New Mexico Civil Rights and Justice

Taking a stand for equality in the Land of Enchantment

Veterans returning to New Mexico after World War II found a home altered by more than just the explosion of the first atomic bomb. Former ranchers were forced to eke out a living in zinc mines, leading to protests of conditions that were memorialized in the movie Salt of the Earth, which both the film industry and the government tried to suppress. As the civil rights movement swept across the country in the 1960s, New Mexico found its own champions in activists like Reies Lopez Tijerina, who denounced the widespread mistreatment and abuse of the helpless. Ray John de Aragon follows the heritage of protest in New Mexico, from folk heroes like Padre Don Antonio Jose Martinez to more contemporary battles against racism and prejudice.