Salt of the Earth film location

The long-abandoned Hanover Mine, near Silver City, New Mexico, was the site of a fictionalized version of the International Union of Mine Workers union strike in 1950. It was known as the Empire Zink strike (Delaware Zinc in the film). The issues involved were discriminatory practices against the Mexican and Mexican-American miners, who received lower pay and sub-standard housing compared with Caucasian miners. They lived in small company shacks without indoor toilets or hot water. [Source]  Predictably for the era, the company sent police to intimidate families and post eviction notices as worker defiance escalated.  

The Empire Zinc Company brought in strikebreakers, violence broke out between them and striking miners, and the news got out to other mines. Many of those also went on strike in solidarity. The Empire strike was unusual for the involvement of women. While the men's main issues were equal pay and mine safety, women demanded the same safe housing and sanitary conditions enjoyed by the white miners' families.  

Eight months into the strike, the company got a court injunction forbidding picketers to return to the picket line the following day.[3] With the threat of jail time and fines looming over them, the men left the picket line, only to be replaced by their wives and, in some cases, children.[1] Since the women were not themselves striking workers, the same legal tactics could not immediately be used against them.[4] However, the women still suffered police harassment and some mass arrests.[4] Eventually the court issued an anti-picketing injunction against the women, but prior mass arrests of women and some children had drawn unfavorable attention in the national news and the local sheriff delayed in carrying out the injunction.[4] [Source]

In 1952, the strike was finally settled with the company agreeing to all demands of the miners and their wives. However, there was police harassment during filming and Miner's Union 890 headquarters was burned down. The fire was deemed "mysterious" by local authorities. The film, probably in the B-movie category, starring Juan Chacon and the gorgeous Rosaura Revuelta, is worth a watch. Some feminist ideas were also introduced in the film, unusual for its time.

...Salt of the Earth was controversial and in 1954 became the only film ever blacklisted in the United States.[1]

Due in part to the efforts of activists in the 1960s and 1970s, the film was added to the Library of Congress's National Film Registry in 1992 because of the cultural and historical significance of its depiction of the Empire Zinc strike.[1][3] [Source]

Hanover Mine abandoned.kmz (755 B)