I am so excited because I know that, no matter how much more time I have on this earth, I will look back on these past few month knowing that these are the best years on my life. So Kelli, when you read this in the future, remember waking up in Kait’s room and having chicory coffee. Having waffles made with applesauce for breakfast, stepping outside to the beautiful weather, going to work,then a party at which you dressed up as a cowboy. You had amazing friends, you went to the gym every day, and fell in love with your own life.
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Girls will woo you. They’ll smell like warm plops of rain against the August Kansas asphalt — like road trips through the Mohave desert with no A/C and 2 gallons of water in the passenger seat. It will be the best memories you ever had, but it’s not the girls that made them:
When you grasp your fingers into the bark of a 150-year-old walnut tree — barefoot and in dress — and pull yourself up, dusting the dirt off your knees. When you sit down for a greasy burger in Santa Cruz after cycling all day through rolling hills, sand pits, ice plants, and highways through army bases long abandoned. When you paint blue and purple sunflowers on recycled canvas, reminiscent of home — When you rip out soiled carpet and sand smooth the oak underneath giving it new life and creating a home. When you learn to make your father’s chip beef gravy and serve is with fresh,butter biscuits at 7am — clipping coupons as the sun rises over the beach in your backyard.
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Empowering Women to Find the Purpose in Life
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I do not know exactly how to describe the intense feeling of being lost. All the sounds in your life that have always brought you comfort are gone. If macaroni and cheese make you feel home, it is suspecting you will never eat it again–nothing even remotely close. It is feeling being utterly alone and at the same time unable to find even yourself, nothing around you is yours, not even your job. Not even your voice. All you have to define yourself is the clothes you happen to be wearing and the hard seat under your butt. I have felt that a few times in my life. Both times I was doing amazing, life changing things, but I was living in someone else’s life.
Don’t get me wrong. I am happy. But I have had intense moments of feeling lost–without a strong sense of self or purpose. All of the things I am doing do not add up to the person I thought I would be. Maybe that is good because it means I am flexible. Or maybe it means I do not know who I am or how to pursue it. And today I found myself sitting in on a strange meeting I never expected to happen, one that has me thinking about the pieces of my life that fit together.
“I don’t know. She some lady that works with indigenous women. I told her I would have a meeting with her…” Luisa explained to me 10 minutes before the lady was supposed to arrive.
“She sounds interesting, but I do not know what we are going to talk about.”
I’ve come to learn that I am not a meeting person. I love talking to people, but I cannot have 3 and 4 meetings a day like my partner does. She is the master of networking, and I am the master of sneaking out of meetings. I’ve found (though I am not proud of it) my attention span for networking and meetings significantly decreases, even more, when the other parties are speaking in Spanish. The lady did sound cool. I am a feminist with a passion for indigenous people, but I REALLY wanted to get work done.
I got lost in my computer, and when I looked up, she was standing at the table next to us.
There was desperation in my soul to listen to her. With my limited Spanish, I understand the big picture of what someone is saying 80% of the time but always miss the subtleties. It’s like going to a movie and understanding the plot, but never the dialogue:
When she was 22, she had to move to Guatemala for her husband’s political asylum where she encountered indigenous women for the first time and was mesmerized by their contentment, maturity and wise perspectives of themselves and the world around them. She explained how they understand their equality with men and do not have to stress over it. At the same time, they understand their feminine obligations as mothers and their responsibility to the world. These women all had a clear sense of purpose. They were connected, very deeply, with their god and their spiritual selves. Through these women, she had learned to help other women. The has studied the sacred Mayan traditions, and while she is Christian, believing in God, she uses the Mayan rituals to connect with her God and find answers to her insecurities.
“The indigenous people are dying.”
Even though we do not actively slaughter them like we have in the past, their children are growing up and leaving the villages longing for technology. We think they are just poor people, but their knowledge about the spiritual ties to the earth could save us all from hopelessness and that feeling of not having a purpose. We cannot let that knowledge die with them.
Something in her story spoke to me. Maybe it was the way I’d been feeling so confused about my direction in life. Maybe it was the way I felt so alone and confused.
I’ve often questioned my purpose in life. At least 6 times in my life I have had people approach me to tell me they had a message from God about my purpose, but I never know whether to be moved by their conviction or freaked out. Once, I spent 4th of July with my best friend at the time watching fireworks from the top of a parking garage when a girl told me I was going to be an important force in the universe and I cannot be afraid. I had chilled for three weeks and still remember her face and name…
Now, in this meeting, staring at the aged and ageless face of the beautiful woman in front of me, I thought about that feeling of being lost and I thought about the face of Jedidiah that fourth of July. The next date she was hosting a ceremony was December 9th, and I would be gone.
I will fly back early from Lima. It just feels that important to me.
Luisa and the woman were both shocked. The next day we got a message saying she would host a private ceremony for us. We packed our bags and headed to the mountains.
