First We Bombed New Mexico

'First We Bombed New Mexico" follows the intimate journey of indomitable Hispanic cancer survivor Tina Cordova who has catalyzed a movement seeking justice for the forgotten residents of southern New Mexico – mostly Hispanic and Native – who suffer multigenerational cancers they tie to the secret poisoning of their land by the Trinity Bomb.

This is the story that "Oppenheimer" doesn’t tell. And it is a s-hero’s journey.

When Tina was diagnosed with thyroid cancer 18 years ago, the doctor asked when she was exposed to radiation. Tina already knew the answer. Tina knew that the multigenerational cancers afflicting her town of Tularosa, and the cancer that killed her father – were tied to radiated fallout that had covered her town following Trinity's secret explosion in 1945. "First We Bombed New Mexico" follows Tina's journey for justice for her people and exposes the tragic and continuing legacy of the Trinity Bomb.

In her digging, Tina learns that Manhattan Project physicians had urged General Groves to evacuate residents before the Trinity test to save them from catastrophic levels of radiation. But Grove's concerns for secrecy and the need to prevent litigation trumped concern for citizen health.

Tina also discovers that baby deaths in New Mexico spiked directly after the blast. “New Mexico babies were the first victims of Trinity”. This also was covered up.

Tina learns that downwinder victims of the later Nevada Cold War nuclear tests have received reparations from Congress since 1990.

This then becomes Tina’s goal – to have Congress extend RECA (Radiation Exposure Compensation Act) legislation so New Mexicans who lost family members to cancers tied to the Trinity blast also receive compensation.

Tina travels to Laguna Pueblo where the world’s largest open pit uranium mine scars its earth. Drone shots witness the still open pit, adjacent to the town of Paguate where former mining families are sick and dying. These families are also unsuccessful in getting the government‘s attention. Tina forms a coalition with the Native miners, saying “If we speak with one voice, it will be harder for Congress to turn its back on us”.

Finally, in 2018, Tina and her close band of downwinder mothers are invited to Washington to tell their story. Tina is certain that once Congress hears them speak, it will help them. In marbled rooms on Capitol Hill, verité filming shows famous legislators enthusiastically applauding the women from New Mexico. However, Tina and the mothers are sorely disappointed to learn one year later that no concessions or help was approved.

Woven into our film are insights by renowned nuclear experts, including MIT professor and author Kate Brown. Brown says efforts by the Downwinders to get justice from the government is like “the fox guarding the henhouse”.

Prof. Josh Wheeler author of "Acid West" and a 5th-generation New Mexican, observes that New Mexico is the only state in the United States with a cradle-to-grave nuclear industry – where the uranium for the weapons was mined, the nuclear weapons are built and the nuclear waste is stored. Professor Myrriah Gomez uses the term “nuclear colonialism” to describe the relationship between local residents and the powerful and rich nuclear industry in New Mexico.

This beautiful and compelling film celebrates resilient people in a remote part of our country that the government falsely claimed was ‘uninhabited’.

The clock is ticking, the Downwinders only have until June 2024 to get Congress to extend RECA. Thanks, in part, to "Oppenheimer" and sudden interest in Trinity, the Senate recently voted overwhelmingly to extend RECA and include it in the NDAA, something Tina had been trying unsuccessfully to accomplish for 18 years. So hopes were high of getting RECA extended. However, the RECA compensation was recently removed from the NDAA by House leaders in a closed-door session.

With its release, the film will be used by an impact campaign to finally tell Americans this story and to gain public support to put pressure on Congress to extend RECA before it expires in June 2024.

Attached is a letter From New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham expressing her desire that this important film is seen widely.