The Miners of Madrid, New Mexico 1937

For most people stopping by the blog to read about the Madrid Miners, they are looking for photographs of the Baseball team of the small mining town of Madrid, N.M. However, last fall I received a series of fabulous letters, photographs, and a memoir from Jerry Dimas, who was born in Madrid in 1937, the son of a miner and who grew up in Madrid during the 30s, 40s and 50s. Jerry also sent me the photograph above -- which was so wide that I have it separated into two photos-- left and right. (Please click it on to see a larger version.) A copy of the photo was given to Jerry years ago by a widow whose husband had died of consumption. These are miners of the Jones Mine, Madrid N.M. November 23, 1935. The only name I know for sure on here is Ivan Casey -- down in front who is identified as the foreman. I find this group photo really moving.

Here are some of Jerry's recollections about growing up as a miner's son in Madrid in the 40's.

"I was born in 1937, but I still remember Madrid from yesteryear. I, along with my brothers and sisters, was raised in Madrid and Cerrillos. There were 14 of us kids, plus Mom and Dad. In those days families were large, not like today. My father Celestino Dimas was a coal miner and a night watchman. He was also a “rope rider.” A rope rider is a person who brings up and down the little cars full of coal from the mines. How all these men worked in those dreadful pits, I will never know. Through the years some of our Dimas family returns to Madrid and we still remember the old times. If you go to those little old homes, and you put your ear to those houses, you can still hear the roar of the breaker, the power house, the tipple, the locomotive bringing up the water from Waldo which was a few miles from Madrid. When Tennessee Ernie Ford made the song “16 Tons,” all of us thought it was all about Madrid.

"My father worked at the “Morgan Jones, the 7-Deep, and the #4 Mine. Dad also worked at the “Cash’entry” mine in Cerrillos. Myself and my twin sometimes would go with our father when we were on summer vacation and be with him when he was a night watchman at the power house. It was warm and nice and inside the power house at night. We always promised him that would not fall asleep during the night, but lo & behold, before you knew it, both of us were fast asleep. Most of these men at some time or another got “anthracites” or coal dust in the lungs. They called it “Black Lung.” Dad got it too. In those times during the Depression, the only work available for these men was working in the mines. There were Anglos, American Indians, Slavs, Italians, Greeks, Jews, Spaniards, Welsh, and Mexicans."

Over the new few days I plan on posting more of Jerry's memoirs (he has very kindly given me permission) so stay tuned for more. Once again, I have to give thanks to the people of Madrid who have reached out to the blog and provided me with such a wealth of oral histories and photos of that time. I wll continue to add new photos to the Madrid photo albums on the side bar.