Source: Universal Pictures / Universal Pictures
The Christopher Nolan-directed film Oppenheimer opens in theaters this weekend, and it chronicles American theoretical physicist, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and a team of scientists, who spent years developing and designing the atomic bomb. One social media user reveals the truth about Oppenheimer and why the real American hero is Loyda Martinez. Read more inside.
During World War II, Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves Jr. appoints physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer to work on the top-secret Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer and a team of scientists spend years developing and designing the atomic bomb. The Nolan film dives into the story of Oppenheimer and why he’s referred to as the “father of the atomic bomb.”
NY Times calls Oppenheimer “A Man for Our Time” in latest film review. It goes on to saym “Christopher Nolan’s complex, vivid portrait of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the ‘father of the atomic bomb,’ is a brilliant achievement in formal and conceptual terms.”
A quote from the review also shares that, “”He served as director of a clandestine weapons lab built in a near-desolate stretch of Los Alamos, in New Mexico.”
One social media user and best-selling novelist, Alisa Lynn Valdés, M.S., goes on to debunk the article’s claims and the theories shared throughout the film. In a thread of tweets, Valdés described the real story behind Oppenheimer and the infamous atomic bom.
The article suggests that the land was nearly desolate, but Valdés said that history proved the land was actually inhabited by Hispanos.
“It was inhabited by Hispanos,” her tweet reads. “They were given less than 24 hr to leave. Their farms bulldozed.”
It goes on to talk about how many of those families had inhabited the land for centuries until Oppenheimer’s crew “shot their livestock through the head and bulldozed them.” The native people were forced to flee on foot with nowhere to go.
“Land rich, money poor,” Valdés adds. “Their land seized by the government.”
The story gets worse as the Hispano New Mexico men (who were displaced by the labs) were later hired to work with beryllium by Oppenheimer. Beryllium is a chemical element made up of a metal that is found in nature, especially in beryl and bertrandite rock. It is extremely lightweight and hard, is a good conductor of electricity and heat, and is non-magnetic.
As any other chemical, too much exposure can be hazardous and harmful to the body.
“The white men got protective gear,” Valdés adds in the third tweet. “The Hispano men did not.”
Valdés shared that the Hispano men died of berylliosis, which is a granulomatous disease caused by exposure to beryllium.
“These were US citizens, folks. Their land taken, animals killed, farms bulldozed, forced to work for the people who took everything from them, and killed by those people,” reads the following tweet.
The novelist has spent the last two decades attempting to sell a film based on the story of Loyda Martinez, who is the “remarkable whistleblower whose family’s land was seized for the labs.”
“Her dad was one of the men who died from beryllium exposure at the labs,” Valdés tweeted. :She later went to work there too.”
Thanks to Martinez’s computer genius, she rose to the top of her department at Los Alamos. Then, she began digging up information on the Hispano men the labs had killed.
“She filed a class action lawsuit, and won,” Valdés shared in the thread.
The thread goes on to share how the first ever Hispano governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, would go on to appoint Loyda to run the state’s human rights commission.
“She then filed a second class-action against Los Alamos, on behalf of women scientists not paid fairly,” the tweet adds.
Valdés continues the thread by expressing her disappointment and disgust by the basis of the Oppenheimer film and Hollywood’s approach to sharing America’s history.
“But, no. We want more films about the ‘complex and troubled’ ‘heroic’ white men, who conducted their GENIUS in a ‘virtually unpopulated’ place,” Valdés expressed. “These are ALL lies. This is mythology in service to white supremacy and the military industrial complex, masquerading as ‘nuanced.’”
The aspiring filmmaker suggests that the labs caused irreparable consequences on the Hispano people in northern New Mexico.
“Our communities now have the highest rates of heroin overdose deaths in the nation,” Valdés adds. “The generational trauma and forced poverty is outrageous. We need the real stories of Oppenheimer to be told.”
Check out Valdés thread, detailing the true events that led to Oppenheimer’s infamous atomic bomb below:
Learn The Truth About Oppenheimer & America’s Dark Past was originally published on globalgrind.com