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I like to tell people that that coolest thing about our team is the coincidences that brought us together. We are a diverse team: Juan and Luisa are cousins from Colombia. When they were teenager Juan came to live in the US, and they were devastated by being separated. They’ve been best friends since birth, even across thousands of miles. Eva is from Austria. She met Luisa and Juan by a fluke and agreed to travel across south America with near-strangers. And I am from the US. I’ve lived a seemingly normal life until I recently quit my job as a high school English teacher to join the NomadApp team and travel the world. I met Luisa at a bar, and three days later invited Luisa and Juan on a road trip to Minnesota. In a normal world, we never would have met. In this universe, it was fate.
Combined we speak 6-7 languages, and we all come from different educational backgrounds. The first time I met Eva was in New York City. We took THIS picture, and could not stop talking about how miraculous it is that we even ended up in the same photo. How many impossible things had to happen to lead up to that moment?
We are a family now. We share everything, and because we have to pack light, I mean we share everything. Deodorant, brushes, computers, phones, passwords, food, beds and floors alike. We know far more about each other than we care to, but there is something pretty magical about living this lifestyle. Sure, you never get alone time (which is a challenge in itself), but you’re never lonely. Its these little things that are the fibers that hold us so tight to one another, but despite the fibers, our biggest fears are the inability to stay together.
A few weeks ago there was tension in our team. Not the kind of tension where we were at each other throats, but there was a heaviness looming in the air and we couldn’t quite shake it. Little disputes about what to do next: pursue investors, continue traveling and promoting the app, apply for accelerators. Time is running out. Visa’s only last for so long. How should we prepare for the app launch? In the midst of all the tension in the team, Juan was probably the most heated.
Let me paint a picture of the usual Juan: this is the guy who skips from park bench to park bench asking me to do “parkour” with him. He’s the definition of happy-go-lucky. He has infinite amounts of energy. He is the only one I know that can literally jump out of bed and be ready to leave the house within three minutes of waking up. He is optimistic to a fault and always looking for the next adventure. And you can count on him talking all day about the fans he talked to on snap chat…So when Juan is quiet, there is something on his mind.
When we talk to investors, they also want to know our weak points, our faults. Truly, we have the gambit of skills: experienced programmers, graphic designers, top-notch social media marketers, communication specialists, financial advisors. Aside from the occasional lack of patience, we tend to think of ourselves as the perfect team. But our biggest asset, that diversity, is also our biggest enemy.
When we sat down for a meeting over a drink, we were finally able to talk about our thoughts, our words finally parted the dense air: “What are we going to do to stay together?”
A few weeks ago, when we went to Niagara Falls, we were so excited to have to opportunity to walk across a bridge into another country. Another stamp in our passports! We proudly marched up to the bridge in our “citizen of the world” shirts, ready to proclaim another trophy. As we approached the footbridge, we noticed big iron gates and signs posted everywhere “DO NOT ENTER WITHOUT PASSPORT.” We scanned the signs to find out that only two of us could cross. Selected solely on country of birth, Eva and I were granted the privilege to pass, and we left our companions behind.
I feel a certain amount of guilt having been born in the USA. In many ways, I have more privileges than my Nomadic family simply because of where I was born. I didn’t ask for that privilege, and even though it works in my favor, I do not want it. I feel guilty that there is nothing I can do to change the rules. What makes the people of one country require more restrictions? In a few weeks, I am going to Colombia and need nothing more than my passport and a few shots. Meanwhile, in a few months, Luisa’s visa expires and she will have to apply for a new one if she intends to come back to the US–a privilege not guaranteed. I’ve come to find out there are a number of countries I can enter without a visa, but the people from those same countries must have visas to come here. This inequality strikes me off guard. If all men are created equal, why are they not treated equally? Why does the internationality of our team have to be our biggest obstacle, when it is most certainly our biggest strength?
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My earliest memory of writing was in preschool. My family of four, my mom, my older sister, me, and my mom’s boyfriend (who we affectionately call Rocket) lived in a run-down, two-bedroom house near the train tracks on the south side of town. My sister, who was five years older than me was obsessed with reading and writing. And although I was not old enough to comprehend how words on a page could form images in your brain, I was eager to participate in such rituals.
One day, I recall exclaiming I was going to teach myself how to write. I took a pencil in my little hand and grasped it like I was holding on to the handlebars of my bicycle, clenching my fists around the tiny piece of wood, and I pressing it against a yellow, striped notebook. Carefully, I’d move the pencil up and down on the page as my wrist scanned left to right, watching the grey lines flake onto the page. The tip of the pencil was running up and down hills creating meaning, I was sure of it.
“Does this say something?” I’d ask my sister, waiting and watching her face for excitement.
“No.”
And I’d tried again.
“No.”
All she would say was no. Not “close!” Not, “almost.” It was painful and discouraging. How had she learned to make words? I’d scratch the page with the eraser end of the pencil, leaving desperate, pink shavings in my lap. Then, I had an idea.
