"First We Bombed New Mexico" will screen in Mesilla Sunday.
Tina Cordova, co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, and Lois Lipman, the documentary's producer, will attend the screenings.
KC Counts:
When did you found the consortium?
Tina Cordova:
21 years ago, in 2005.
KC Counts:
Tell me about that group, how it came together, and how you became organized.
Tina Cordova:
Well, by the time we started the TBDC, I had already had cancer and I had been keeping an unofficial file for many years, even before I had cancer, about the about what exposure to radiation meant because I always it's really bizarre. I always had this feeling that the reason people in the little town I grew up in of Tularosa, the reason people were so sick and we were seeing so many people with cancer had something to do with the fact that they had detonated the bomb at the Trinity site. And it's essentially 45 miles away the crows fly from Tularosa.
And I have a background in the sciences. My degree is in biology and chemistry. And I actually went to medical school for two years and was studying to be a physician. And I started keeping an unofficial file because I knew, I absolutely knew that exposure to radiation would cause cancer. And I just had never had time to work on it. And then in 2005, the late Fred Tyler of Tularosa wrote a letter to the editor of the local newspaper stating something to the effect of, I've lived away and had a career, I'm back, my mom just died after having multiple cancers. So many people are sick and dying, and I'm wondering when we're going to hold our government accountable for what they did to us by detonating a bomb basically in our backyard.
And I called him. And I said, You know, you're onto something. This is absolutely true. I'm a cancer survivor. I had thyroid cancer. The first thing they asked me when I was diagnosed is when were you exposed to radiation? And so we decided to form an organization and hold a town hall meeting in Tularosa and invite everybody in the surrounding area to come and have a discussion with us about this, and that's how we started. And that first meeting, it was profound because lots of people came forward, lots of people told their family histories of cancer. And I remember at the end asking, how many of you have had thyroid cancer, have thyroid disease, or have somebody close to you that has had thyroid cancer or thyroid disease? And probably about 75% of the people in the room raised their hand. And it was like one of those confirming moments for me. I knew when I asked that question and got that result that there's just, this isn't normal. This isn't, you know, normal.
KC Counts:
So I guess you could say from the point of becoming organized, it took 20 years to see RECA come to fruition, right?
Tina Cordova:
That's true. We had bills introduced in Congress for 15 of those years before we ever had a hearing. And yeah, it was a long slog. I always tell everybody this was not a sprint, this was a marathon. And it took 15 years of bills being introduced before we got a hearing, and it took an additional year and a half after that before we finally were able to pass a bill in the US Senate. that was never brought forward in the House for a vote. And then RECA expired entirely in 2024. The program completely went away. And people were devastated because everybody thought that's the end of the line. You know, this is never going to happen now.
KC Counts:
This is the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.
Tina Cordova:
That's correct. That's correct.
KC Counts:
And because other people in other states had been compensated. New Mexico, I guess, and Missouri were the two states left out?
Tina Cordova:
Well, actually, it's more than that, but New Mexico was left out, and we were the first people exposed to radiation any place in the world as a result of an atomic bomb. And when I asked the question over and over, how were we excluded, all I ever got as an answer is, well, no one was connecting those dots that people in New Mexico had been affected. And I would reply, really? We lived as close as 12 miles to the test site. We've documented ranching families that live 12 miles away. We were not evacuated, warned before or afterwards. And the Nevada test site, literally, there's nobody living within an 80 mile radius of the Nevada test site. And in a 50-mile radius to Trinity, back in 1945, we had more than 13,000 children, women, and men living there. And so, how do you not connect those dots? But the government was really good at controlling the narrative. And the narrative that they developed at the time of Trinity was, no one lived here, no one was harmed, it was remote and uninhabited. And we had to challenge that, we had to develop our own narrative, We had to challenge what the government had said, which was a lie. In reality, Las Cruces and El Paso are within the 150-mile radius of Trinity, and so is Albuquerque and Santa Fe, and you're talking about half a million people. That's not remote and uninhabited.
KC Counts:
I'm sure you've heard hundreds of stories, if not more, from people who were alive at that time when the bomb was tested. What do you hear from them about that day?
Tina Cordova:
Well, interestingly enough, when we started doing this work, I did hear a lot of stories, but unfortunately, most of those people are gone now. We have very few people still alive, but we did record stories from the very get-go. As a matter of fact, that was one of my main objectives, was to record these oral histories so that we would not lose them. And what people told me in places like Tularosa, Socorro, Alamogordo, Mescalero, the story is so repeated so closely that you know it had to have been experienced so similarly by people. And what people have told me over and over is they thought it was the end of the world.
