Torrez, Anita and Lorenzo Torrez

TORREZ, ANITA (1927-2021) LORENZO TORREZ (1927-2012). A lifelong rank-and-file labor leaders and Communist Party activists, Anita Torrez and Lorenzo Torrez were famed for their activism in the Southwest.

Born and raised in the small farm town of Gila, New Mexico, Anita Polanco met her future husband, Lorenzo Torrez, while still in high school. Lorenzo served a tour of duty in the Army towards the end of World War II, and following his honorable discharge, they married and began raising a family. In 1949, the family moved to Hanover, New Mexico where he found work at the Empire Zinc Mine.

Workers at the mine were represented by the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers, a militant “red” union with roots in the Western Federation of Miners (WFM). On October 17, 1950, they went on strike over racist pay differentials and company housing practices. Anita Torrez recalled later, “Mexican Americans lived in one part of the mining town, the whites in the another; the whites had better homes, Mexican Americans had no running water, the others did. That was part of the reasons for the strike, along with the pay.”

The Empire Zinc Strike, destined to be known as the “Salt of the Earth” strike, lasted for fifteen months and was memorialized in the 1953 film of the title. Both Anita and Lorenzo, along with many of the other miners and their families, played roles in the movie. A most unique feature within contemporary cinema, Salt of the Earth’s authenticity and its message prompted wide global showings, most especially in the East Bloc. It also prompted attacks from the American Right and from liberals, including a young Pauline Kael, a rancher’s daughter who famously described Salt of the Earth as un-American for failing to show how Mexicans and whites interacted easily in other settings.

After eight months of the strike, Empire Zinc won a court injunction against the striking workers, leading Anita and other members of the Mine Mill Ladies Auxiliary to take over the now illegal picket line for the next seven months of the conflict. Not officially members of the union, the women could not be bound by the court injunction, but warrants were nevertheless eventually issued for Torrez and other women leaders, and police began to arrest the women. “Empire Zinc was more afraid of the women on the picket line than the men,” Anita recalled later. The Auxiliary also faced increasing violence from non-union, mostly white scabs and assorted strike-breakers who did what they could, along with the company, to scare off striking workers. Pregnant with her second child during the final months of the strike, Torrez moved from the picket line to the union hall, where police eventually came looking for her. When the police asked for her, she replied: “Anita Torrez? I don’t know who she is.”

Mine Mill actually won the strike and secured higher pay, better living conditions, and improved workplace standards. Both Anita and Lorenzo Torrez joined the CPUSA towards the end of the strike, as did many other mine workers, including Juan Chacon, who played the leading role in the film. But once back at work, Anita and Lorenzo Torrez among other leaders found themselves blacklisted as members of the Communist Party. Hounded by the FBI, they struggled to find stable employment. Early in the 1960s, they moved to Los Angeles, where Lorenzo Torrez worked as a CPUSA organizer in the Latino community. Later, he became the director of the CPUSA’s Chicano Equality Commission.

In 1975, the Torrez family moved to Tucson, Arizona, where Lorenzo assumed leadership of the Arizona/New Mexico District of the CPUSA. Anita worked at a local sewing factory and organized her co-workers into the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. She spent close to twenty years in the same factory, becoming a local steward, helping to keep the shop union in a “right-to-work” state.

In 1993, Anita and Lorenzo founded the Salt of the Earth Labor College to teach, recruit, and encourage a new generation of labor, community, and political activists. The College remained open, and Anita taught there for several years following her husband’s death, maintaining a presence there until the end of her life.

Neal, Al. “Salt of the Earth: The revolutionary life of Anita Torrez,” People’s World, May 30, 2019.

Wheeler, Tim. “Presente! Lorenzo Torrez, copper miner, Communist leader,” Political Affairs, January 9, 2012 .

Capozzola, Christopher. “A Crime to Fit the Punishment: Black-listed Salt of the Earth honors 1950s Empire Zinc strike in Grant County, New Mexico,” In These Times, April 27, 2007.

Lorence, James, L. The Suppression of "Salt of the Earth": How Hollywood, Big Labor, and Politicians Blacklisted a Movie in Cold War America. University of New Mexico Press, 1999.