1
Hey Roy, I'm going to borrow
Brian for a few minutes.
10-4,.
Yeah, that's OK.
If you would come over here
and watch this and make sure
this stays quiet over
here and no vehicles.
Are they doing something?
Yeah, they're just
driving back and forth,
and we need to stop
the traffic over here.
What are you guys going to do?
They're taking a picture.
So just over there, just
make sure it stays quiet
if you would please.
OK, thanks Brian.
Hi, I'm Richard Hodges.
I'm in charge of
maintenance here
at Bisbee Unified School
District, second-oldest school
district in the state.
I'm here at the high school.
This high school was built in
1957 by the Phelps Dodge Copper
Queen Branch.
It was built when
copper controlled
and ruled everything.
It was built for 900 students.
In 1969 when I started school
here, 900 students were here.
Unfortunately, we're
down to around 300 now.
I had family on both
sides of the deportation,
both from the mining
company's standpoint
and from the miners' standpoint.
I had a cousin that was a miner.
He lived up in old Bisbee.
And he was rounded up with
the rest of the miners.
They figured that it was one
of these deals where the mining
company was just trying
to flex their muscles
and intimidate them.
When they brought
in the rail cars,
they realized how
serious it was.
When they were
disconnecting the train,
the deputized foreman
were telling the miners
if we ever see you in Bisbee
again, we will kill you.
Cousin said he reached
through the rail car
and grabbed one of the deputies
that he knows and held him,
told him no, Bisbee is my town.
I am going to come
back to Bisbee.
I am going to kill your
family in front of you,
and then I'm going to kill you.
And I believe he meant it.
Testing.
OK, we will be loading
you on rail cars.
Enjoy the AC while
you've got it.
Thank you for riding
the Deportation Express.
This is a town with
so much history.
So I created this audio
book by interviewing
89 different people
in the community
and getting their stories.
Bisbee
in the beginning--
the town of Bisbee was
officially founded in 1880
during those years
of war between the US
Army and the Chiricahua Apache.
From 1877 to 1975, nearly
8 billion pounds of copper
were dug out of an area
two miles by three miles.
And within this area are two
enormous pits and some 2,000
miles of underground tunnels.
More than 30 different
nationalities
were represented in Bisbee,
and a hierarchy took root.
Peter Young.
There was definitely a
distinction going on here
amongst the races,
and the Anglos
were definitely in control.
This was a white man's camp.
The best jobs went
to married white men.
It was so productive
that people could hardly
believe it would end.
But after nearly 100 years of
production, the mines in Bisbee
closed.
Somehow Bisbee did survive.
I can't help but think of it
as the town too loved to die.
Bob Watkins.
You didn't talk
about a deportation.
When Philip said
we're going to keep this quiet,
no one spoke, this town could
keep a secret like nobody else.
Boys and Girls Club in it?
Yeah, I think you guys are
going to be in the background.
Yay!
Isn't that kind of fun?
Yeah.
This big old pile of dirt
here is dump number seven.
What this consists of is
everything that was taken out
of the big open pit,
Lavender and Sacramento
pits, and also from
underground in the mines.
You have to store
the dirt someplace,
and this is one of many places
that they stored the dirt here
in Bisbee.
When the last mine shut down
in 1975, it was catastrophic.
A mining town without
a mine is usually
referred to as a ghost town.
It's a very
interesting situation
because now we've gone from
the richest city in Arizona
to literally the poorest.
There are those
that still believe
the mines are going to
come back and they're
going to save the town.
My name is David Smith.
I'm the newly elected mayor.
I actually still
hear once in a while,
we don't need to
worry about finances.
The mines will never let
anything happen to us.
And that's one of the
biggest issues in governance
is trying to get people to
understand that sugar daddy--
used to be Phelps Dodge, now
Freeport-- isn't there anymore.
Freeport-McMorRan is the
second-largest mining company
in the world, and it
wouldn't matter to them
on a corporate level if
Bisbee had no population
because they've got fences
around their property,
and that copper that's
still in the ground
that some day they'll mine
is going to remain there
just like it's in a bank vault.
My name is Sue Ray.
I was born and raised
in Bisbee, Arizona.
My grandfather came
as a miner in 1915,
and his brother
came shortly after.
My grandfather was deputized
by Sheriff Wheeler,
and he went and
arrested his own brother
and put him on the train and
deported him into New Mexico.
My name is Steven Ray.
I'm born and raised
in Bisbee, Arizona.
I'm a recently retired Cochise
County sheriff's deputy.
Uncle Archie is over here.
And so this was--
I found that in the safety
room up at the Junction Mine.
I think that's him right there.
I was really
shocked when I first
heard that Grandpa
arrested Uncle Archie.
They had to go with what
their conscience told them,
and what they had
been told helped
them to decide which way
they were going to go.
Am I going to go to the right
or am I going to go to the left?
I agree.
I can understand and
sympathize both sides.
I am very proud
of my grandfather.
He felt he was responsible,
along with those
that worked for the
company, to make certain
that we were protected
from becoming taken over
by the socialists, by communism,
that he had to go and arrest
his own brother and
send his brother out
into the unknown world, not
realizing that they would never
see each other again.
Uncle Archie's-- Uncle
Archie's right there.
--right there.
And there was some
resemblance between the two.
Yeah, there is.
Hearing the story,
and myself as being
a retired deputy from the
sheriff's office, it was tough.
I mean, even thinking about
having to go and arrest
my own brother, to do that,
I don't know how he did it.
My name is Mel Ray.
My great-grandfather
was deputized.
My great-uncle was not.
I see both sides.
The people that
were deputized, they
were told they have
this authority.
I can see where they would
act on that authority.
Those that were
being rounded up,
I can see why they were
protesting for higher wages.
I can see why they wanted a
safer working environment.
So I truly am neutral
on the subject
because I see both sides,
the good and the bad.
