Salt of the Earth was produced in 1954, during the heart of the McCarthy anti-Communist era. The movie was made by members of the Hollywood Ten, who had been blacklisted. Needless to say, the film was not well received, and saw very little play on theater screens across the country (13 out of 13,000 theaters nationwide). It is labeled as the "Only U.S. Blacklisted film" and partly because of this, has seen a resurgence in popularity and cult following after the witch hunt McCarthy years ended. The movie focuses on the true events of a strike at a mine of the Empire Zinc Company in southern New Mexico. The mining company's name and the name of the town are changed, but the events depict the strike in Bayard, New Mexico, in 1951. Most of the actors in the movie are locals, many who were involved in the original strike. The movie deals with issues affecting Mexican-American miners who felt they were being treated unfairly, compared with their Anglo counterparts. However, the movie also deals with feminism, as the wives of the miners fight for equality of their own, both within their own homes and with their Anglo counterparts. Both the men and the women of the Mexican-American community soon realize the only way to win their struggle is to work together. This is a fascinating piece of film-making that exposes many of the injustices that Mexican-Americans have faced, as well as women, and even poor Anglo workers that have been exploited through the years.
Mural in Bayard depicting the strike: http://legacy.usw.org/usw/program/adminlinks/docs/paint.pdf
More information from the Office of the State Historian of New Mexico: http://www.newmexicohistory.org/filedetails.php?fileID=254
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