Vale Lorenzo P. Torrez "salt of the earth"

Lorenzo P. Torrez

(April 18, 1927 – January 1, 2012)Salt of the Earth MinerLabor, Civil Rights, & Peace Activist Great Dies at 84

Today we mourn the passing of a Grant County working-class hero and know within our hearts that he is not gone forever from our lives.  Lorenzo P. Torrez, a born and raised Gila, N.M. native who attended Cliff High School, lives on in the peace, labor, civil and human rights work that he and his wife, Anita Torrez, who survives him, dedicated their lives too.  Both Lorenzo and Anita were involved in the Empire Zinc strike (1950-52) and in the making of the world famous working-class film Salt of the Earth (filmed in Grant County) that the couple along with their children acted in.

Lorenzo and Anita were childhood sweethearts.  Both attended school at every grade level together in Cliff.  When Anita graduated from high school Lorenzo missed his senior year in order to join the Army at 18 years of age and serve his country in WWII from 1945-1947.  Upon returning to Grant County he was hired to work as an underground miner at the Empire Zinc Company that was located in Hanover, N.M. and worked there for 20 years.    

Home from the war, Lorenzo found himself, like all Mexican-Americans and African- Americans in the US, facing extreme social, economic, and racial injustices.  As newlyweds in rural post-war New Mexico, the Torres’ found themselves in the midst of a giant labor struggle over racial oppression, poor work conditions and pay.  In fact, life in general in the small towns of Bayard, Hurley, Santa Rita, and Silver was marred by discrimination against Mexican Americans.  On the job, the pay and job responsibilities (skilled vs. unskilled) were not equal with Anglos.  The pay lines were segregated, one for the Anglos, the other for the Mexicans.  Off the job, housing was segregated.  The swimming pools were segregated.  The only day Mexicans could swim was at the end of the week when it was time to drain the pool and refill it.  The movie theaters were segregated, with Mexicans on one side in the back and Anglos on the other. Anita recalls, “I remember one day Juan Chacon (miner and lead actor in Salt of the Earth and whose name graces the WNMU Nursing building) decided to sit in the front of the movie theater and challenge the rule, boy there was a big raucous about that and they wanted to remove him and his family from the theater.  But we didn’t stop resisting.”   

Citizens of Grant County were fed up.  The main issues of the strike were in fact about racial injustice.  They rebelled against it and used the union to break hundreds of years of discrimination by uniting and demanding an end to second class citizenship in the U.S.  In solidarity, the workers at Empire Zinc decided to strike.  Lorenzo participated as a shop steward and organizer and Anita was one of the woman who took over the picket lines when the Grant County district judge (Marshall) issued an injunction, enforced by the local district attorney (Thomas Foy who passed away in 2011), against the men picketing.  The women persisted and proved to be brave and strong fighters even when many were thrown into jail and threatened.  Together with the men, after much hardship, sacrifice, and persecution the strike was victorious.  It was victorious because of the support from other miner’s unions in the country and the unity of all the workers and their families across racial and gender lines. 

All of this was captured in the now world famous movie, “The Salt of the Earth” that was produced and directed by victims of the Hollywood blacklist against communists and progressives and was shot on location in Bayard, N.M. with the actual strikers and their families playing most of the roles in the film.  At the 50^th anniversary of the making of the movie it was inducted to the Library of Congress for posterity as 100 of the top films representing Americana.  The film remains a very popular and widely used teaching tool that demonstrates the courage and ability of working people succeeding in taking on very powerful corporations, the courts, police, and institutional racism.   

Both Lorenzo and Anita were leaders and organizers before, during, and after the strike.  As a husband and wife team they went on to accomplish magnificent things in their work for social and economic justice in the world. When there was a lack of work and Lorenzo found himself and his family being persecuted by the FBI for his role as a lead labor organizer in the Empire Zinc strike he and Anita left Grant County in 1971for Los Angeles and he became an organizer and advocate for Mexican workers.  It was there that he and Anita helped found El Instituto del Pueblo (The People’s Institute) – an organization dedicated to community organizing and education around issues of social, economic, and political justice.  After several years they were then sent in 1975 to Tucson, Arizona in order to establish another community learning center which still exists today and is known all over the world as The Salt of the Earth Labor College. 

In a recent interview with the author of this article Lorenzo’s wife Anita stated, “We have been in Tucson ever since 1975.  We established The Salt of the Earth Labor College and it is still up and running today.  An elderly couple donated the building to the community along with their entire library of progressive books.  We maintain the college by fundraising and it is open to all for classes on every subject and current events having to do with labor issues, social justice issues, economic issues, woman’s rights, indigenous rights, and current struggles of importance in our country to save ethnic studies, defend the rights of immigrant workers, and combat present day racism and xenophobia.” 

          As we reflect, let us eternally be guided by the Torrez’s passion and dedication to the causes of peace, labor, civil and human rights.  They have been a constant source of dignified resistance to be reckoned with.  We are grateful for the magnificent example in our lives that they have been to all of us. As we now observe the 100 year mark of New Mexico’s statehood and approach the 60 year anniversary (Jan. 25, 1952) of the victory of the striking workers over Empire Zinc let us acknowledge the massive contribution to our lives and freedoms that Lorenzo P. Torrez over the course of nearly one-hundred years, in love and sacrifice gave to us.  The struggle continues.

(Permission to write this article and to announce services was obtained by author.  A rosary will be recited at 6pm Jan. 13 at Bright Funeral Home Chapel.  A funeral Mass was held Jan. 14^th at 9am at San Isidro Church in Gila with Father Roberto Barreto.  Interment followed at Gila Catholic Cemetery)