Welcome to the Copper Chronicle
on KBRP Community Radio.
I'm your host, Charles Berthea.
"All women and children
keep off streets today."
I'm going to start
the whole thing again.
When I first started producing
the show, writing this show,
I made a list of subjects, but
I avoided this one until now.
We decided that we
needed to tell the story,
and there's a reason for that.
"All women and children
keep off streets today."
The bold headline in
the Bisbee Daily Review
on the morning of July 12,
1917 was both an announcement
and a warning.
Bisbee is a town just
seven miles from Mexico
that rests on stories
of its lively past.
But there is one that
stands apart from the rest.
It is the story of the day
that Bisbee changed forever.
At 6:30 AM on Thursday,
July 12, 1917, miners
on strike against the
copper-mining companies
were roused out of
bed by armed loyalists
and taken to the
post office plaza.
The removers, Sheriff
Wheeler's loyal Americans,
were citizens and residents who
had volunteered or were invited
to help put an end to
the menace they believed
the striking workers
had become to the town
and its productive,
patriotic way of life.
OK ladies and gentlemen,
we're almost all the way in.
Want to ring the bell.
OK, hang on you guys.
We're going in.
The Bisbee deportation
seemed to disappear
from the town's history.
The story was rarely
told or mentioned.
It was never referred
to in schools,
and people who remembered that
day did not talk about it.
It was understood that
Phelps Dodge did not
want the story told and
that the ghosts of the past
should remain buried.
In a company town, the
company makes the rules.
It was best to move on.
My name's Fernando
Serrano I'll be
playing a miner in the
Bisbee deportation.
Violence is necessary
to tame the wilderness,
to tame the savages, to
tame the desert itself.
My name is Chris Deentz.
I got here in 1980.
We were birdwatching
in the Chiricahuas
and got sprayed by
a skunk, our dog.
So we had to go to Douglas
to get some tomato juice,
and the rest is history,
been here ever since.
We come into Tombstone,
the town too tough to die.
T-shirts now say the
town too dumb to die.
OK folks, that was our ode
to the Second Amendment.
We are the Second
Amendment city.
A round of applause
for Tombstone, Arizona.
In the 1950s, there
were 50 TV Westerns.
OK Corral, Wyatt Earp,
Doc Holiday, these men
had to carry a
gun because it was
part of the gunfighter nation.
People dress up and
become these characters.
And I don't think
it's a time warp.
I don't think it's time travel.
It's alternate history.
It's alternate dream history.
2:00, showtime right
inside the OK Corral.
See Wyatt Earp and
Doc Holiday face off
against the cowboy gang,
coming up soon right
through these double red
doors inside the OK Corral.
Gun fight's at 2:00.
My name's Aaron Gain.
I've been acting
probably all my life.
Started out when I was
about 10 years old,
been doing it ever since.
Been in Tombstone,
Arizona personally
for about 10 years now, working
at the OK Corral just as long.
The character I'm
portraying is AS Embrey.
I'm an IWW organizer,
pretty much a rabble-rouser.
And I don't know too much
about the whole deportation,
but I have a feeling, much
like my job at the OK Corral,
I'm not going to make it.
Something tells me that
I drew the short straw.
The idea that Tombstone
is the fake history
and Bisbee is the real history
has always been kind of a--
it's always kind of been
a mudslinging thing.
Well, the Copper
Queen Hotel was first
built by the Copper
Queen Mining Company
to house investors for the mine.
Recently in the
last 30 years, it's
gotten more noticed
for its ghosts.
Yeah, usually right
around here in this corner
is where they usually see the
shadow of the smoking man.
It's usually here for a couple
of seconds and then it's gone.
There's a lot of energy
in here, and that's
one thing I noticed when
I started working here.
Harry Wheeler was sheriff
of Cochise County stationed
in Tombstone 35 miles away.
The idea of going door
to door at gunpoint
and rounding people up--
what if people don't round up?
What if they start
shooting back?
How bad can it go trying
to put them into rail cars?
It is said that
Sheriff Wheeler was
a small man, 5 foot
2", about 140 pounds,
kind of walked like a woman.
Now I'm 6' 2", 200
pounds, and I've never
been told that I
walk like a woman.
Anyway, I do appreciate this
chance to play Sheriff Wheeler,
and he did believe
in what he was doing.
He thought that he had
a near riot on his hands
and he had to do
something to stop it.
Then we have the border
patrol patrolling
our everyday movement.
I don't think that's it.
I was born in Tucson, Arizona.
I grew up in Naco,
Sonora, a border town
seven miles away from Bisbee.
I grew up there till I
was about five years old.
Then I came to Bisbee
to go to school.
Oh my God, there's Bean,
Spunky's sugar mama.
He's got a sugar mama.
Hello friend.
How you doing buddy?
Good.
How are you?
Good.
How you doing?
Good.
What's up?
I come here for some jasper.
When I was 15, I found
a place in old Bisbee.
I found a job.
And I've met so many beautiful
people here in Bisbee.
They were willing
to water your garden
if you water their garden.
Cheers.
Cheers!
I mean, I think we just
scream that we're gay.
You know, I had never even
heard about the deportation
until I met you guys, and I've
been living here my whole life.
But it was something that I
wasn't really interested in.
I wouldn't consider
myself politically active.
It just seems like a
lot of fucking fighting,
a lot of fighting.
I'm Mike Anderson, historian for
Warren Ballpark here in Bisbee.
This ballpark was
built in June 1909,
and it's the oldest
continuously operated
baseball field, football
field, multisport facility
in the United States.
And in July 1917,
these grandstands
served as the amphitheater for
a genuine American tragedy.
And if we'd been there
on July 12, 1917,
what we would have seen
was family members,
friends, people on
both sides, armed
guards all the way around
the ballpark, a machine gun
on the roof of what's now
city hall, the building
in back of the grandstands.