I thought of my mom’s writing — how her letters were not like the hills my sister wrote, but roller coaster loops. And so a reassessed my plan, adding a loop to my strategy. Taking my pencil in my hand, I coaxed it up and down and added the loop, ending with a few more hills and a curled end.
“What about this?” I inquired. It must have been the 20th time, and my sister was exhausted looking up from her book in annoyance. I was distracting her. Her face was strained, her eyes slanted.
But then her face changed. The corners of her eyes relaxed. Her lips moved from pursed to gentle and parted.
“Actually…yes,” she paused “It says Mom. In cursive.”
I was like a baby speaking my first words. I felt overjoyed at my ability to teach myself something. Not only had I written something, it was something that had the ability to make my mom proud, to give her joy and move her. I expected praise, but Corrinn was not impressed. She went back to reading her book.
I studied the word on the page, the straight parts, the curves, and my favorite — the loop which turned my stomach with excitement. I took my pencil in my hand again and copied those beautiful shapes in the page. Mom, Mom, Mom, I wrote, preparing to share it with my mother the moment she walked in the door. She would be so proud and understand the amount of time I took to carefully practice those lines.
I sat on the couch looking out the window, watching the sunset, waiting for her car to pull into the driveway. It was cold by the window, and the heat from my impatient forehead created flog against the evening, so I traced the letters on the glass. Mom. Where was she? I dreamt about her reaction and woke up to the sound of the door closing. “Hello!”
Oh no. I’d missed watching her drive up.
I rubbed my eyes, and frantically searched for the notebook which had jammed itself into the crack between the cushions and the back of the couch. I ran to her and held up the notebook like a masterpiece. I was an artist, and I’d save my lifework for her. She smiled down at me and praised my sister for teaching me how to write my first word.
I gave my sister a glare and ran back to my room in silence.
I recently co-authored a new article with Dr. Ann Shivers McNair titled “From ‘Spring Break’ to ‘Reading Days’: Contingency, Relations of Power, and Positionalities in Experiences of Overwork During Academic Breaks.” It’s published in Academic Labor: Research and Artistry.
What did we learn about overwork and burnout during the pandemic?
We offer practical advice in higher education for avoiding burnout in the people under your care, students and otherwise.
Hello Dear (and few) Readers,
This post is to let you know that my first film, “This was Santa Rita,” will be screening at The Loft Cinema (for free), alongside other student films. You can watch it here: https://loftcinema.org/film/whats-up-docs/
This is the first film I have ever made, and I have learned a lot along the way. I learned to opporate a camera, the basics of film editing, structures of film that are different from writing. Overall, what a wonderful experience to take on during covid-19. It’s such a collaborative process that I actually felt connected to my community during this time of isolation. I worked with archivitsts at New Mexico State as well as Utah State University. Tucson local actors (and my neighboors) volunteered to do dramatic readings of the accounts. My friend and collegue, Kathleen,went to Grant County with me to shoot some footage. We shot a lot of bad footage, but thanks to her, we got SOME good footage. My professor Jacob Bricca spent hours giving me feedback and showing me how to use the software. I completely changed the vision of my film twice! I feel so greateful to those who shared their stories with me and to those who helped me put those stories into film.
I made many discoveries along the way; first, that I love working with film. I hope I can continue this project and theorize more about the role of film in its relationship with history and memory. I want to learn more about using film as a method in rhetorical studies. I also found bits of the story needing more explantation. Why is the Kneeling Nun so important to this community? What does the Society of Persons Born in Space do for them? How do women remember the town? How have they managed to remain a close-knit community over the years. I hope I will be granted the opportunity soon interview Santa Rita residents and learn more about what the history of the town means to them.
Until then, enjoy the film!
Baker, E. (2007). On Strike and on Film: Mexican American Families and Blacklisted Filmmakers in Cold War Era. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press.
Gardner, R.W. (1991). Santa Rita under the kneeling nun. Self-published. Santa Rita Archives, Silver City Public Library, Silver City, Nm. Accessed Nov. 2018.
Huggard, CJ., & Humble, T.M. (2012). Santa Rita Del Cobre: A Copper Mining Community in New Mexico. Denver: UP of Colorado.Kennecott Copper Corporation. (March-April 1965).Pit expansion will need Santa Rita Townsite. Chinorama,pp. 1-5. Santa Rita Archives, Silver City Public Library, Silver City, Nm. Accessed Nov. 2018.Siegfried, S. (13 July 1996). Neighborhood thrived in Santa Rita community. Silver City Daily Press, pp. 3-4. Santa Rita Archives, Silver City Public Library, Silver City, Nm. Accessed Nov. 2018.
Solórzano, D.G. & Yosso, T.J. (Feb 2002). Critical Race Methodology: Counter-Storytelling as an Analytical Framework for Education Research. Qualitative Inquiry, 8(1), 23-44.Steinberg, S. L. (2003). Santa Rita, New Mexico: Community report. Humboldt State University, Department of Sociology. Santa Rita Archives, Silver City Public Library, Silver City, Nm. Accessed Nov. 2018.
