77 years ago on July 19, 1945, the first nuclear bomb in the world was detonated in the deserts of New Mexico by U.S. military scientists and officials who had little to no concern for the people who lived in the adjacent area. Most of the people affected were people of color, Native Americans, and Hispanos who had emigrated from north Mexico (or whose ancestors had likely done so). It was an unprecedented event that no one received warning about, and within days the Us Gov't claimed: a munition dump at the Alamogordo Bombing Range had accidentally exploded but no one was hurt.

That was a lie.

Generation of families have been afflicted with various diseases and cancers, all from exposure of the bomb fallout. Tens of thousands of US citizens were living in a 50-mile radius so one can only imagine how many people have been affected by health effects in almost 8 decades. 

The US government has never returned to conduct a full epidemiological study on the impacts of this exposure on the people of New Mexico. Yet in 1990, a bill was passed called the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), which provided recognition, an apology, and reparations to the people living downwind of the Nevada Test Site and elsewhere in the Southwest NOT counting the region around the Trinity site. So while the people of New Mexico were the first to be exposed to this horrific form radiation anyplace in the world, while they lived much closer to the Trinity test site and were therefore exposed to much more higher doses of radiation, and while they were also documented as being downwind of the Nevada Test site, they have never been included in the RECA fund.

Help us urge Congress to extend the Radioactive Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) to include New Mexico Downwinders, the FIRST VICTIMS of the atomic bomb.