Salt of the Earth

How shall I

begin my story that has no beginning?

In these arroyos, my great-grandfather

raised cattle before the Anglos ever came.

Our roots go deep in this place, deeper than the pines,

deeper than the mine shafts.

This is my village.

When I was a child, it was called San Marcos.

The Anglos changed the name to Zinc Town.

Zinc Town, New Mexico, USA.

This is our home.

The house is not ours.

But the flowers... The flowers are ours.

My name is Esperanza.

Esperanza Quintero.

I am a miner's wife.

18 years, my husband has given to that mine,

living half his life with dynamite and darkness.

The land where the mind stands, that

was owned by my husband's own grandfather.

Now it belongs to the company.

Who can say when it began, my story?

I do not know.

But this day, I remember as the beginning of an end.

It was my saint's day.

I was 35 years old.

A day of celebration.

And I was seven months gone with my third child.

And on that day, I remember, I had a wish.

It felt so simple.

It felt so evil that I prayed to the Virgin

to forgive me for it.

I wished... I wished that my child would never be born.

No, not into this world.

Are you sick, Mama?

No, Estellita.

Are you sad?

Are we going to church for the confession?

- Fighting again, with those Anglo kids?

Aw, they think they're tough.

- But you promised me you wouldn't.

- Papa says if an Anglo makes fun of you, to let him have it.

- Never mind what your Papa... hold still.

Does it hurt?

Nah.

How come the cake?

Never mind the cake.

Go get your father when he comes off shift.

Tell him to come straight home.

Hear you had a little trouble, Quintero.

Defective fuse?

Well, you're all in one piece, so what's the beef?

- You know the beef, this new rule of yours

that we work alone.

We're taking it up with the super.

- Super's busy with your negotiating committee.

So much the better.

Now wait a minute.

Super's the one made the rule.

He ain't gonna give you no help.

- He will if he wants us to go on blasting.

- Read your contracts... or get somebody to read it for you.

It don't say nothing about no help.

- Listen, Mr. Barton, there's blood in that mine,

the blood of my friends, all because they had to work alone!

- That's how you get splattered over the rocks,

when there's nobody to help you check your fuse.

- And nobody to warn the other men to stay clear.

- Warning's the shift foreman's job.

- Foreman wants to get the ore out.

Miner wants to his brothers out in one piece.

You work alone, savvy?

You can't handle the job, I'll find someone who can.

Who, a scab?

An American.

Mama.

Shh!

Not a word about the cake, hear?

- Papa, is there going to be a strike?

- Ramon, I don't like to bother you,

but the store lady said that if we don't make another payment

on the radio this month, they'll come and take it away.

We are only one payment behind.

I argued with her.

It isn't right.

It isn't right, you say?

Was it right that we bought this... this instrument?

But you had to have it, didn't you?

It was nice to listen to.

- I listen to it every night when you are out at the beer parlor.

No money down.

Easy term payment.

I tell you something... This installment plan,

it's the curse of the working man.

Where are you going.

Got to talk to the brothers.

This water's cold again.

- Oh, I'm sorry, the fire went out.

Forget it.

Forget it?

I chop wood for the stove five times a day.

Every time, I remember it.

I remember that across the tracks,

the Anglo miners have hot water in pipes, in bathrooms inside.

- Do you think I like living this way?

What do you want of it?

- But if your union... If you're asking

for better conditions, why can't you

ask for different plumbing, too?

We did.

Got lost in the shuffle.

What?

We can't get everything at once.

Right now, we have more important demands.

- What's more important than sanitation?

Safety of the men.

That's more important.

Five accidents this week, all because of speedup.

You're a woman.

You don't know what it's like up there.

First we gotta get equality on the job.

Then we'll work on these other things.

Leave it to the men.

I see.

The men.

Your strike may be for your demands, but what wives want,

that comes later, always later.

- Now don't you start talking against the union again.

What has it got me, your union?

Esperanza, have you forgotten

what it was like before the union came,

when Estella was a baby and we couldn't even

afford a doctor when she was sick?

It was for our families we met in graveyards

to build that union.

All right, have your strike.

I'll have my baby, but no hospital

will take me because I'm a striker's wife.

The store will cut half our credit

and the kids will go hungry.

We'll get behind on the payments,

and they'll come and take away the radio.

Is that all you care about?

That radio?

Can't you think of anything except yourself?

- If I think of myself, it's because you never think of me.

Never

Stop it.

The children are watching.

Stop it!

That's a problem that has to be taken care of.

The company will always tell you those things.

We know it's not safe for miners to work alone.

But they don't work alone in another mines.

Anglos always work in pairs.

So why should I risk my life, 'cause I'm a Mexican?

That's in the demands.

We're negotiating.

- Three months of negotiations, nothing happens.

Even with Brother Barnes here from the International,

what have we got?

No raise, no seniority, no safety code, nothing!

Take a drink.

Calmate.

I say we gotta take action, now!

- The rest of the men feel the way you do?

He talks for all of us.

- Did you ever stop to think maybe they want us to strike?

Don't horse me!

Not with a war boom on!

- Then why is the company hanging tough?

They signed contracts with the other locals.

Why not this one?

- Because most of us here are Mexican American.

Because we want equality with Anglo miners...

The same pay, same conditions.

Exactly.

And equality's the one thing the bosses can't afford.

The biggest club they have over the Anglo locals is,

well, at least you get more than the Mexicans.

OK.

So discrimination hurts the Anglo too.

But it hurts me more, and I've had enough of it.

- But you don't pull a strike when the bosses want it,

so they can smash your union.

You wait till you're ready, so you can win.

Do the bosses wait?

No sanitation, so my kids get sick?

Did the company have to wait?

$20.

So we miss one payment on the radio I bought for my wife.

Does the company store wait?

Pay or we take it away.

Why is the boss's store in such a hurry?

They're trying to scare us, that's why,

to make us afraid to move.

To hang on to what we got and like it.

Well, I don't like it, and I'm not scared.

And I'm fed up to here!

Hey, Ramon.