Borderland Heritage History: Humberto Silex

 

Humberto Silex, Sr. Transcript

Hello! This is Susan Barnum with Borderland Heritage History brought to you by the El Paso Public Library.

In this episode, we’re getting organized and heading back to the middle of the twentieth century on the border. Here we’ll see a labor union form which led to El Paso’s own Red Scare.

Humberto Silex, Sr. Was born on January 15, 1903 in Managua, Nicaragua. He came to the United States in 1920 and went on to serve in the US Army for six months. Afterwards, Humberto moved around the United States as a journeyman laborer where he was able to make as much as $6 a day.

In 1931, he moved to El Paso, hoping to find a place he could settle down. He married Maria de Jesus Renteria and the couple would have seven children together.

Work was not great in El Paso. Humberto began to work at the ASARCO smelter where there was no vacation, no sick-leave and workers only made $1.75 a day. Mexican-American workers were denied promotions in favor of Anglo workers doing the same jobs.

In 1938, a Mill, Mine, and Smelter Workers Union representative heard Humberto talk about the work conditions at ASARCO. Three months later, a union organizer came to El Paso and helped Humberto and fellow employee, Cefarino Anchondo, form Local 509. Eventually, this union would have more than 1,500 members from ASARCO, the Phelps Dodge Copper Refinery and other businesses. Humberto helped negotiate better pay through Local 509 for the employees of the El Paso Brick Company in 1941. In 1944, union members at ASARCO received a wage increase. When ASARCO and Phelps Dodge Refinery planned a strike in 1946 to demand better wages, Humberto represented Local 509.

Despite these gains, trouble was lurking on the horizon. In 1939, Chris Fox, the El Paso County Sheriff, started to secretly investigate citizens of El Paso he suspected of communist activities. Six men were arrested. Members of the Bakers Union were targeted and later so were members of the Mine Mill Union. The Catholic Clergy in El Paso, including Bishop Sidney Metzger, also participated in union-busting, and threatened to excommunicate church members if they joined unions. In 1940, Humberto, and Cefarino were fired by ASARCO and both men were blackballed. Even though Humberto was reinstated at ASARCO after a court case, he was fired again in 1945 for his union activities. When Humberto visited the plant three days later after his second firing, he got into a fight with his former boss and was charged with aggravated assault.

This assault charge threatened Humberto’s chances to become a naturalized American citizen. His application for citizenship was denied in 1947 based on a judge’s decision that Humberto lacked “good moral character,” and citing the fight. The decision was reversed by an appeals court, but in 1949 the United States government reopened the case and decided to charge Humberto with suspected Communist activity. During the new case, Humberto testified that he had not associated with Communists nor had he had given speeches in favor of communism to the Mine Mill union, Local 509. The U.S. government won the case and he was denied citizenship again in December of 1949. He did not appeal the case and was investigated again for possible deportation in 1957.

Despite these setbacks. Humberto managed to stay in El Paso. He continued to support the union and eventually became an American Citizen in 1991. He died on March 14, 2002 at age 99 and was buried an in the Fort Bliss National Cemetery.

I found out about Humberto Silex, Sr. From the Nathalie Gross Archives in the Border Heritage Center. In the archive, there are many original documents from El Paso’s labor union history. To find out more for yourself, call 915-212-3218 for more information.