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# 74 •nECEMBER 14 , 2015
spread back home, others
followed to escape a bleak Italian economy, especially in the south. They
came in droves to work
in the mines, to build the
railroads – to do whatever
it took to make their way
in the New World. Their
contributions to the development of this state were
significant.
Please tell us something
about the tragedy that
happened in Dawson, NM
in 1913 when 263 miners,
most of them Italian, died
in a horrible accident.
Dawson was the site of
the second deadliest mining disaster in US history.
On October 22, 1913, a
dynamite blast ignited
coal dust in one of the 10
Dawson mines, causing
an explosion and fire that
took the lives of all but
23 men working in Stag
Canyon No. 2.
Of the 263 miners killed,
146 were Italians who had
come to the boom town
looking for work and a
bright future for their fa-
42 | WE THE ITALIANS
www.wetheitalians.com
milies. Dawson is now a
ghost town, but every two
years scores of New Mexicans gather there and in
nearby Raton for official
day-long commemorative activities to mark the
disaster. On the 100-year
anniversary of the Dawson Disaster, the Italian
Consulate of Los Angeles
presented a plaque in memory of Italian lives lost.
My colleague, Italian Honorary Vice Consul Cav.
Lino Pertusini, and I will
continue to represent Italy
and New Mexico’s Italian
population at all future
Dawson Days.
lians who have just recently arrived in New Mexico?
Census records say that
there are approximately
40,000 New Mexicans of
Italian heritage here today. The accuracy of those records, however, can’t
be confirmed. Over past
decades, many Italians
married into the dominant
Hispanic population. Their
surnames have changed
and their future generations have been absorbed
into the Hispanic culture.
In questionnaires and surveys, they may not characterize themselves as
Italian, so we just don’t
know for sure.
Let’s talk about today. Are
there many Italian Ame- In talking about Italians in
ricans in your state? And New Mexico, it’s imporwhat about the new Ita- tant to note that, while this