This is the focal point of
the deportation right here.
This is where they were
all brought and forced
to make that terrible
decision as to
whether or not they would
return to work or be
exiled from Bisbee forever.
Please tell me what law
they were enforcing.
What Arizona Revised Statute
were they operating under?
Do you know what
their answer was--
the law of necessity.
Can you please find
that in the ARS title
13 criminal code,
the law of necessity?
I'm Laurie McKenna, and I've
been in Bisbee since 2002.
This project is called
The Undesirables.
It was a term used by the
government or antiunion
or companies about immigrants
that were undesirable
or people that were
anarchists or socialists.
They were accused of
being the IWW, which
is one of the most radical
unions to ever exist.
The people that remained
after the deportation
were the ones that
drove people out.
So the cover up-- not a
cover up, but the avoidance
of this historic event
was because there
were relatives of people
who felt 100% justified.
Yeah, I think the
centennial is making
people talk about
this in a way that it
hasn't been talked about.
Morning everyone and welcome
to this meeting of the Bisbee
Deportation
Centennial Committee.
It's good to have
all of you here.
I would like for us to
go around and briefly do
an update of what our
various projects are
and the things that we're doing.
I'm working on what
happened to the deportees.
I think we're going to be
able to portray the deportees
themselves in a much
more accurate light.
So I wanted to do something
on the actual day of July 12.
People are going to be
doing theatrical vignettes.
This is a slice, and this man
is holding a gun to his back
and pushing him along.
This is the first round I did
on the banners using that logo
so you can see how it looks.
When you go through
that list of deputies,
you see that there
is one Slovak name.
Everybody else is
an Anglo Saxon.
So my conclusion after all of
this research, the deportation
was not a response
to a labor action.
It was that to a limited
extent, but it was also
in the nature of an
ethnic cleansing.
My conclusion is that Walter
Douglas decided, sure,
let's make this
an American camp.
Let's get all these
aliens out of here.
I just start reading
more about this
and this is what
we're talking about.
Who defines who's American?
And in doing so, it ain't
you and it ain't you,
and we're going to
get you out of town.
I mean, it's like, wow.
Our next meeting is two
weeks from today, April 14.
We will be honoring Abraham
Lincoln's assassination
and the sinking of the Titanic.
Life has got to move on.
What I'm doing is I'm looking
for any loose material or rocks
that I've loosened
up due to air slack.
Hello.
My name is Doug Graham.
We're inside the Queen Mine.
My family started working in the
mines here in Bisbee in 1883.
And great-grandfather,
grandfather, and father
have all worked underground.
Dad, one hell of a miner
because when I was a kid,
that's what he was.
He was just a miner.
Hi, I'm Dick Graham.
This is my mining world.
I worked in the mines
for some 58 years
in total, starting
at the very lowest,
lowest position possible, just
cleaning mud off the track.
But when I retired, I
was a company president.
This is the boss's desk.
This was used by the
shift bosses underground
to do their paperwork
and the reports.
People are willing to talk
about the deportation.
All my life it was, you
just really didn't do it.
Are you going to
feel that you did
something wrong or your father
or grandfather did something?
No, they were right,
so it's very one sided.
I'm on the mining company, so
I don't that one.
I really were.
IWW was just too radical,
too much for people
to accept at the time--
my opinion, yeah.
Exit phone, just checking it.
OK, bye.
It was not an
anti-immigrant move.
It was not a labor-busting move.
It was, let's make our
communities safe for the women,
for the children, for the mines.
Let's support the war
effort in Europe, our sons
that we sent over.
My father has told
me a lot of stories
that he has heard
from miners that he
worked with that lived
it or somehow experienced
the deportation.
I have to remember, first off,
my father is a procompany man.
I have to also remember
those people telling
the stories are in Bisbee.
In other words, they
weren't deported.
During the deportation,
about 90% of the deportees
were born outside
the United States.
They claim 34 nationalities,
but fully half of those deported
were either Mexican
or Eastern European,
the men who had always been at
the margins of the white man's
camp.
The spirit of--
ah.
What is it?
Solidarity.
Solidarity, OK.
Well, my mother was
deported when I was seven,
and she went to prison
in Mexico for 11 years.
So I guess there's a connection,
but what she was doing
and the work she was
doing was illegal,
and it was drugwise related.
And so it wasn't like they were
just trying to make-- well,
I guess she was trying
to make a living, but--
You have to process
anger, you know?
You can't just act upon it.
I feel like if we
just relive it again,
it's going to keep happening.
A lot of people appear
here and they're on stage.
In the big cities where
they're from no one
would even give
them a second look,
but here everybody
looks at them.
They live in story books.
This here was maybe
45 years ago--
57 years ago.
What are you doing
in that picture?
Riding bulls.
I have all this stuff out
because I like to remind me
who I am, where I came from.
I'm real.
Looking good man.
OK.
So do you want salad?
No, you just want Grand Canyon?
Let grandma just help
you a little bit.
Where's the Fritos?
At the store.
Oh, OK.
Since this was the
hundredth year,
I wanted to be able to tell
my family's side of the story.
We were good people.
We were honest people.
So one of the things
that we want to do
is to have Mel and Steve play
the parts of their grandfather
and their Uncle Archie.
And their interpretation of
what that morning was like--
and I want to get a feel of
what was actually going on
in their minds and their
hearts that morning.
I would love to do that.
It would be an honor
to be able to do that.
OK.
I'm rubbing this penny, 1917
penny, 1,196 times, one time
for every man that was rounded
up at gunpoint and deported.
When I think about playing
someone during the deportation,
I can't be a wife.
I can't be a whore.
I'd have to be a guy.
I mean, I'd want to be
the photographer that
took the pictures or
one of the IWW guys
that was deported because I
always just work the lowest
jobs to support
myself as an artist.
