Salt of the Earth

Salt of the Earth (1954) is Herbert Biberman's labor drama you can watch online on iFILM. At a zinc mine in New Mexico, Mexican-American workers walk off the job over dangerous conditions and pay that lags far behind their Anglo coworkers.

Ramon Quintero leads the strike, yet at home he's the boss he's fighting — his pregnant wife Esperanza gets the same unfairness he resents from the company. Everything shifts when a court order bars the men from the picket line. The women step in, the husbands take over the cooking and the laundry, and the old roles quietly flip. Esperanza is played by Mexican star Rosaura Revueltas, with real-life union organizer Juan Chacón as Ramon and Will Geer as the sheriff.

The film's backstory rivals its plot. It was made by people pushed out of Hollywood during the Red Scare — Biberman was one of the jailed "Hollywood Ten" — and U.S. theaters mostly refused to book it, while European audiences embraced it; Revueltas was deported mid-shoot. Decades on, its take on labor, race and a woman's worth still cuts close. Stream Salt of the Earth (1954) online on iFILM.