We stood silently in the Capilla, the weight of generations of prayers layered on one another pressed down on our shoulders. Jesus stared through us. Three hundred votives flickered in the darkness of the hand-placed stones that built up the walls, and prayers written on notebook paper stuffed the fissures of the hidden fortress, and picture of young boy printed from a laser printer and the blue ink scratched, “Do not remove until June 2007.”Overhead, we heard the bulldozers pushing mounds of earth precariously across the 45-degree angled surface of Hanover Mountain. A crane planted itself firmly at the top, some 80-feet lower now than where the 10-foot wooden cross once stood. It hauled the marrow of the earth up over the hill and into the unknown. Fierro was once a lively mining town. Now it is a name on a map along an unmarked road marred by the decaying remains of homes. The only building preserved against dry rot is El Sancuario de la Pieta at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church. People still travel twice per month to attend mass at St. Anthony’s. We had arrived right in time for the ceremony, but the doors were locked and the only chorus to be heard rumbled from the stomach of the mine–the mountain shaved to its core. “There is no church this Sunday,” Zakery said, “They’re moving the mountain.”
This newest eviction in the long line of environmental injustices in the Grant County mining district. The mine that swallowed the town of Santa Rita as its pit expanded was about to engorge the memorial shrine of Fierro too.
The Shrine of Santa Rita sits tucked in a battlefield of dying towns at the intersection of New Mexico highways 152 and 356. In exchange for their loss, the residents of Santa Clara were gifted a 900-square foot lot to fence in their refugee relics: Our Lady of Guadalupe stands in here a terrarium holding a rosary and overlooking a memorial to Grant County Veterans. She herself stands as a memorial praying for the Santa Rita refugees whose lives and homes destroyed. Across the pews, looking south toward exposed rainbow earth, a plaque reads:
In 1960, Kennecott Copper Corporation notified the residents of the town of Santa Rita that they had to evacuate by 1970 due to mining expansion, all houses, buildings, and the Santa Rita Catholic church were either moved or demolished. The Statue of Santa Rita was taken the village of central Miguel Ojinaga. Angel Alvarado and Moy Gonzales asked Kennecott for a section of land, and the statue was brought back with the blessing of the diocesan of El Paso and with the help of other Santa Rita residents. The shrine was built here.
The plaque speaks in half-truths about the devastations of the people, as though the plot of land smaller than the average backyard is a gift. The residents of Santa Rita did not evacuate, an optional migration in the event of natural disaster, they were evicted by their Land Lord. As the earth literally fell out from under their feet took, not only where they lived but where they went for spiritual rejuvenation, citizens of Santa Rita were left with nothing. They waited and watched the physical destruction of their town, only to see a symbol of their faith carried off in the process. Our Lady of Guadalupe, a cultural symbol for the Mexicano people sought refuge in El Paso waiting out her trial for permission to return. Now, she mourns over all of the lives lost in Grant County. The physical lives of veterans and the envision of life as it once was. Soon there would be a new memorial statue to honor the 890 women’s auxiliary who put their lives on the line in 1950 to fight for fair working conditions in the same mine. The Santa Rita shrine is a catch-all sanctuary because it is the untouched slice of a “home” they used to know. It is a cultural artifact of the little bit they could salvage. As Glenn Albrecht explains in “Solastalgia: A New Concept in Health and Identity” the citizens of Santa Rita grieved as they watched their lands being stripped away. They felt a “relationship between the psychic identity and their home. What these people lacked was the solace of comfort derived from their present relationship to ‘home’.” The destruction of one’s land is the devastation of one’s identity, especially in a mining town where the earth is tied to their culture. The people call themselves the Salt of the Earth, both in reference to their humble nature and their inseparable identity from the ground that provides for them. The paradox of mining is knowing that you make your money exploiting the same resources you depend on for sustenance. Although the company houses did not belong to the people of Santa Rita, the land always did. When the company asserted its power to repossess all of the lands, they left families defenseless–homesick, mourning. Much like Albrecht notes, “their place-based distress was also connected to a sense of powerlessness and a sense that environmental injustice was being on home.” They watched pit expand to consume their geographic homes, and their vision of home was destroyed as they realize how little power they had over anything. This grief is intensified knowing the Santa Rita citizens where the ones both assaulting and assaulted. They dugs the pit during the day and came home the sleep in houses they would sweep away. They understood that their paychecks would cost the people of Santa Rita their lives as they knew it. Now Santa Rita is a whisper behind a chain-linked fence, and Fierro is dwindling as the pit runs dry. The only hope of saving the central mining district is mountain-top removal.
Over the last few weeks, I have spent some time bouncing around and interviewing officials from the Department of Cultural Affairs to understand how we can begin designating the Local 890 Union Hall as a historic property. Our team’s mission is to recognize the lives, labor, and leadership of the women and men of Local 890 and celebrate their groundbreaking role in the 1950-1952 Empire Zinc Mine Strike–one of the nation’s most effective and groundbreaking strikes lead by women. In my part on the Salt of the Earth Recovery Project team, I wanted to see what we can do, if anything to implement governmental historic designation. So I started asking questions: Who makes decisions about the designation of a State Historic Site? What is the process of designating a State Historic Site? and What criteria is used to determine when nominating and selecting sites?