Definitely have that, both
of those angles in my life.
The deportees are going
to be coming out of here
and march this way.
That must have been
a weird feeling.
I'm sure they were their
friends and neighbors, some
of these folks that
were leading them away.
Getting ready to build some
cattle cars to represent
the Bisbee deportation that
was happening right here
on this site, wow, a
hundred years ago right now.
My dad was a miner.
My grandfather and
my great-grandfather
was deported in the
Bisbee deportation.
So my family's been around
here for a long time,
and I probably would
have been a miner.
But when I was a teenager,
the mine shut down
and I became an artist.
Just curious about him.
All these people
are fascinating,
all the characters, all
the actors in this play.
Trost was a proper German name.
A lot of these names would
be the same names as on here.
Now Nick Trost, maybe
Nick Trossel, or not.
What I'm working on
right now as part
of my participation
in the committee
is researching what happened
to the men who were deported.
The general impression
that the media at that time
gave-- remember, the media
was controlled by the mining
companies in Arizona-- was that
these are wobbly agitators.
That's the impression I
had for a long time too.
This is one of the pamphlets
that the Industrial Workers
of the World were putting
out about the time
of the deportation.
What they do is provide
lots and lots of ammunition
for the mining corporations.
Big Bill Haywood,
the general strike--
shut down industrial
production in America.
Stop the war.
These men were branded as
trying to deliberately sabotage
the war effort.
What ended up happening
is a lot of them
either volunteered for military
service or were drafted.
We're going to make
some differences here.
That's right.
That's right.
We're going to make
some differences.
My good wobblies,
I've come to Bisbee
to say that these mines
belong to the people!
We will win Bisbee
and take down capital.
We are peaceful.
They call us anarchists,
traitors, but we are the mines.
We are the nippers
and the mud diggers.
Mud diggers!
And after all, an
injury to one--
--is an injury to all!
We'll strike for
eight hours at $6.00.
That's right!
And then we'll strike
for six hours at $8.00.
And when we get that, we'll
strike and take over the mine!
The fervor of war
and increased demands
for products and
productivity gave unions
new strength and management,
greater determination
to resist.
In Bisbee, union activity
had been tightly controlled
in the past.
But this was a time of
increasing change in the world,
and workers in the US were
more and more restless.
The IWW became, or at least
was perceived as being,
the biggest threat to
the large companies.
Rumors spread that pro-Germans
had infiltrated the unions.
Some said weapons and dynamite
were cached around town
to be used for sabotage.
I didn't do that.
Just go off on.
Don't touch the bulb
because it might be hot.
Just try to see if it--
That's strange.
That's very strange.
The ghost is here.
It would be hard to
believe that there
weren't weapons and dynamite.
It was, after all,
a mining town,
and many still considered
Arizona to be the Wild West.
I have been informed this day
that a strike is contemplated
in Bisbee by the IWW.
I was asked as to what
stand I would take.
Here is my answer.
I beg those interested
to take notice
that I will deputize every
loyal American in Cochise County
to help me preserve
peace and order.
If I believe that Harry
Wheeler was the bad guy,
I'm not sure I would be
interested in playing
this role.
I like playing this role
because it's a complex part.
He was villainized
and demonized.
History has done that to him.
But I do believe that during
that time he was doing this,
he truly believed in
what he was doing.
Hi, I'm James West.
I am an actor in a film
called The Dutchman,
and this is my
girlfriend's home.
I've been here roughly
about two years,
sit pretty close to the border.
I've got great
views of the wall.
I absolutely love it here.
The character that
I'm going to play,
his name is John C. Greenway.
He was the general manager of
the Calumet and Arizona Mine.
Greenway was the only one
of three mining companies
present at the deportation and
the planning meeting the day
before.
He was indicted for
kidnapping and conspiracy
for his role in the deportation,
but the charges were dropped.
Well, it's certainly
a role to play.
I mean, it said that he was
tall, dashing, and handsome.
I don't know if I
could live up to that.
I started working in the
private prison system,
and I know over
the past few years
there's been lots of controversy
with private prisons.
And for quite a few
years, having a background
in law enforcement, we
actually had the responsibility
of boarding these
people up on planes
and flying them
back to countries
that were in Central America.
And we had both criminal
flights and noncriminal flights.
And you turn your
back for a second
and you'd be surprised
what can happen.
And being on a plane 20,000,
35,000 feet in the air,
it's like a
maximum-security prison.
And so you've got
to be on your toes.
It's not time to think, oh,
I'm doing something great.
You're keeping everybody safe.
All right, you know how I
talked to you about my project,
The Undesirables, right?
And I told you about Rosa McKay.
Rosa McKay, yeah.
She just came and went, and of
course Arizona didn't see her
as a valuable historic fact.
Right, because she's a woman.
Yep, because she was woman.
Well, here's her.
That's my drawing
of her, but there's
only like three pictures
of her that I can find.
She was a legislator
for Cochise.
And then there was
the deportation,
and they ran her out of town.
With this project, this
film is also being made.
They're going to do
recreations of the whole thing,
the whole deportation.
And I thought you'd be like
a really great Rosa McKay.
Hey Sue.
Hi.
So we meet.
Finally.
All right, well, what do
you got going on here?
When he found out that
his brother may come back
for the trial and that he
was going to be indicted
and could go to prison
for kidnapping and all
these other charges, he ran.
He went to Mexico.
So Uncle Archie-- we went to
the city hall and we got a map,
and we found that this is
Uncle Archie's resting place.
Uncle Archie, huh?
And there's been a
hundred years, you know?
It's been a hundred years
since they saw each other.
And not that they're going
to see each other now,
but I feel better.
My mother definitely
brought me into this.
I do not have the drive that
she does on the deportation.
To me, the deportation was
another thing about Bisbee.
