An independent production byalready blacklisted artists, Salt of the Earth is a still-astonishing combinationof gritty neorealism and impassioned performances; its stark beauty recalls theMexican cinema of Eisenstein and Figueroa. Using a largely non-professional cast,it recreates a year-long strike by Mexican-American miners in their ancestralhome of New Mexico, now the province of Anglo industrialists. The men take acourageous stand but it is their wives who have a two-fold battle-to have theirissues (sanitation and health) and their own participation recognized in thelabor struggle. The film's feminism is sophisticated and profound, centering onEsperanza, whose evolution is movingly portrayed by Mexican actress RosauraRevueltas. Salt of the Earth shows how an integral feminism in Hollywood wasstopped in its tracks by the blacklist. Nothing like this film had come out ofHollywood, and Hollywood meant to see that nothing like it ever would:encountering opposition at every stage of production, the completed film, whichreceived critical acclaim in this country and awards at international filmfestivals, was blackballed and not released until 1965.