What I discovered is that there are more designations for preservation that we should consider beyond State Historic Sites. Some are well-marked by standard operating procedures and legislation, others are governed by state statute. Furthermore, the process of becoming a “State Historic Site” is only partially mapped; and it requires us to work with the community to tell the history of the building through tourism. You find in this report an explanation of the different designation processes and benefits and drawbacks of each. Regardless of the route we pursue in preserving the Local 890 Union Hall, community partnerships, grants for funding, and historic interpretation are essential ingredients.
The Murals on the outside of the Union building depict the importance of the strike within the community.
Salt of the Earth Recovery Project Mission Statement:
The mission of the Salt of the Earth Recovery Project is to recognize the lives, labor, and leadership of the women and men of Local 890 and celebrate their groundbreaking role in the 1950-1952 Empire Zinc Mine Strike.
Vision Statement:
The vision of the Salt of the Earth Recovery Project is to honor the stories of the women and men of Local 890 and to support restoration and preservation of the Local 890 Union Hall in Bayard, New Mexico for the benefit of the local community, the citizens of New Mexico, and the historic memory of the nation.
A few members of our team gather around the bridge where the woman strikers held the line.
Definitions of Designation
At times in my research, I lost track of the terms used for official designation. They are mostly governed by the same entities, the Historic Preservation Division and the Department of Cultural Affairs, but the designations are important to distinguish from one another.
● State Register of Cultural Properties – “This designation provides for the protection of archaeological sites through the creation of a permit process to survey and excavate archaeological sites and unmarked human burials by qualified institutions and established civil and criminal penalties for the looting of archaeological sites and disturbance of unmarked burials. ” This designation is commonly referred to as the State Historic Registry and allows for certain properties to receive state funding in the form of grants for preservation. In addition, it makes the destruction of validation of this property a criminal offense. These properties are not given plaques of any sort.
● National Register of Historic Places – This is a designation of “the nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.” The designation allows an organization to apply for federal funding for the preservation of the property. It also makes the destruction or vandalization of the building a federal offense.
● New Mexico Scenic Historic Markers – These are the markers used to commemorate a historic event or place. They are plaques granted by the Cultural Properties Review Committee, State Historic Preservation Division, and Office of Cultural Affairs. They do not grant any benefit or privilege to the historic site. However, they must be reviewed for accuracy of information and to ensure the marker will not cause harm to the site. The general purpose is to attract highway travelers to read about a point of interest without veering far from the highway. The ladies auxiliary unit of the local 890 already has one of these markers alongside highway 152.
● New Mexico State Historic Site – (Formerly called New Mexico State Monuments) These are registered cultural properties that receive special designation, management, and interpretation services through the Department of Cultural Affairs. They are staffed by the State Parks Service. There are currently only six of these. New Mexico has more than 1,985 prehistoric and historic properties listed in the State Register, but only 6 are State Historic Sites.
● National Historic Landmark – This designation is for “nationally significant historic places designated by the Secretary of the Interior because they possess exceptional value or quality in illustrating or interpreting the heritage of the United States.” While over 90,000 sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places, just over 2600 are National Historic Landmarks.
● Certified Local Government Program (CLG) – This designation assists local governments to develop their own ordinances for demolition and construction within “historical districts.” The goal is to integrate community planning with historic preservation. Only CLGs are eligible for second category grants from the National Park Service’s Historic Preservation Fund.
Recent Discoveries and Progress
Juntos en la Union: Juntos en la Union is a historical society out of Silver City dedicated to “the preservation of The Mine Mill and Smelter Workers Local 890 headquarters” who have already made great strides in the designation process. Unannounced to our team, they begin the preservation efforts of the local 890 union hall. It seems their efforts began with the intention to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the film “Salt of the Earth,” as cited in their letters of support. Between the years 2010 and 2017, the group made great distance to prove the historical significance of the Union hall including:
● A letter of support from the City of Bayard signed by the mayor in May 2010
● A letter of support from the Wisconsin Labor History Society recommending the Union Hall’s designation to the National Register of Historic Places in December 2010
● A letter from New Mexico’s former Governor, Jeff Bingaman in support of preserving the Union Hall in July 2011.
