In 1945 New Mexicans earned a distinction that no one wants—the first people in the world ever exposed to radiation.
"As ash fell from the sky in the days after the bomb, we were never warned before or after of the danger," Tina Cordova said as she addressed the United Nations General Council. "So we lived our lives off the land as we always did."
Cordova founded the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium 21 years ago. Since then, she's been advocating for the generations that have been affected by the Trinity nuclear test in 1945. For Cordova, the work is personal. She listed numerous family members who lived healthy lifestyles yet were will with multiple cancers.
"I'm here to speak up for the many people whose voices were silenced, who cry out from their graves, the babies and the children whose voices were silenced or whose voices were never heard," she said. "People like those in my own family."
A cancer survivor herself, Cordova called on the United Nations to push for an end to nuclear testing and nuclear weapons.