I mean, Bisbee has had a mine.
Bisbee had a brothel.
Bisbee had a brewery.
Bisbee had a deportation.
It was just part of Bisbee.
Hola.
Hey, how's I it going?
Good.
How are you?
Good.
James.
Fernando.
Fernando.
So what character are
you on the project?
I'll be playing a Mexican miner.
OK, that's cool.
I'm playing John Greenway,
so I'm like the boss man.
I'm like the guy
who says, hey, I
don't want to deal with
these people, with you
because you're striking.
And I'm like, you know what?
Let's just put these people
on a train and deport them.
It seemed like everyone
that came here pretty much
tried to assimilate
to the culture
that we had established already,
in the 17 and then in the 1800s
and then the turn
of the century.
Well, it's not like they
came here, you know.
It's the white people
that came here.
So then they brought
these customs to them.
It was really great
meeting you, Fernando.
And I guess we'll see you on
the set when we start filming.
Yeah, I look forward
to getting deported.
Me too.
Oh,
Thank you.
I'll try and be
gentle about it, OK?
OK.
Take it easy.
I'm tough.
I got it.
It's really emotional guys,
but really empowering.
Workers
of the world awaken.
Break your chains.
Demand your rights.
All the wealth you make is
taken by exploiting parasites.
It's
for true liberty.
I've never actually had this
conversation with my mother,
so it's sort of really intense.
She was deported when
I was seven years old,
and she was in
prison till I was 18.
I'm sorry.
It's OK.
It's a really weird
relationship that we have.
I feel like, most
of the time, I had
to pretty much nurture myself.
I'm Mary Ellen Suarez Dunlap.
I am one of four children to my
parents that came from Mexico.
And they immigrated and
became naturalized citizens.
And we were born and
raised in Naco, Arizona.
It's a small town.
It is a border town.
And so I'm native.
I'm native to Bisbee.
And I'm presently the
clerk of Superior Court.
It is an elected position.
And matter of fact, I'm
the first Hispanic--
not just Hispanic
woman, but Hispanic--
to win an election countywide,
and the first Republican
to have the county seat as far
as the clerk of Superior Court,
because historically
it's been Democrat.
Hi, babe.
Hi, honey.
Look at you.
It looks like you have
the acting bug now, huh?
Yeah.
I'm an actress, too.
Growing up and watching the
novelas, when you said that,
that kind of struck
that with my mom.
And my family, as you
know, it's a big family,
and we are pretty much
dramatizing it, kind of
like a novela.
Today, we're going
to be filming when
the miners decided to walk out.
It's a little hard
being here knowing,
you know, my dad had
been here for a number
of years working here.
He enjoyed it.
I was just standing
over here by the door
to try to get into
Uncle Archie's head.
And I turned around
and looked, and they've
got the in and out
board for the workers.
I didn't realize it was
here, and I turned around--
I'm sorry.
This is my dad.
He's still got
his name and his--
I'm sorry.
He's still got his
name and his tag
up there showing that he's
out, he's not inside the mine.
I've only been in one
time since Dad's passed.
I want to go back in where
he spent a lot of his time,
where he-- and just a
lot of enjoyment there.
OK.
It's a union
for true liberty.
It's a union for you and for me.
It's the worker's
own choice, it's
for girls and for boys who
want freedom from wage slavery.
On June 24, the IWW presented
the mining companies
a list of demands, including
safety improvements,
better working conditions,
and an end to discrimination
against labor organizations
and unequal treatment
of foreign or minority workers.
The companies
refused all demands.
No surprise there.
And a strike was called.
By June 27, almost half
the workforce had walked.
If people want to come
here to this country
and enjoy life,
liberty, freedom,
we've got to protect it.
We've got to protect
it from the enemy.
And you want to come here and
you want to be a part of that?
By all means, then.
But you want to come here and
stand in the way of that, well,
we're just not gonna take that.
Play ball!
Well, on the wall
here in the courtroom,
we have all of the
retired judges.
And we frequently have
a lot of visitors here.
And one of the games
we play with them
is to have them look at the wall
and to point out to us which
of the judges they
feel is the one
who is responsible for
haunting this building.
Most people get it right.
It's the guy right at the top.
It's Judge Ross.
And he was the first judge
to preside in this building
in 1931 when it opened up.
People come in and
they smell cigar smoke,
chairs just sort of go up
or go down, doors close.
And there have been
people that have actually
seen sort of an apparition of
him in some of these rooms,
actually sort of seen
like a ghost-like figure.
I'm guessing the
mining company had
a lot to do with
financing this building
because it's built beautifully.
This one
apparently engaged.
What's your last
three words on your?
Policy of operations unchanged.
OK, thanks.
The idea was partly
stimulated by my fiancee, who
was having an argument
with a fellow here in town
who wanted to tell both
sides of the story.
And she got enraged
and said, that's
like telling the other side
of the story in the Holocaust.
She can get a
little over the top.
But when I was
thinking that through
and we were kind of
jawing it around,
I thought, well, maybe a
musical is the way to do it.
And you do it not so seriously.
That's what labor
used to do, right?
Even like with
Cesar Chavez, they
used to do little theater things
out in the fields and stuff.
It's a part of this.
For some reason, IWW workers
seemed to write a lot of songs
and sing a lot of songs.
You don't find too many
capitalists and mining
companies writing
and singing songs.
I think I've got
the major part done.
Writing a song turns
out to be a lot harder
than I thought it would.
Yeah.
We, the titans of
industry, eschew,
we do, frivolity.
We had been talking about
a reenactment for years.
And some of the
reaction was, well,
that trivializes the event.
In order that our employees
and the public of this district
may know where
this company stands
in relation to certain labor
agitation in this camp,
we desire to make the
following statement.
We refuse to receive
the committee
or to consider their demands.