Despite a lack of knowledge within the community, Juntos en le Union’s dedication to the protection of the building resulted in the designation of the union hall a state cultural property in March 2017 with a vote of 48 yeses to 7 nos. The Memorial verifies historical and cultural significance based on:
The Political Significance in History
● The site’s representation of “minority groups’ struggles and triumphs over injustice and discrimination and that [the local 890 union’s] pursuit of happiness guaranteed under the United States Constitution” during and after the 1950-1951 Empire Zinc Strikes
● A historic landmark demonstrating the “struggle of the workers of Local 890 and Ladies Auxiliary 290 against racism, sexism and unjust working conditions”
The Social Significance of the Salt of the Earth Film
● The contribution of the Salt of the Earth film as “one of the first motion pictures to advance the feminist social and political point of view” and the union hall as the primary filming location of the movie
● The novel significance of the film as the only motion picture ever blacklisted in American Film History
● The cultural significance of the Library of Congress’ designation of one of the top 100 most “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” films
The Local and Community Significance of the Building
● A community center where “miners and their families could attend lectures and movies and socialize at dances, bingo parties, wedding, and baptisms, in addition to being used for union business”
● A classic construction representative of New Mexican architecture
National Register of Historic Places
Despite legislative effort in designating the Local 890 Union Hall as a State Cultural Property, it was not recommended as an addition to National Registry of Historic Places. According to State legislature, a property must first receive designation and approval as a State Cultural Property before it is eligible for the National Registry. Generally, the applying organization or individual fills out the two forms together. Upon approval as a State Cultural Property, the Cultural Review Committee may forward the National Application to the National Park Service for further review. Listing the Union Hall on the National registry does little to bring in money for preservation nor interpretation. The main role of the designation is to change the way the community of Bayard perceives its history and historic places.
There are two reasons why I believe the site was not recommended to the National Historic Registry. First, according to the national criteria, a historic site must be at least 50 years old to qualify. When Juntos en La Union began the designation process, 50 years had not yet passed since the end of the Empire Zinc Mine strikes and the filming of the movie. In addition, the application did not situate the historical merit of the building in a larger narrative about the changing social and political climate of the US.; rather it documented the history of the building as stand-alone events. In order to present the union hall as a nationally significant site, we need to connect it to the Hispanic civil rights movement and/or the feminist movement of the era noting how the events of the strike primed other emerging activists and civil assemblies.
Benefits of the National Register:
Tax Credits: The major benefit of the National Historic Landmark designation is a 20% federal income tax credit available for the rehabilitation of historic buildings that produce income. While the union hall does not currently produce income, this tax credit can provide relief for maintenance and preservation of the building once it is open to the community again. In addition, New Mexico’s Historic Preservation Division offers up to half of the rehabilitation costs as a deduction from state income taxes over a period of five years, with a cap of $25,000 per project. The property owner may also qualify for a 3% APR fixed rate loan for any rehabilitation, maintenance, or preservation work.
Federal Grants: Another benefit of the National Historic Registry is the eligibility for grants. Among these grants is the State Historic Preservation Program which allocates more than 54 million dollars each year to match state contributions for the preservation of 20-50 National Registry Historic Sites. This grant is highly competitive.
Application Process:
As the next step in the preservation of the building, this designation would list the property to the public and may encourage tourism to the town of Bayard. While this designation does not automatically issue a plaque, the designation itself emits a certain ethos in advertising that is worth the minimal effort of an application.
As outlined in the HM022 New Mexico State Legislative memorial, I believe the local 890 Union Hall presents a strong case for National Historic Preservation. With the state historic registry application, we already have most of the information required, and the designation process is short–taking an average of 90 days after the completion of the application. The past applications for National Registration are all on file and available on the National Parks Services Website. As models for the application process, The Forty Acres Farm in Delano, California is the historically closest resembling national historic property and provides an example to follow when writing the application. The geographically nearest resembling National Historic property in New Mexico, The Silver City Woman’s Club building, may also serve as a model for writing a “proposed use” statement. Both of these sites are privately owned and designated within the last ten years which means the application process and applications should be similar
Criteria for the National Registry:
Historic significance:
● Empire Zinc Mine Strikes
● Women’s Auxiliary Unit
● Connection to Salt of the Earth
Historic Context:
● Latino American civil rights activism
● American labor movement
● Social and political feminism
Historic Integrity:
● Intact local and historical architecture
● Murals of cultural and local significance
● Location in connection to mines
State Historic Site Designation
The primary benefit of the State Historic site designation is an increase in tourism and recognition of the historical merit of Bayard, the Local 890 Union, and the Empire Zinc mine strikes. A spot on the National registry guarantees a certain level of preservation, but it does not list the property in a conspicuous catalog for places to visit. On the other hand, placement among the other 6 State Historic Sites managed by the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs would distinguish the property in a way that attracts visitors. In addition, these sites are well marked by multiple signs to direct interest and traffic from all nearby highways. The process validates the historical narrative of the location in a way other designations cannot, but it also takes away a certain amount of control from the community to establish preservation and direction of the site. All preservation work must be preapproved by the Historic Preservation Division who requires permits for any community use of the property beyond the events scheduled by preservation easements (Friends of…). This means the site could not be used as a community gathering space.
Process for Designation:
While the process for cultural property designation is written in state statute, the process for moving that designation forward to a State Historic Site is much more complicated, and each historic site approaches it differently. The three key ingredients to becoming a State Historic Site are significant capital, community partnerships, and means for interpretation. These conclusions from a Case Study of the Taylor Mesilla Historic Site (a future state historic site) and The Coronado Historic Site (the first State Historic Site in New Mexico), and an Interview with Pilar Cannizzaro, the Preservation Planning Manager for the New Mexico Historic Preservation Division.
