The late nineteenth and early twentieth century Rocky Mountain West coal mining region was a hub of migration, relocation, new settlements, and sites for the construction of new social identities as waves of workers and their families arrived in search of work. Mexican and Mexican Americans constituted an integral segment of these mining communities. The unforgiving nature and seclusion of the mountainous environment forced miners and their families to draw on their resources and ingenuity to struggle for their daily needs. This is a study of the relationship between family, community, and worker militancy amongst Mexican and Mexican American men and women through the use of networking and reciprocity. I begin my study by examining the immigration and migration of Mexicans to the Rocky Mountain West in response to work opportunities in the bituminous mines. I argue that work, the collective culture of the mining communities, and class struggle in this geographic region produced a unique working class experience that shaped and reshaped the lives of Mexican and Mexican Americans.

I will delineate the growth and consolidation of these early mining communities that in essence were industrial colonies and then examine Mexican and Mexican American's participation in and shaping of the culture, values, institutions, and shared experiences of the mining camps. This is followed by a discussion of the lives of Mexicans in relation to other ethnic mine camp dwellers, all of whom lived in the "foreign" section of the camps. The welfare of mine camp households was contingent upon miner's wages. The shared experiences of day-to-day survival drew mine camp residents together into tight community networks.

Mine companies dominated politics and society; however, trade unionism and radical politics likewise distinguished the mining camps and enriched community life. Socialists frequently visited the camps, and the Industrial Workers of the World were leading activists who inspired the miner and their families to militancy and added to outbursts of radical activism. I draw on strike actions in southern and northern Colorado from the 1880s to the 1920s to illustrate my argument, particularly the 1914 Ludlow Massacre and the 1927 Columbine Coal Strike.