Nuclear Nuevo México

Mixed feelings. The material is important and well researched. The personal stories are moving. But too often the tone is more diatribe than presentation, and that detracts from the content.

Gómez explores four demonstrable ways in which the post-1942 world has harmed New Mexicans: the Los Alamos land grab; the treatment of Hispanic workers as expendable; downwind effects of the Trinity test; and long-term storage of nuclear waste. (There's a middle chapter about racism in a TV show; I choose to ignore that for being neither pertinent nor actionable). She documents each with oral testimony from those involved and with external sources when possible – and, unfortunately, the latter is often limited. That's how classism works. Gómez is not building a legal case, though—that has been pursued elsewhere, with discouraging results. What she's doing here is building awareness of a topic too few of us are informed of. So, breathe through the polemic, skip the TV chapter, and take some time learning. Maybe even acting.