#white sands nm

[modernviga]

[desert-love]

[songofsaraneth]

the first two books had me suspicious but after book 3 of the Expanse i KNOW this writer is from New Mexico

[jimtypes]

[moonage-dancer]

[thefearandnow]

So with Oppenheimer coming out tomorrow, I feel a certain level of responsibility to share some important resources for people to understand more about the context of the Manhattan Project. Because for my family, it’s not just a piece of history but an ongoing struggle that’s colonized and irradiated generations of New Mexicans’ lives and altered our identity forever. Not only has the legacy of the Manhattan Project continued to harm and displace Indigenous and Hispanic people but it’s only getting bigger: Biden recently tasked the Los Alamos National Lab facility to create 30 more plutonium pits (the core of a nuclear warhead) by 2026. So this is a list of articles, podcasts and books to check out to hear the real stories of the local people living with this unique legacy that’s often overlooked. 

This is simply the latest mainstream interest in the Oppenheimer story and it always ALWAYS silences the trauma of the brown people the US government took advantage of to make their death star. I might see the movie, I honestly might not. I’m not trying to judge anyone for seeing what I’m sure will be an entertaining piece of art. I just want y’all to leave the theater knowing that this story goes beyond what’s on the screen and touches real people’s lives: people whose whole families died of multiple cancers from radiation from the Trinity test, people who’s ancestral lands were poisoned, people who never came back from their job because of deadly work conditions. This is our story too.

The first and best place to learn more about this history and how to support those still resisting is to follow Tewa Women United. They’ve assembled an incredible list of resources from the people who’ve been fighting this fight the longest.

https://tewawomenunited.org/2023/07/oppenheimer-and-the-other-side-of-the-story

The writer Alicia Inez Guzman is currently writing a series about the nuclear industrial complex in New Mexico, its history and cultural impacts being felt today.

https://searchlightnm.org/my-nuclear-family/

https://searchlightnm.org/the-abcs-of-a-nuclear-education/

https://searchlightnm.org/plutonium-by-degrees/

Danielle Prokop at Source NM is an excellent reporter (and friend) who has been covering activists fighting for Downwinder status from the federal government. They’re hoping that the success of Oppenheimer will bring new attention to their cause.

https://sourcenm.com/2023/07/19/anger-hope-for-nm-downwinders/

https://sourcenm.com/2022/01/27/new-mexico-downwinders-demand-recognition-justice/

One often ignored side of the Manhattan Project story that’s personal for me is that the government illegally seized the land that the lab facilities eventually were built on. Before 1942, it was homesteading land for ranchers for more than 30 families (my grandpa’s side of the family was one). But when the location was decided, the government evicted the residents, bought their land for peanuts and used their cattle for target practice. Descendants of the homesteaders later sued and eventually did get compensated for their treatment (though many say it was far below what they were owed)

https://www.hcn.org/issues/175/5654

Myrriah Gomez is an incredible scholar in this field, working as a historian, cultural anthropologist and activist using a framework of “nuclear colonialism” to foreground the Manhattan Project. Her book Nuclear Nuevo Mexico is an amazing collection of oral stories and archival record that positions New Mexico’s era of nuclear colonialism in the context of its Spanish and American eras of colonialism. A must read for anyone who’s made it this far.

https://uapress.arizona.edu/book/nuclear-nuevo-mexico

There isn’t a ton of podcasts about this (yet 👀) but recently the Washington Post’s podcast Field Trip did an episode about White Sands National Monument. The story is a beautifully written and sound designed piece that spotlights the Downwinder activists and also a discovery of Indigenous living in the Trinity test area going back thousands of years. I was blown away by it.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/field-trip/white-sands-national-park/

[mutant-distraction]

Roger Lujan

White Sands, NM

[dvrknessabides]

White sands NM with Imeh, 2018

[zfotos]

White Sands National Park, NM

this place felt like a dream I never wanted to wake up from

[skippylynn]

Wild oryx herd in White Sands, NM

[modernviga]

[heavenlybackside]

San Andres Peak. White Sands NP, NM

[bosses-stay-flawless]

When you meet an old soul, pay attention to the

Energy around you, #golden

My youngest took it while I was talking with

An amazing man, who wasn’t from NM. but on a similar journey looking for white sand no beaches

[bucketspammer4life]

Ok, just an idea; if the Boxers are Slime Monsters, what slime types, scents, and Add-Ons would they have each of their own?

really hyperspecific but we ball/nm

hcs below cut

Glass joe - coffee-scented, very water-like, pastel red colored with little croissant charms

Von Kaiser - heavy glue smell, stiff and slow rising, dark forest green coloring, not much add-ons

Disco Kid - candy smell, average concistency, neon blue coloring with lots of purple & pink glitter

King Hippo - pineapple smell, cloud dough concistency, yellow coloring with pineapple charms with it

Piston Hondo - flower smell, water like concistency, clear with small pink flower charms

Bear Hugger - mint smell, crunchy but normal texture, dark green with bear charms

Great Tiger - tangerine smell, normal concistency, Orange with yellow glitter and stripes

Don Flamenco - rose smell, liquid like concistency, dark red with white glitter

Aran Ryan - grass smell, extremely liquid like concistency, bright green with entire horseshoes

Soda Popinski - cough syrup smell, liquid like concistency with lots of bubbles, purplish blue with blue polka dots

Bald bull - coal smell, solid like concistency, cool-toned red with orange stripes

Super Macho Man - obnoxious perfume smell, normal concistency but very stiff, dark turqouise with small money charms

Mr Sandman - metallic smell, kinetic sand like concistency, stainless steel like coloring with no charms

[austinguy749]

Scenic overlook near Cloudcroft, NM. July 2019. White Sands is in the distance.

[rabbitsspit]

White Sands, NM 9/10/21