Capital:
According to Cannizzaro, the budget of a historic site is of key importance because the state has a small budget for maintaining, preserving, and interpreting the sites. When new sites are added, the budget does not increase; the capital must be split. Therefore, it is essential that a historic site gifts the state additional funds. We see this in the case of the Taylor Home, where the wealthy estate owner gifted the property and his money to the state of New Mexico transferable upon death. For the Coronado Historic Site, Franklin D. Roosevelt gifted the lead archaeologist, Edgar Lee Hewett, $50,000 as part of the antiquities act and Work Projects Administration to excavate and interpret the site in anticipation of the Cuarto Centenario commemoration of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado’s conquest through New Mexico. In a more recent attempt to designate Los Lucero Historic Property as a State Historic Site, the Department of Cultural affairs completely restored the property, draining funds from other sites. However, it sits empty without the money for interpretation or management.
Cannizzaro noted that a cultural property could become a State Historic Site without immediate funding if organizers of the property could guarantee a sufficient amount of tourism to sustain revenue. In these cases, state and national grants provide up to 90% of the costs of acquisition and restoration in anticipation of tourism providing interpretation and maintenance costs. Events like Old Lincoln Day and the Billy the Kid Pageant bring in enough revenue to sustain Lincoln Historic Site for the remainder of the year.
Community Buy-in:
Nearly everyone I have talked to repeatedly states community buy-in is perhaps the most crucial ingredient to the designation of a historic site.
Every State Historic Site Began the designation process with a “Friends of” 501-3C nonprofit organization established in the interest of preserving a historic site. They work to create a partnership with the public through outreach, provide volunteer labor, fundraise for new and updated exhibits, and secure the liability insurance to host events on and near the property that the State and Federal Government cannot. Perhaps the most important role of the “Friends of” group during their designation process is their presence at legislative meetings. Having members of the community attend these meetings works like grassroots lobbyists to push the site through the designation process.
According to the Historic Preservation Division, “property owners may grant a local government or not-for-profit organization with the preservation mission the right to preserve a historic, archeological, or cultural resource.” This process occurs through a contract called a preservation easement wherein the property owner, in our case The United Steel Workers’ Association, would transfer the development and preservation rights of the Union Hall to the nonprofit organization. These rights include historic preservation and/or open-space preservation. However, the organization must first prove that they have the resources to manage and enforce the restrictions provided for in the easement.
When I spoke with the president of Friends of Coronado, Brian Gilmore, he noted that much of the group’s work now is to continue raising money for new research of the site and working as docents for special tours. I have invited him out to the Cuentos events in July. He also agreed to meet with a committee or group to talk about how to establish a strong “Friends of” group.
Community buy-in can take other forms too. For the redesignation and reinterpretation of the Bosque Redondo site, it came in the form of a letter and petition from 21 concerned Navajo who urged for “the true history of the Navajos and the United States Military ” with support from the Navajo tribe to reinterpret the site and curate a museum that meets the criteria for the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience – a designation of “safe spaces to remember and preserve even the most traumatic memories, but they enable their visitors to make connections between the past and related contemporary human rights issues. ” Through connections with the Navajo tribe, that site is now eligible for grant funding and interpretation support through International Coalition of Sites of Conscience. As part of the reinterpretation, the Navajo tribe now sponsors pilgrimages to Bosque Redondo to honor and remember their ancestors who died there. This tourist event now generates profits through tourism.
We see the same effect with the community support of the Jemez Historic sites and the community support from the Jemez tribe. While the historic site currently represents the Spanish Colonial conquest on the prehistoric site, the Jemez Pueblo recently joined efforts with the Friends of Jemez Historic site to raise money for future excavations of the archeological site to learn more about the Native people who lived there pre-Spanish contact. Excavations will begin in August and accompany a new exhibit about how to clean, interpret, and preserve prehistoric artifacts.
The Salt of The Earth Recovery Project workshops this May-July will not only reaffirm our community buy-in, but they will give us written documentation from our community about what they would like to see done with the union hall. These voices are a crucial element to solidify communal historical merit and designation. Additionally, it gives us a point of contact with individuals who might be interested in becoming the first leaders and members of a Friends of the Local 890 Union Hall or a similar support group. If we invite members of the Department of Cultural Affairs to these events, we position our community to meet with decision makers directly.
Interpretation:
Interpretation of a site comes in many forms: placard, pamphlets, and tours. Unfortunately, there are little to no state funds allocated for historical sites that are not State Historic Sites. Interpretation is often left as work for the community, volunteers, and staff of the site. An already well-established narrative of interpretation would better position the property for State Historic Site Designation. The Salt of the Earth Recovery Project also creates a launching point for interpretation of the significance of the Empire Zinc Mine Strikes and Local 890 Union hall from the perspective of various stakeholders from different generations.
