Saturday, June 29, 2024

Hundreds Of Chicano Miners Deported After Strike, Including Citizens

 

Mural in Gallup depicting the strike by Andrew Butler,



June 29, 1936, today 100 miners suspected of being Communist activists were deported to Mexico for being “undesirable aliens”. The men and their families had all been active in the strike against the Gallup American Coal company in 1934 and the violence that followed a partial settlement of the strike in 1935 when the miner's homes in what was known as Chihuahuita were sold by the mine, however, Gallup American had not reopened and with the sale of the property indicated they would not.

Among the deportees was controversial strike leader Jesus Pallares. Pallares had organized 8,000 Spanish-speaking mine workers into the Liga Obrera de Habla Espanola (League of Spanish-Speaking Workers) who supported the National Miners Union. The strike had led to six months of Marshall Law under New Mexico’s Governor Andrew Hockenhull.

Local political leaders including the mayor of Gallup along with John Lewis the head of the United Mine Workers accused Pallares of being a Communist organizer. The UMU held the position that rival unions were all Communist and in 1935 the NMU collapsed under the weight of the accusations and loss of members.

While there was no evidence that Pallares was a Communist the was no doubt he was a labor agitator. For the White people of Gallup and the business leadership, Pallares was too active and a threat to their position in the community. A few years before they had tried blackballing him from the entire region, including southern Colorado.

Deportation was one of the weapons authority and the establishment used to end the threat individuals like Pallares represented and although he had been in the United States for more than 20 years and was likely to have been a native-born citizen it was easy for the Immigration Service to deport him and other workers as they had no support from the majority White business interests.




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