise the silver outcrop since he had previously worked in mining as explosives driller (''barretero'') and apire (''apir''). According to folklore Godoy was guided to the riches of Chañarcillo by an

alicanto The Alicanto is a mythological nocturnal bird of the desert of Atacama, pertaining to Chilean mythology. Legend says that the alicanto's wings shine at night with beautiful, metallic colors, and their eyes emit strange lights. The color of the wi ...

, a bird pertaining to

Chilean mythology Chilean mythology includes the mythology, beliefs and folklore of the Chilean people. Evolution Chilean mythology covers of a large collection of myths and legends from the beliefs of Chile's indigenous groups (Mapuche, Tehuelche, Changos, Diag ...

. He successfully claimed the associated mining rights for the silver outcrop for himself and his brother José Godoy.Cortés 2017, p. 7. Notoriously, local business leader Miguel Gallo also appeared registered as owning a third of the claim from the beginning. Various explanations have been put forward to explain this. One is that Godoy included Gallo in the claim at the request of his mother Flora. The reason is said to have been that Flora had known about the silver outcrop and told Gallo many times about it without him bothering about finding out the truth of it. Following this saying Flora only told her son Juan about it on her death bed, telling him to share it with Gallo. Another explanation is that Juan Godoy decided to share a third of the mining rights with his friend Juan José Callejas; Callejas used to work for Gallo and transferred the rights to him. Godoy and his associates inscribed the discovery as La Descubridora (lit. ''The Discovery''). Just a week later Gallo bought all rights from Godoy and his brother. The finding attracted thousands of people to the place and generated significant wealth.
Los ciclos mineros del cobre y la plata
'. Memoria Chilena. The amount paid for the rights to the Godoy brothers amounted to as little as 0.5% of the earnings of the mine in 1834. Having squandered the fortune earned from the selling of his minings rights Godoy sought and was granted work in La Descubridora by Gallo.Cortés 2017, p. 9. The conditions of work offered by Gallo were favourable and Godoy was able to make a small fortune again which allowed him to quit work and move to the city of La Serena. In La Serena Godoy settled as a farmer and married again. Godoy is known to have died in his 40s and left his second wife and children in poverty. When this came to light the Mining Council of Copiapó (''Junta Minera de Copiapó'') made a grant to Godoy's widow and sons. The settlement at the foot of the Chañarcillo mountain was named Pueblo de Juan Godoy in 1846. The mineral juangodoyite ( Na₂ Cu( CO₃)₂) was named after him in 2005.Reconocimiento a los personajes de la geología de Chile a través de la mineralogía
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References

;Bibliography * {{DEFAULTSORT:Godoy, Juan Mineral exploration Chilean miners Goatherds History of mining in Chile Silver mining 1800 births 1842 deaths People from Copiapó Province Chilean people of Diaguita descent