SWOT analysis of State Historic Site Designation:
Strengths:
● Close to Silver City for Tourism
● Recent inclusion in the Bayard City Tour
Weaknesses:
● Not “old” enough/barely passed the 50-year marker
● No ability to prove prior tourism
● No local events to bring in Tourism
Opportunities:
● Historic Women Marker Initiative (kairos)
● Santa Clara CLG nearby offers a connection to other historical attractions
Threats:
● Justifying a budget
● Interpreting the history is challenging and time-consuming.
Certified Local Government Program:
A Certified Local Government Program (CLG) is a political subdivision of the state that has established public policy towards historic preservation. This enacts a historic preservation ordinance and establishes a local preservation commission. An ordinance must meet specific requirements for the designation and protection of historic properties (outlined in NMAC 4.10.10, see FAQ page) The local preservation commission reviews historical projects and makes decisions about preservation and restoration as needed. Generally, this establishes a historical district with multiple historic sites protected within. The CLG can then establish ordinances that establish what private owners can and cannot do with their historical properties. The commission must also meet certain specifications. The designation allows a community to maintain full control of preservation and interpretation including direct participation in the listing process for nominations to the National Register of Historic Sites.
CLG Designation Process:
The designation of sites within that district is decided upon within the CLG’s review panel. CLG grant program coordinator, Karla McWilliams, would work with the community to establish the CLG and guide the community through establishing preservation criteria and measures. To be certified, a CLG candidate must apply to the Historic Preservation Division for certification. An application for certification includes a copy of the preservation ordinance, a list of commission members, commission members’ resumes, how the commission will be staffed, a certification agreement, a checklist, a request for certification, and a list/map of all designated historic properties. Then, the Historic Preservation Division will review the application to ensure it meets program requirements. If it does, it is forwarded to the National Park Service for their review and certification. They decide on the designation process within 30 days of receiving the application.
Other Benefits of the CLG:
Funding:
Aside from maintaining local control the Union Hall’s use and preservation, CLGs are eligible for additional funding from the National Parks Service through the Historic Preservation Fund. While other grants are highly competitive, at least 10% of all of New Mexico’s Federal Historic Preservation funds must be granted to CLGs. In 2007, this was about $80,000. As of now, there are only 9 CLGs in New Mexico, making Bayard highly competitive for funding. These sub-grants have few restrictions on what they can fund, and projects may include: “surveys, National Register nominations, rehabilitation work, design guidelines, educational programs, training, structural assessments, and feasibility studies.” CLG grants are matching (1:1) and reimbursable grants.
As a CLG, the district would also be eligible for an Underrepresented Community Grant through the National Parks Service. Last year the scholarship granted funding to 13 projects totally $500,000. The money from this grant may be used to fund preservation of a property already listed on the National Registry. They may also be used to nominate a specific site for the registry.
Technical Assistance:
CLGs also have the benefit of direct access to State Historic Preservation Officer (Patrick Moore) for consulting about assistance with building assessments, surveys and historical nominations, and general preservation assistance. The community would also receive preservation and management training from CLG program coordinator Karla McWilliams.
Property Value:
The establishing of a historic district generally increases property values within the district by enforcing building maintenance, walkability, and a greater sense of community pride.
SWOT Analysis of CLG designation:
Strengths:
• Bayard has several potential historic sites in need of preservation
• The community shows continued support in preservation efforts, including the letter of support from the city mayor
• Santa Clara, a few miles away, just established a CLG which gives us a model for the creation of a CLG
Weaknesses:
• The CLG requires active effort and participation from the government and community which may strain time and monetary resources.
• The CLG allows the city to establish ordinances that may work against the wishes of property owners.
Opportunities
• We have already established a working relationship with Karla McWilliams who is willing to meet with community leaders in-person.
• The positionality of the historic events and demographic representation of the community would position the CLG competitively for the Underrepresented Community Grant.
Threats:
• Rallying of qualified commission members may prove tricky if the whole community is not invested in the preservation efforts.
Possible Plan for Consideration
Given my best judgement, I recommend the following tentative plan for the preservation and restoration of the Local 890 Union Hall.
Analyze community responses to “What would you like to see done with the Building” through the community writing workshop.
Invite Patrick Moore and Karla McWilliams to the community workshops
Establish “Friends of” non-profit organization for the union hall
Invite Brian Gilmore in to talk to interested parties about the process of establishing a strong friends group
Consider establishing Certified Local Government Program
How do several sites around town contribute to the historical narrative of the community?
Gather local stakeholders in a meeting to discuss with Karla the benefits and process of designating a CLG
Generate a list of potential commission member
Apply for National Registry, either as a district or the union hall as a stand-alone site.
Follow up Actions
What does the community want to do with the Property?
Is preservation or accessibility more important?
Are they interested in establishing a community conversation organization?
Invite Karla McWilliams to Bayard to talk about the specifics of the CLG
Are there other sites in need/eligible for protection?
Who does the community want/need on the committee?
