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| Angelina Sanchez Photo credit: Sanchez family; all rights reserved. |
Since today is International Women's Day, it seemed appropriate to incorporate a bit of an international theme. Okay, so it's only two countries, both in North America: the United States and Mexico. But both play a role in this story of two strong women brought together by an important event in New Mexico's history, an event that would wind up testing both in vastly different yet undeniably related ways.
Even if you live in New Mexico, unless you live in a very specific area of the state and have knowledge of a specific incident from more than an half-century ago, you've probably never heard of Angelina G. Sanchez. She was not a native New Mexican, but she moved to the state as a young woman, intent on dedicating herself to protecting the rights of Mexican-American and women workers. She joined the Ladies' Auxiliary of the United Mineworkers of America, and she played a significant role in the UMA's strike against the Empire Zinc Mine in Bayard, New Mexico, in 1951.