I can't tell you how many people told me we got on our knees and started praying. My mom gathered us up in bed and said, If we're going to die, we're all going to die together. You know, people thought it was the end of the world. Imagine, in most of these places, there was no electricity, so people didn't have telephones, they didn't have TVs, they had no way to get information, and they just experienced something that was, well, the bomb produced more light and more heat than the sun. 10,000 times the heat of the sun. It was enormous what they experienced. And I'll never forget, I had a woman tell me one time, my grandmother developed really severe dementia, and at the end she didn't recognize any of us, but what she would say over and over is, Have I ever told you about the day they dropped the bomb on us? And she would recall her experience. And so it profoundly affected people. I had a woman tell me one time, I never could sleep again without some light on in my bedroom. It was big and people thought it was the end of the world.
KC Counts:
What was the date, July...
Tina Cordova:
July 16th, 1945 at about 5:29 a.m.
KC Counts:
So, and some of the stories that you hear is that kids were playing outside, you know, in what they thought was snow, right?
Tina Cordova:
Yeah, later in the day. Well, the fireball that it created went over seven miles past the atmosphere into the stratosphere. And I always tell people, when's the last time you threw something up in the air that didn't come back down? So it incinerated an enormous amount of plant and animal life, dirt, sand, took it up in a fireball that went seven miles up into the air, so an ash started to fall afterwards. And a lot of people have recounted that part of the story to me, that for days this ash fell and it got on everything.
My own grandmother told me that story and she said what she remembered the most was it was July, it was very hot, all their windows and doors were open because they had no air conditioning and they would hang wet bed sheets in the windows and doors to create like a cool draft through their homes. And she said, we just kept rinsing those sheets off because they were full of ash. And we kept sweeping and dusting this ash out of our houses, but it fell for days. Once that happened, that radioactive ash was on everything. And so children played.
There's a very famous story told by Barbara Kent, who was from El Paso at a dance camp in Ruidoso. And she and the other girls went outside later in the day on July 16th. And this ash is falling from the sky and it looks just like snow. But she said it was. wasn't cold like snow, it was warm, and they were catching it and rubbing it on their faces, sticking their tongues out. And Barbara famously talks about how all those young ladies from that dance camp died before the age of 40, except her, but she's had multiple cancers, multiple miscarriages, and all her daughters have had cancer.
KC Counts:
So preserving those stories now has created the opportunity for people to see them in a documentary called First We Bomb New Mexico. Tell us about that.
Tina Cordova:
"First We Bombed New Mexico" is an award-winning documentary produced by Lois Lipman. She's from Santa Fe. She had a career producing short documentaries for 60 minutes. And she heard the story about us and started researching. And then, you know, she contacted me and started following us. She followed us for 10 years. She had some of the best cinematographers in New Mexico record us at events all over the state and even followed us to Washington, DC.
She, herself, traveled to Potsdam to get footage from meetings that Truman had there right after the bomb was detonated. So she put an enormous amount of effort into this, followed some people who had cancer, tells Barbara Kent's story, interviews Barbara Kent. And it's a full-length documentary. It's about 90 minutes long. It's won awards at film festivals all across the country. It's been seen in Europe, recently in Perth, Australia, Amsterdam. It's an award-winning documentary. And when people see it, they're very affected by the idea that the government came here and detonated this bomb and forever changed our lives and never told us anything before or afterwards. And it documents how this is a multi-generational issue now.
KC Counts:
Yeah. And it's screening this weekend in Las Cruces at the Fountain Theater. There's going to be two showings and folks will have an opportunity to hear from you.
Tina Cordova:
Yeah, they are going to screen it at the Fountain Theater at 2 o'clock on Sunday the 27th and then again at 6 P.m. and at 6 P.m. there's going to be a Q&A afterwards and people need to buy tickets in advance. The ticket, I believe, for the 2 p.m. matinee are $10 and for the evening are $20. And, you know, I'm hoping that we fill the theater. People need to know and understand this history and a lot of people have been affected by it. And then we always talk during the Q&A about the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act and the fact that, you know, Thousands and thousands of people in New Mexico were affected and likely will qualify for the one-time payment of $100,000. And so we invite everybody, everybody in the area to come see the film. You will not regret spending that time watching this award-winning film. It is so well done. And I know that Lois, the producer, is going to or has scheduled a screening, a weeklong screening in New York City in October in preparation for an Academy Award run. And she's going to submit the film for an Academy Award. And we're hoping that that'll bring more attention to this topic, because even though we now can apply for RECA, the compensation, there's been a new bill introduced in Congress, co-sponsored by our congressional members. that will actually increase the compensation amount, give us a longer period to qualify and to apply, and will add health care coverage, all things that are so important that were left out of the original bill when they had to negotiate these things to make sure we got it passed.
