This year marks the 80th anniversary of the Trinity Test, the world’s first atomic explosion, which took place on July 16, 1945, near Alamogordo. The people who lived nearby were not warned or evacuated and their descendants have never received compensation, unlike victims of other subsequent nuclear testing.
But the recent budget bill signed by President Trump expands the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act to include New Mexico victims, and others left out of earlier versions of RECA, such as uranium workers who entered the industry after 1971. Events commemorating the test and its victims take place July 13 in Albuquerque and July 16 in Tularosa.
Tina Cordova, co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, told KUNM the federal recognition has been a long time coming and the compensation is welcome, but the victory is also bittersweet.
TINA CORDOVA: Very soon -- once the Department of Justice is tooled up for accepting claims, because they're not yet ready to do that, but once they're ready -- it means that tens of 1000s of people in New Mexico are going to be able to apply and become part of the program that will pay a one-time payment of $100,000 in reparations, even on behalf of deceased loved ones that qualify, knowing that people are going to finally, for the first time ever, receive reparations, is wonderful news. Yesterday, I had one of those moments where I thought, “what's most important to me today, right now, in this moment, is the acknowledgement, finally, that we were harmed and that they walked away and that no one has ever taken care of us.”
KUNM: There is the annual commemoration that you all and other groups do. Will it feel different this year?
CORDOVA: In so many ways, it will be different. We've had candlelight vigils for 16 years. We've had to say over and over, “just hang on. It's going to happen.” And I fully always believed it would. I had to believe that to do this work for 20 years. And to some people who have been waiting and have lived with cancer, are surviving cancer, are facing cancer, it will feel differently. And it's really amazing, because what also is coming together at this moment is that through a House Memorial passed by Rep. Joanne Ferrary (D-Doña Ana) we now will have a permanent marker placed at the Stallion Gate entrance to the Trinity site. It is this big, beautiful sign that, for the first time ever, recognizes that when that bomb was detonated, there were people living close by, and they were irreparably harmed, and no one's ever acknowledged that before. And that sign will do that as well. And so, lots of good things coming together for the 80th anniversary.
KUNM: Does the bill include everything that your coalition has been seeking?
CORDOVA: It does not. We were hoping for a long-term extension, something on the order of 9, 10, 12 years. It has a two-year extension, which will be totally inadequate.
KUNM: Why is two years inadequate?
CORDOVA: To locate the documents that will be utilized to prove that you qualify is going to be time consuming, and in some cases, could take a very long time. As an example, you have to prove that you lived for one year in New Mexico between 1942 and 1962. For someone who was an infant at the time, or a child not of school age, it's going to be very difficult to prove. If you were a housewife that didn't work, maybe didn't, you know, have any bills in your name, it could be difficult. I mean, there's just going to be difficulties. We have lots to overcome when it comes to that. Because the history is so old, you also have to have medical records that point to the fact that you have one of the 19 radiogenic cancers that are included in RECA.
KUNM: The issue that you and I have talked about over the years is to get a medical card, to get medical coverage. Is that also part of this or not?
CORDOVA: The bill originally that passed last year in the U.S. Senate did have medical coverage. But to get this passed, this time around, Senator [Josh] Hawley (R-Missouri) had to negotiate with his Republican colleagues. He had to convince them, you know, that we were worthy and that this was a worthy expenditure of taxpayers’ dollars, and they stripped out the health care. We will fight for that, though, on an ongoing basis, Megan, because in New Mexico, especially at a time where this bill will also take away Medicaid from people, we're being told, we know that uranium workers and downwinders have, for a very long time dependent on Medicaid to access healthcare. So, we believe that it could become sort of, well, it's bittersweet. It's one of those programs where it might deliver something and take something else away.
KUNM: So, it sounds like the battle is not over.
CORDOVA: I hate to say it, but no, it's not over. This is going to be a protracted struggle, I believe. But here's what I also know: The dam now has a crack, and we'll keep going back until we believe that the program delivers justice for all the sacrifice and suffering that people have been through.
There will be an interfaith commemoration on July 13 at St. Pius X School in Albuquerque starting at 2:30 p.m. There will also be a live stream. Find out more here.
The sign installation at Stallion Gate takes place at 11 a.m. on July 16th off Highway 380 east of San Antonio. And then there will be a mass and dinner at 6 p.m. at St. Francis De Paula Catholic Church in Tularosa, followed by a candlelight vigil. More information here.
