The Nuclear Present in New Mexico

with Dr. Myrriah Gomez, (Associate Professor UNM)

September 17, 2026 4 PM CT

 

In this talk, Myrriah Gómez tells a new story of New Mexico, one in which the nuclear history is not separate from the collective colonial history of Nuevo México but instead demonstrates how earlier eras of settler colonialism laid the foundation for nuclear colonialism in New Mexico. Gómez examines the experiences of Nuevomexicanas/os who have been impacted by the nuclear industrial complex, both the weapons industry and the commercial industry. She argues that the Los Alamos project targeted poor and working-class Nuevomexicana/o farming families, along with their Pueblo neighbors, leaving a legacy of disease and distress throughout New Mexico that continues today.

 

Myrriah Gómez is from the Pojoaque Valley in northern New Mexico. She is the author of Nuclear Nuevo México: Colonialism and the Effects of the Nuclear Industrial Complex on Nuevomexicanos (2022), which was awarded a Southwest Book Award and an International Latino Book Award. She earned her Doctorate in English with an emphasis in Latina/o Literature from the University of Texas at San Antonio and is a 2011 Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellow.

Myrriah is currently an Associate Professor in the Honors College at the University of New Mexico.