This company will never
negotiate with an organization
founded on principles hostile
to good government in times
of peace and treasonable
in times of war.
Bisbee is the highest
paid camp in the world.
At Calumet, an Arizona
mining company,
intends to continue its present
policy of operations unchanged.
In the Shattuck,
Arizona Copper Company
hopes its employees
will repudiate
the conspiratorial
actions of the IWW
by continuing at their
usual occupations.
We, the titans of
industry, eschew,
we do, frivolity.
We have mines to run,
leaves us no time for fun.
That's why we, we
don't sing songs.
But if we were to
sing a song, we
would sing God, country,
and most important
of all, the Copper Queen mine.
Gentlemen.
God, country,
and the Copper Queen mine.
One more time.
God, country,
and the Copper Queen mine.
This is where Walter
Douglas lived in 1817.
You can just see the
malevolence, the evil emanating
from this building right here.
Cold-blooded man.
Walter Douglas was
the mastermind,
he was the originator
of the deportation,
but he always kept
in the shadows.
I think a lot of times
in the narrative,
the blame is placed on the
Sheriff, Sheriff Wheeler,
but there's no way the Sheriff
could have choreographed
this whole thing.
You know, he had the
power to make this happen.
Yes, the deportation was awful.
And--
So was Walter Douglas.
--yes.
But that's one day or
one month or one event.
Year.
And probably the darkest
event in our history.
But without the family,
we wouldn't be here.
And I love living in Bisbee.
So.
I think everyone also has
to own up in this world
when they really screw up,
when they do something bad.
That has not quite happened yet.
These arrogant,
eastern elitists who
have absolutely no
connection at all
to the people who are
digging the stuff out
of the earth, none, turned this
town into a corporate gulag.
And if you think
I'm exaggerating,
you look at how
people were treated
and how due process and
the rule of law was gutted.
They've been in
the trains already,
like, I don't know, I
can't remember, 16 hours?
Something crazy.
Why are you so
passionate about it?
It's just like for human--
just for human's
basic rights, or?
It's not just that American kids
aren't getting labor history
or Bisbee kids don't know
anything about the deportation,
it's that nobody knows
any of our history at all.
OK, my friend, let's
see what we can do.
Let's see what we can see.
Wow.
So we know they
were-- around here's
where they dropped them off.
It's hell on earth.
Hell.
Totally, yeah.
I mean, this is what it came to.
You know, the Wild West,
cowboys with their guns
hurting innocent
people at gunpoint.
I guess it's just changing
my outlook and the way
I look at Bisbee.
I feel like it's this
energy in Bisbee.
There's this really dark energy.
And it's like it can
bring the best out of you,
but it also can make
you into somebody
you've never wanted to be.
It was natural for me to
want the mining company
to have a very legitimate
reason to do this
and to be in the right because
I was very much raised a company
kid.
I've been a company executive,
I've carried the company line
all my life.
If something wasn't
done, there was going
to be blood on the streets.
Truly, there was going to
be blood on the streets.
My grandfather told me that.
Here is where they
were being held.
And I'm going to note
that the white bands
on the arms of the people
represent the individuals who
are doing the collecting.
And there's a long dissertation
in this publication
on the law of
necessity, totally based
on the Bisbee deportation.
And I'm sure,
although there's never
been any proof, that the
mining companies were only
too happy to shake their head
yes when somebody suggested it.
Were they behind it?
Some will say yes.
I don't know.
And to me, it makes
no difference,
because it was the right thing
to do to save human lives,
it was the right thing to
do in a patriotic sense
to support America's
first big war,
and it was the right thing
to do to save Bisbee.
Otherwise, it could
have ceased to exist.
So this concept of a
deportation was developed.
But how do you get 2,000
people to keep a secret?
It's not a coincidence that
it's like I'm sitting here,
and it's like the
universe is telling me,
OK, you have to
be aware of this,
and you need to
be a part of this.
Join the strike!
Come on, join the strike.
It's time.
Strike!
Strike!
strike!
Strike!
Strike!
Strike!
Strike!
Strike!
Strike!
Join the strike.
Join the strike.
Join the strike.
Join the strike.
Join the strike.
Join the strike.
I'm Dick Graham.
I'm playing the role
of Walter Douglas.
Solidarity forever.
Solidarity forever.
Solidarity forever.
For the union makes us strong.
Tense, angry, thinking how can
they profane this great song.
The melody is the Civil
War song, the Battle Hymn
of the Republic.
And they're profaning it
by making it a union song.
It's like taking Ave Maria and
turning it into a brothel song.
That's from a
management perspective.
And that's my
personal belief, too.
So it's easy to identify,
very easy to identify.
And that's what I
felt in the '60s when
there were the anti-Vietnam
demonstrations.
I was on the other side.
Tell me what you're thinking.
You hit a point where you have
to make a decision between what
is right and what is legal.
They are not always the same.
And you must always
do what is right.
That is the message
that has carried
through the centuries
in protest movements,
in progress movements,
in religious movements,
in anything, is
doing what is right.
Yes, I know, I have no
doubt he was conflicted.
Was he behind this?
I don't know.
Did he have a finger in it?
Oh, I bet he had
more than a finger.
But in any event, nobody knows
where Walter Douglas was.
Was he sitting in his mansion
at the end of the vista?
Was he in his private railroad
car on the siding somewhere?
Or was he in New York?
He was conspicuously absent.
I cannot believe it was
something that he nor any
of the others involved took
lightly, a responsibility.
You cannot compromise
with a rattlesnake.
Those were the words
of Walter Douglas.
Things got worse.
The Citizens Protective League,
an anti-union organization
formed during a
previous labor dispute,
was reactivated by
local businessmen
and put under the control of
Cochise County Sheriff Harry
Wheeler.
He was the go-to guy for
management in Bisbee,
a reminder of just how powerful
the mining companies were.
