ANMA
While Corona worked with CSO, he was more active with the Asociación Nacional México-Americana, which he viewed as the "real inheritor of El Congreso's more militant and left tradition." ANMA was supported by the independent progressive unions, particularly the Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers (Mine-Mill). It may also have had support from the Communist Party, which had been driven underground. He was introduced to ANMA by Lucío Bernabé, a labor organizer in San José, and soon after joining became the organization's chief organizer in Northern California. ANMA's primary goal was the unionization of Mexican workers. It also fought against labor discrimination against Mexican workers, which included such practices as assigning Mexican workers the most dangerous tasks. Companies were also loath to promote their Mexican workers.
In 1951, Corona was chosen to represent ANMA at international conference of mineworkers in Mexico City, where he was charged with promoting the cause of the striking mineworkers of Southern New Mexico. The strike was the subject of the 1954 film Salt of the Earth, whose star Rosaura Revueltas had been imprisoned on immigration charges. There he met mineworkers and labor organizers from all over Latin America, as well as prominent Mexican intellectuals including Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and the writer José Revueltas, the brother of Rosaura Revueltas. José Revueltas organized a picket of the U.S. embassy in Mexico City to protest his sister's imprisonment that was attended by thousands of college students, which succeeded in pressuring the United States to release her.
Following the conference, Corona was invited to spend a few days at the Rivera's and Kahlo's home in Coyoacán. At the time, Rivera was working on a mural on the history of theatre at the Teatro de los Insurgentes, and his home was being watched by the FBI, especially for American visitors.
The FBI targeted ANMA and its leaders for harassment. In 1953, agents visited Corona's home while he was at work, informing his wife that they wanted to speak with him. They returned when Corona was home from work, and asked or his help identifying communists in ANMA and various unions. Corona suggested that they investigate fascists such as the sinarquistas, who represented a greater threat to national security. They contacted him several more times, but Corona refused to cooperate. However, their harassment of other ANMA leaders led to the folding of several chapters, especially in Southern California.
Read more about this topic: Bert Corona