Lucy Benavidez Garwood was 13 years old when the Trinity atomic bomb test was detonated at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, 50 miles from her home in Tularosa, on July 16, 1945. A prototype for the plutonium bomb that would be dropped a few weeks later on Nagasaki, Japan, it was the culmination of years of research at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) for the top-secret Manhattan Project.
Half a million people — including Nuevomexicano, pueblo and Navajo communities — lived within a 150-mile radius of that atomic bomb test. In the decades that followed, Benavidez Garwood, who is of mixed Spanish and Navajo descent, though not enrolled, lost both of her parents, three of her 10 siblings and one of her own daughters to cancer or complications from cancer, along with many other close relatives, who all grew up in Tularosa and believed that their illnesses were linked to the atomic bomb test. Over 80 years later, Trinity’s dark legacy endures in the ongoing rates of cancer and illness in nearby communities. The locals, many of whom call themselves “downwinders,” commonly say, “We don’t ask if we’re going to get cancer; we ask when.”
“When something’s arbitrary, then it’s not justice.” — Tina Cordova
On July 16, 2025, the 80th anniversary of the Trinity test, New Mexicans gathered outside White Sands Missile Range to celebrate the installation of a new sign commemorating the state’s downwinders. The sign showcased a map made by Bryan Kendall in 2021, which revealed the radiation fallout from the bomb alongside quotes from some of the downwinders. Later, the evening’s mood became more solemn as downwinders invited community members to remember loved ones who had died by decorating a park with luminarias dedicated to their memory. Hundreds of paper bags formed a glowing spiral across the field, and the ceremonial reading of the deceased ones’ names went on for hours.
But last year’s sign dedication was also a time for celebration. Not only had the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium (TBDC), the advocacy group that represents New Mexico’s downwinder communities, successfully petitioned the state government to memorialize their experiences with the sign outside the Trinity Site, they also succeeded in gaining amendments to the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) that would finally include and benefit New Mexicans.
In 1990, the Department of Justice established RECA to provide compensation to people with exposure-related illnesses. The original bill, however, did not include New Mexican downwinders. In July 2025, after a 20-year legislative campaign, they were finally added to RECA through President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). This amendment acknowledges the entire state of New Mexico as “an affected area” and allows anyone who resided in the state between Sept. 24, 1944, to Nov. 6, 1962, to apply for a one-time payment of $100,000 if they can prove that they were diagnosed with certain cancers covered under the bill. Descendants of those who have died can also apply and divide their ancestor’s payment among family members. This is a considerable improvement, although there are still severe limitations to compensation for the many people who have been impacted by 80 years of radiation and contamination in their soil, water and communities.
“We went on with our lives like nothing happened…until everybody started dying.” — Lucy Benavidez Garwood
“If they’ve lived in New Mexico all their life and they got cancer (the government) should either give them health care or compensation or both.” — Doris Walters
“We were a sacrifice zone,” Tina Cordova, co-founder of the TBDC, said about the decision to detonate the bomb in New Mexico. “The government knew in 1945 that they were going to damage us, but they didn’t care.” Cordova receives calls every day from people who are going through the RECA application process and need help accessing old documents that could prove they or their family members are eligible for compensation.
“It’s definitely a victory,” Cordova said about the July amendments to RECA. But “our fight is not over. They did away with the health-care coverage; they didn’t add all the areas that have downwinders, like our brothers and sisters in Guam, Colorado and Nevada.”
Cordova described some of RECA’s provisions as “arbitrary”: the kinds of cancers that are covered, for example, as well as the date cutoffs and the geographic boundaries. “When something’s arbitrary, then it’s not justice,” Cordova said. “We have to go back until we get what we are after.”
Since the amendment was enacted last summer, 9,757 downwinders have applied for compensation. Most of these claims are still processing, but 1,218 of them have been approved, resulting in a total payout of $121,800,000. A team of volunteers from TBDC assists people with applications and tracks how many claims are approved each week. The process has been slow, and many people will wait a long time to receive compensation because, Cordova said, the Department of Justice is “woefully underprepared for what they are going through,” an “issue that has developed out of them ignoring us for 80 years.” Now, Cordova and the TBDC are working with the New Mexico Department of Health to train staff at field offices to assist downwinders with tracking down records and working on claims.
“Hopefully, the next generation won’t shut up.” — Pat Muncy Hinkle
New Mexico, in 2023. Pino is a member of the steering committee of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium. Pino grew up on his family’s ranch in the Carrizozo area, roughly 40 miles from where the Trinity test was detonated. His family has a history of cancer, which they believe was caused by the detonation of the Trinity bomb. Credit: Sofie Hecht
Benavidez Garwood’s skin cancer is not on the list of eligible cancers, and so she cannot receive compensation. However, her daughter, Doris Walters, has applied for compensation for breast cancer. Like Cordova, Walters has been an important resource for community members searching for decades-old medical records. She answers phone calls most days, “guiding (people) where to go … because I know what I went through. I know how hard it is. … We all work together.” Sticky notes in Walters’ home hold the names of helpful contacts at archives and medical facilities. “A lot of people I know are not getting to file because they were born after the date,” she said. “If they’ve lived in New Mexico all their life and they got cancer, (the government) should either give them health care or compensation or both,” Walters said, adding, “It’s the young ones that are suffering now.”
Amber LaMay’s daily pill routine in 2024. At only 39, she has many autoimmune diseases that are rare for her age, and many of her friends and neighbors are also getting sick in their 30s and 40s. LaMay believes that people get sick in Capitan because “(the radiation) is in the soil”. Sofie Hecht
“The hardest thing for me is the things I gave up… I had these dreams… then I started getting sicker.” — Amber LaMay
Paradoxically, the One Big Beautiful Bill, which has opened up the possibility of compensation for previously ineligible downwinders and post-1971 uranium miners, continues to support the rapid development of extractive energy, including coal, uranium, oil and gas, while making it harder to develop renewable energy like wind and solar power. Both OBBBA and other Trump administration bills are eager to provide tax breaks to nuclear energy while encouraging more coal power development and jumpstarting domestic uranium mining. Meanwhile, the fight continues — for environmental regulation, the cleanup of abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation and full federal recognition of downwinder suffering.
“In New Mexico, we’re all downwind of something,” Cordova said.
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This article appeared in the May 2026 print edition of the magazine with the headline “A Legacy of Disease.”
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