Greenway School, built by the
Calumet and Arizona Mining
Company by the Greenway family
and opened for first students
in 1917, 100 years ago.
Same year as the
Bisbee deportation.
Beautiful floors.
Elementary school now,
closed for the summer.
No students.
Awfully nice floors.
They have lasted well.
I, Harry C. Wheeler,
Sheriff of Cochise County,
state of Arizona, deputize you
my lawful deputy in all matters
as if myself were present.
Your list.
I, Harry C. Wheeler,
Sheriff of Cochise County,
state of Arizona, deputize you
my lawful deputy in all matters
as if myself were present.
Your list.
I, Harry C. Wheeler,
Sheriff of Cochise County,
state of Arizona, deputize you
my lawful deputy in all matters
as if myself were present.
I, Harry C. Wheeler,
Sheriff of Cochise County,
state of Arizona, deputize you
my lawful deputy in all matters
as if myself were present.
Your list.
Wheeler, let's get
these rattlesnakes.
I'll be playing Rosa McKay.
And right now, I'm busy
making a hat, a cloche hat.
And I'm starting with
this beautiful material,
but it's got a lot of
sequins and sparkly things.
And Rosa does not strike me
as the sequiny, sparkly type
of woman.
I am a Bisbee
miner, Ben Johnson is my name.
I came here from Nogales
to work the company claim.
I left my wife with two young
boys and headed out one day.
That was five long years ago
I came here on that train.
I joined up with the union
when I came to this town.
I signed on with a company
and made my way around.
They gave me sticks of dynamite
to bring the mountains down,
and I work as hard as any
man tearing up the ground.
Then the wobblies
called a meeting
and called a picket line.
We had to show the company
their policies weren't right.
But the Great World
War was raging then,
and we had our own fight.
And then the company
came up with a plan
and tried to break the strike.
In the early hours of dawn,
they snuck up on their prey.
The vigilantes killed
James
when he shot McCray.
1,182 were rounded up that day.
And then they marched us into
Warren and put us on a train.
I want to welcome all
of you out this morning.
We're going to
place the headstone
on Uncle Archie's grave.
United with your brothers.
We're going to lay the headstone
for Grandpa Edward Leslie Cook.
Well, that
was 20 years ago.
I still recall that day.
I found work in a factory.
10 years I stayed away.
They say time heals everything,
but some things stay the same.
When I came back to Bisbee,
I had to change my name.
I am a Bisbee miner,
John Benson is my name.
I came here from Nogales
to work the company claim.
My boys are grown with
families, Ruth died in '28.
25 long years ago, I
came here on that train.
I'm done.
Had two marks.
They're a little deep,
but I think it's OK.
OK.
I'll take it easy.
Thank you.
Uh-huh.
This is every single
man that was deported.
And I did a penny rubbing
for each one of them.
Whoa.
Man, I got to be
up here somewhere.
It is very possible that
I'm on the other wall.
Oh, nope, got him.
There it is.
That's me.
That's crazy.
Members of St.
John's Church have
gathered to read the names
of the deportees from Bisbee.
Harry Tomar.
Seamul Tomich.
Tony Tomacich.
Tony Tomon.
Peter Toomey.
Nick Trassell.
Felicto Mentiejo.
Calistro Montez.
Francisco Montoya.
Thomas Rayden.
Raymond Patton.
Roy Patton.
Gus Paul.
Pisano.
John Pisavio.
Eli Pitcamo.
Peter Pledge.
Tony Pledge.
Milo.
Francisco Rodriguez.
Francisco Eric Rodriguez.
Guadalupe Rodriguez.
Jose Rodriguez.
Juan Rodriguez.
And all the men whose names
do not appear on this list,
you are not forgotten, either.
Workers saw
the world awakened.
Break your chains,
demand your rights.
All the wealth you make is
taken by exploiting parasites.
Shall you kneel in deep
submission from your cradles
to your graves?
Is the height of your ambition
to be good and willing slaves?
As July 11 turned into July
12, the Bisbee deportation
got underway.
Everywhere, men whose names were
listed were roused from beds,
pulled from houses, and
forced into streets.
Many were not strikers,
or even miners.
Expressing support for
the strike or strikers
was enough to be taken.
From downtown Bisbee,
the march began.
After nearly four miles, the
detainees arrived in Warren
and were herded together
in the ballpark.
The day that would forever
be remembered and debated
had dawned.
The Bisbee deportation
was underway.
So, son, this gives
your special rights.
Lawful.
We want to be sure that
everything that we do
is according to the law.
OK, ready?
Ready.
Let's do it.
What we're doing here
today, July 12, 2017,
is about remembrance.
It's an event where people
had their lives torn apart.
Reading about it is amazing.
They cut off communications.
They commandeered the
telephone lines, the telegraph
in and out of town.
Nobody knew about
it..
End discrimination now!
End
discrimination now!
End discrimination now!
End
discrimination now?
End discrimination now!
End
discrimination now!
Strike!
Strike!
Strike!
Strike!
Strike!
Solidarity forever.
The union makes us strong.
Oh, solidarity forever.
Vagrants!
You're all under arrest.
All of you are under arrest.
This is a peaceful strike.
tight circle.
I came to Bisbee in the 1980s
as a student from Lebanon.
I was mesmerized.
I fell in love with it.
Then, yeah, I would
have been scared,
I would have been intimidated.
I will never not serve
someone because someone
is telling me not to.
This is-- it's given.
That's part of me.
I will never, even if
they put me on a plane.
You're coming with us.
Why?
What did I do?
No!
Come on.
I'm just doing my job.
Leave me alone!
Coming in.
Come on out.
Open up.
Come with us.
Come on, you.
Coming with us,.
What?
What's this all about?
What's going on?
Archie.
It's Les.
Let's go.
Arch.
What's going on?
What's with the gun?
We gotta go.
Where are we going?
