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Los Mineros. Prod. by Hector Galan. Galan Productions, 1990. 58 mins. (PBS Video, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, VA 22314-1698)
Hector Galan's production, a gripping documentary, adds the Mexican dimension to the history of copper mining in the southwestern United States. Aided by the veteran writer Paul Espinosa, Galan masterfully blends the story of the Mexican miner in the eastern Arizona mining towns of Clifton and Morenci. Los Mineros fuses interviews, photos, film, and early Mexican corridos (Mexican folk ballads) to reconstruct a history of struggle that begins well before the turn of the present century.
As in the case of most documentaries, the story is personal--the actors are human; the injustice of the dual wage system, the cracking timbers holding mine shafts from caving in, and the exploitation of segregated company housing and the company store are vivid. Mexican miners, shown with candles, descend to depths where the air is thin and temperatures rise to 104 degrees, while above ground their families live in shacks nestling like mountain goats on the steep hillsides.
Galan...