KC Counts:
I see, I see. And so far, the program has helped a lot of people in New Mexico, right?
Tina Cordova:
Oh yeah, we track it. The US Department of Justice is who administers the program, and we're able to go to their website every week and look at the statistics. And right now we have about 7,000 pending claims, which would amount to $700 million. And they've already deposited over $80 million into bank accounts for people in New Mexico. And we've said, I've said for many, many years, We're going to bring billions of dollars back to people in New Mexico who deserve it and need it and have likely many of them have spent everything they have trying to take care of their health. And they'll have an opportunity now to recoup some of that. You can apply on behalf of yourself if you're a cancer patient that meets the criteria or a cancer survivor, or you can apply on behalf of a deceased loved one if they were your spouse, your child, your parent, or your grandparent. So a lot of people are applying on behalf of deceased loved ones. And the program is remarkable. We've got volunteers all over the state. We have a great group of volunteers in Las Cruces and they're helping people fill out these applications and money's being deposited in people's accounts every week.
KC Counts:
How can folks get ahold of tickets to see the film and possibly you as well on Sunday?
Tina Cordova:
They would need to go to the Fountain Theater website, or they can actually go by the Fountain Theater, either one. There'll be, I'm sure, seats available day of, but I would highly recommend that people buy in advance, that way they don't miss an opportunity to see it. The theater's not a real big theater.
KC Counts:
Yes, yes, that's right.
Tina Cordova:
Yeah. The last time we had a screening here in Albuquerque, it was standing room only, and it seems like every time we have a screening, it brings in more and more people.
KC Counts:
All right, Tina. Well, thank you so much for spending this time with us to talk a little bit about your own experience and the experiences of so many other New Mexicans and for bringing it this far really to where now awareness is not just among more people in New Mexico, but around the world. We appreciate it.
Tina Cordova:
Oh, absolutely, KC. We appreciate it as well. And just something very quickly, a couple weeks ago, Through the work that we do, I spoke at the United Nations before the General Assembly. I was invited by the President of the General Assembly on the International Day Against Nuclear Tests, and I spoke to the General Assembly, so certainly everybody around the world that was there that day. now knows the history of the New Mexico downwinders and the people first exposed to radiation as a result of an atomic bomb. And it was quite an honor for me. And people can go to the UN website or to the Tularosa Basin downwinders website and are able to see the clip of the speech.
KC Counts:
What was that experience like for you?
Tina Cordova:
It's very surreal currently. I realized what a huge responsibility that was and I was quite nervous, but it went well. And I was told in advance that they rarely show any emotion or give anybody any kind of recognition or, you know, nobody applauds. But afterwards I did receive applause and I was very, very excited for people in the audience to acknowledge what this history really has been. And so it was an honor of a lifetime and I was glad to be able to do it.
KC Counts:
Tough crowd, I guess, there at the UN in general...
Tina Cordova:
[laughter] That day they were responsive, and I felt so good about that.
KC Counts:
Well, as we look at geopolitics today, what thoughts do you have concerning the chances that there could be more nuclear weapons used around the world?
Tina Cordova:
Well, that's really what I focused on in the speech. I focused on the fact that there are no winners, there's only losers. You know, we cannot continue down this path. We have created a lot of victims through testing. There's victims all over the world because of nuclear testing. And I've met many of them in doing this work and worked with many victims from other places around the world.
And so, you know, the speech focused on the fact that as human beings, we have to. do better than what we've done in the past. We have to offer our children and our grandchildren a future free of nuclear testing and nuclear development and the use of nuclear weapons. And for me, it's imperative. I always say I didn't start out to be an abolitionist when I started this work, but indeed, after doing this work and knowing and learning everything that I have, I have no choice. I have children and grandchildren and now a great granddaughter and there's just no way I could ever support advancing nuclear weapons in any way, shape or form.
KC Counts:
All right. Well, Tina, once again, thank you so much for sharing your insight with us. I hope you have a great trip to Las Cruces.
Tina Cordova:
Thank you. And I'll hopefully get to meet you, KC. I appreciate your support of what we're doing.
You can find more information on Sunday's screenings right here.
You can learn more about the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium and see Tina's speech to the UN General Assembly right here.