Get dressed.
We gotta go.
I'm dressed.
Where are we going?
We're going to the ballpark.
Get your hat.
Let's go.
I don't understand
why we have to go.
Shouldn't have been
with the wobblies.
I just wanted to hear
what they had to say.
I can't believe my own
brother is doing this to me.
Your brother is keeping
you safe from the mob.
I am Rosa McKay, and
I'm a state legislator,
and I have a right to
deliver this telegraph.
People were just asking
her, Rosa, please help us.
She was a state legislator.
And so she came downtown
to wire President Wilson,
and they wouldn't let her.
Just wouldn't let her do it.
You need to calm down.
Take it easy.
Calm down.
Calm down.
Follow along, boys.
Take it easy.
Everything will be explained.
I have family in there.
I understand, ma'am.
About time we do something
with these rattlesnakes.
Finally, we're getting them
out of town, where they belong.
Give them to the army, see
what the army can do with them.
Un-American suckers.
Yeah, look at them.
Ever see such a motley crew?
Terrible.
Shameful.
When you replay something
like this and you do it,
it's very, very disturbing.
With these weapons at
the ready like this,
herding people like
cattle, it's just wrong.
It feels wrong.
To me, right now,
it feels wrong.
Move on.
Come on.
Come on!
Stand down.
Last chance!
Get back to work!
It's your last chance.
No!
Last chance, y'all.
Get on back to work.
My sons!
My sons!
My sons!
My sons!
Back up.
They're criminals.
Back up.
They're criminals.
Back up.
Solidarity forever.
Solidarity forever.
The union makes us strong.
You're a criminal.
Now back up.
You're the criminal.
All of you, back up.
Back in line.
Back up.
Back up.
We are the IWW.
Get out of here.
People have rights.
We're not breaking the law.
I even voted for you, Sheriff.
All of you have been arrested
for disturbance of the peace.
Don't you worry about it.
Hey, quiet in the ranks.
Come on, keep it rolling.
Last chance to get back to work.
On the car.
On the car.
On the car.
On the car.
Get up there.
Get your hands off.
Get your hands off him.
Get your hands off me!
Let's go.
he goes bollocks.
Get back to work.
This is wrong,
what you're doing.
This is wrong.
Let us go!
This is wrong.
You're a bunch of scabs!
This is un-American.
This is wrong what you're doing.
This is wrong what you're doing.
Bunch of scabs.
We didn't do anything!
You're all a bunch of scabs.
The deportees are getting
loaded into boxcars,
getting ready to
ship out of town.
They won't break us.
They won't break us.
As a person in today's
world, yeah, it's
really a question whether
it should be done or not.
Back in the time,
it was probably
different feelings on it,
but with today's values
and today's ideals, it
shouldn't be happening.
In today's world, you know,
you don't-- this is not how you
handle your issues.
You don't just
vigilante-style justice
and throw them into
boxcars and send them off.
I've got to admit,
the side that I'm on right now.
But that's using then
values and, you know,
the world's changed
a lot since then.
I got supper.
Close the door.
If we ever see you in Bisbee
again, we will kill you.
They got what they needed
from the immigrants.
They built what they
needed to build,
and they said, we
don't need anymore,
let's run them out of town.
This is where I
grew up, so I feel
like I should be more involved.
I'm a person that
believes in destiny
because I feel like our story
has been written for us,
but it's just up to us
to participate or not.
The mining company's plan to
crush the strike and unions
had succeeded.
Families were broken
up, women and children
left without means of support.
Friends and neighbors
became enemies.
The events that led to July
12 and the actions on that day
left permanent
and painful scars.
Men died.
Men disappeared.
Life in Bisbee went on.
But in our own time,
and in this mining town
on the border with Mexico,
the word deportation
is alive with meaning.
It will not be forgotten.
I don't know if I want
to touch your hand.
I don't know if I
want to touch it.
Yeah, really.
Thank you.
And everything I said,
I don't mean anymore.
Oh, yeah.
This is like the largest
group therapy session.
Yeah, it is.
Everybody be nice and calm
when they go home for dinner.
Maybe a little hoarse.
Tired.
You guys are pretty good.
Too damn good.
We are waiting,
brother, waiting,
though the night
be dark and long.
And we know 'tis in
the making
they have herded us
like cattle, torn us
from our homes and wives.
Yes, we've heard
their rifles rattle
and have feared for our lives.
We have seen the workers
thousands march like bandits
down the street, corporation
gunmen round them,
and yes we've heard
their tramping feet.
It was in the morning early
of the fateful July 12,
and the year's 1917 this
took place of which I tell.
Servants of the
with white bands on their arms
drove and dragged
us out with curses,
threats to kill on every hand.
Question protest, all were
useless to those hounds
who held that noose.
Nothing but an armed resistance
would avail with these brutes.
There they held us
long lines waiting
'neath the blazing desert sun.
Some with eyes bloodshot
and bleary wished for water,
but had none.
Yes, some brave lives brought
us water, loving hearts
and hands were theirs, but
the gunmen cursing often
thwarted down upon the sands.
Down the streets in squads
of 50 we were marched
and some were
chained, down to where
the shining rails stretched
across the sandy plains.
When in haste with
kicks and curses
we were herded into
cars, and it seemed
our lungs were bursting
with the odor of the yards.
Floors were inches deep
with refuse left there
from the herds.
Good enough for
miners, damn them.
May they soon be food for birds.
No farewells were
then allowed us,
wives and babes
were left behind,
though I saw their arms
around us as I closed my eyes
and wept.
After what seemed
like weeks of torture,
we were at our journey's end,
left to starve upon the border
almost on Caranza's
land, and they
ran through law and
order, love of God
and fellow man
freedom for the border being
sent from promised
lands comes the day
I will remember sure as death
relentless too grim
their accusers, let them
call on God not you.