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For the first of two episodes focusing on the struggle of miners in the Southwest, we discuss the critical role played by Mexican miners in the growth of the US electrical industry at the turn of the 20th century. As demand for copper exploded, the mines of Arizona and northern Mexico became incredibly valuable, and thus demand for labor soared.  Mine owners used racial hierarchies and job segregation to split their workers against each other to prevent the power of solidarity from shutting down their isolated mining towns. Mexican miners organized in the thousands, but were often refused solidarity from the house of labor, whether the AFL or the Western Federation of Miners. We discuss the bloody struggles for fair wages and safe working conditions in the early 1900s, as Mexican miners were often forced to stand alone against the tyranny of the bosses and the state, waging heroic struggles and paying for every extra cent they earned with blood. 

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