A Peoples of New Mexico Film Series

 

As part of the work to develop new, place-based curriculum for New Mexico, the Borderlands region and beyond, BEST faculty and our partners have developed short educational films for use inside and outside the classroom. At BEST, we think it is our privilege and responsibility to collectively learn and teach the stories that have been withheld from us about peoples’ resistance, strength, and dignity in this region. Please watch these films and share them with others to learn that 1) so much rich history has happened in this area and 2) our peoples are influential and powerful!

If you have ideas for future films or would like to share your short film on our site, contact best@nmsu.edu. Thank you!

‘Integration in the Borderlands’

 

This film offers a glimpse into the 1950s in southern New Mexico, when Gadsden Schools were integrated with African American students, mostly from Vado, New Mexico. This was around the time of Brown v. Board of Education, a landmark Supreme Court case at the highest level of the law in the U.S. in 1954. Featured: Bobbie Jean Fuller Boyer, a Vado, NM resident.

‘Fruits of Labor/Frutas de Labor’
 
This film follows agricultural workers in the Southern New Mexico-Texas valley who talk about their experiences in farm working over the years- especially focusing on the challenging nature of the work and the treatment they receive. The Bracero Program of the 1940s-60s is juxtaposed with this story from the early 2000s. How much has changed? How much has not?
‘Mining New Mexico’
 
The film Salt of the Earth was produced in 1954 near Silver City, New Mexico, featuring the labor strike that saw the raw intersection of race, gender, class, and labor in rural mining towns in Southern New Mexico. This is the only blacklisted film in U.S. history. This short film about the mining strikes features: Elisa Sanchez, born and raised in Grant County in the 1940s/50s.
‘NMSU BEST Mural Project’
 
On National Day of Racial Healing 2025, the Borderlands and Ethnic Studies Department at New Mexico State University revealed a series of five murals depicting moments of resistance, refusal, and dignity. These stories now are part of a living, visible curriculum for the state. They were painted by eight artists from the region spanning Cd. Juarez, Mexico, to Gallup, New Mexico. Come see them in O’Donnell Hall on the NMSU campus!