Silver City -- The Silver City Museum's current exhibit, the Life and Times of Arturo Flores, is featured in the March 17 issue of the Santa Fe New Mexican's arts and leisure magazine, Pasatiempo, and reached national recognition as part of a major feature on the role of women during the 1950 Empire Zinc Mine strike in the March issue of the iconic magazine, The Nation.
"It's so gratifying to see the Flores exhibit receive attention from one of the widest read publications in the state, but also to be included in such an important piece about the role and power of women who stepped onto the picket lines during the Empire Zinc Mine strike," said Bart Roselli, museum director. "Staff and volunteers worked so hard to make this exhibit what it is, and I'm so grateful that their efforts have been recognized in such significant ways, far beyond Grant County."
On display in the museum's Dodge Gallery through August, the exhibit features much more than Flores' front-line photographic account of the Empire Zinc strike, but also offers insights into the life of this hard-working man, veteran, father, activist and artist, whose actions helped shape history.
His story is told in a colorful, mural-style design, which also features live recordings of Arturo sharing his life story, accessed by scanning QR codes located throughout the exhibit.
The Pasatiempo article is brief, providing basic background information about the strike and its outcome, the 1954 film about the strike, Salt of the Earth, and the fact that Flores' black-and-white images from the front lines of the strike had never before been seen publicly, until the exhibit opened last fall.
Journalist Natasha Varner references the exhibit in her well-researched and detailed March 21 article for the Nation magazine, "What an Epic Women's Strike Can Teach Us Over 70 Years Later," which quotes Roselli, as well as Grant County Commissioner Alicia Edwards, who interviewed many of the women from the Ladies Auxiliary who took to the picket lines when a court injunction sidelined the striking miners, some eight months into the strike. As a result, 53 women and children were jailed.
Varner writes, "They were met with violence and arrested en masse, but they did not take their captivity quietly. In fact, they made such a ruckus that their jailers had little choice but to release them after just 12 hours. The next day, they were back on the picket line, where they continued to walk, sing, dance, and knit their resistance for another seven months ... More than 70 years later, the Empire Zinc strike still holds a totemic place in American labor history."
The article chronicles the history of the 15-month strike against the backdrop of McCarthyism and anti-communist fear, the systemic racism and discrimination experienced by the Mexican-American miners, the poor conditions of their housing and the key role that the courageous women played to ultimately win concessions from company bosses, who were determined to break the strikers by any means necessary.
"With a mix of fear and excitement, Anita Torrez bundled up her newborn in the early morning hours of June 13, 1951, and walked down a dusty road in Grant County. She was soon met by dozens of other women and children who had left their domestic duties behind to join the picket line," writes Varner.
"When strikebreakers tried to walk through the picket line, the Silver City Daily Press reported that the women “grabbed them and tore their shirts.” When they attempted to drive through the picket line, the women threw rocks and physically pushed the cars back.
“I remember we pulled the hood up on one car and put sugar in the gas tank,” Torrez later told the Santa Fe New Mexican. “We also used knitting needles” (as weapons)."
Once the strike concluded with wage concessions and vacation pay, the women continued to play a key role in the production of the film, Salt of the Earth, which chronicles the strike, insisting that they have a voice in the scripting, and that the lead female role be played by a woman of color. Mexican actress Rosaura Revueltas was hired for the role, and ultimately labeled a communist.
Varner quotes Roselli explaining that about a third of the exhibit's information focuses on the role of women. She continued, "He also noted that while the strike is still a “raw nerve” in the community, there’s more receptivity to talking about it than there had been in the past. The Flores exhibit, he said, “really brought people out”—some of whom had never before set foot in the museum—and has received overwhelmingly positive praise in the local press."
Varner brings the article to a close by tying the women's civil and domestic disobedience during the Empire Zinc strike to the assault on women's rights with the 2022 Dobbs decision to end abortion rights won in Roe v. Wade, stating: "As we grapple with increasing threats to women’s bodily autonomy in this post-Roe era, let the Empire Zinc strike be a reminder that women and their needs cannot be ignored—and that no movement can be won if we don’t let the most marginalized among us lead."
She concludes with a quote from Commissioner Alicia Edwards, who reflects on the strike in relationship to the Dobbs decision: “Now of all time, we cannot lose sight of the power that we have as women. When we organize and when we work together, it’s pretty incredible.”