The Miners' Lament: A Story of Latina Activists in the Empire Zinc Mine Strike
A Note on Corridos Corridos are traditional Mexican ballads These songs tell stories often about historical events in which the heroes fight injustice The corrido as a musical form was developed developed in the 1800s and sung throughout Mexico However over time the corrido became known as la música de la frontera the music of the border because it was especially especially popular along both sides of the United States mexico mexico border on page 156 The corrido that appears in this story is in Spanish but readers can find an English version in the back of the book
Chapter 1 The church bell tolled four times Ana Maria felt the vibrations deep in the hollow space where her heart used to be She plucked at the strings of the vihuela cradled in her arms If she could make music again maybe she would not miss Mamá so much A gust of desert wind whooshed through the sagebrush sagebrush and prodded her The sun baked her black hair A fly buzzed around her head Ana Maria strummed a few chords on the vihuela and waited for words to come Any words Then the fly landed on Ana Maria’s chin She swatted it and cried out What if I never write another song No one answered because the dead cannot speak Ana Maria sat alone on the hill beside the wooden cross that marked Mamá’s grave in the cemetery Below her sprawled the small town of Alba New Mexico Alba means dawn 5
a time when the world is bright with possibility But the town was the color of horse dung The hills were brown The brick church was brown The shacks on the Mexican American side of town were brown Except for one spot of color Ana Maria’s eyes landed on the house Papá had built on land they rented from the Empire Zinc Company The Garcia house was small Two bedrooms a tiny living room an even tinier kitchen a screened in porch on the back of the house and an outhouse in the backyard The wooden fence that enclosed the yard was broken in a few spots and the house’s pine plank siding was rough and weather beaten But the walls stood firm and straight The Garcias front door was bright red Mamá’s favorite favorite color Every spring she’d slapped on a new coat of paint so the door shone Today was May 27 1951 Spring was practically over Who would paint the door this year Ana Maria’s gaze skipped over the railroad tracks to the other side of town The Empire Zinc Company had built decent houses for its Anglo workers Each house had three bedrooms a large living room and a kitchen with a gas 6
stove Best of all the Anglo houses had indoor plumbing Resentment burned in Ana Maria’s chest If the company had put running water in the Mexican American homes Mamá would still be alive In the Anglo neighborhood James Wagner’s house stood out It was bigger than the rest and painted the color of honey A neat fence ran around an emerald lawn The house looked just as lovely inside as it did outside James’s father was a supervisor at the Empire Zinc Mine and Mamá had been Mrs Wagner’s housekeeper for years Ana Maria had spent countless hours in that house when she and James had still been friends About fifty yards up the road from the Wagner house was the arch that marked the entrance to Empire Zinc Company property James must be able to see Papá and the other strikers from his living room window Every day these men marched on the picket line for higher pay and safer working conditions For how many months had James been watching that scene Ana Maria counted back Union Local 890 went on strike on October 17 1950 one week after Mamá had died 7
