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Despite the popularity of the Oscar-winning film, the story of the atomic bomb involved much more than the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Popular culture often celebrates a singular figure, an iconic story, or a heroic ending.

Open at the sa国际传媒官网网页入口 Museum, 鈥淣uclear Communities of the Southwest鈥� brings together stories told by the laboratories, the communities who worked there, and artists鈥� responses to explore a broader history of the people who were impacted by and involved in the development of nuclear technologies in New Mexico.

Beyond Oppenheimer: 'Nuclear Communities of the Southwest' explores the broader history of the bomb's impact in New Mexico

鈥淭his is the anti-Oppenheimer exhibit,鈥� said curator Alicia Romero. 鈥淭he most important thing the movie missed is the voices of the victims at the Trinity Site 鈥� the Indigenous, the Nuevomexicanos, the support staff and workers.鈥�

New Mexico鈥檚 nuclear history began in 1943 with the relocation of the Manhattan Project to Los Alamos, which led to the development and detonation of the first atomic bomb. A national stockpiling of nuclear armaments and mining of radioactive uranium for nuclear power followed.

What became Sandia National Laboratories and Kirtland Air Force Base built the nuclear industries of New Mexico.

The frenzy displaced some Indigenous and Nuevomexicano communities to create modern nuclear lab communities. Toxic chemicals and remnants of poisonous nuclear waste continues to plague local residents as well as the environment.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 say his name at all in the text,鈥� Romero continued, referring to Oppenheimer. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 say the names of the Nuevomexicano people or the Indigenous people in the movie.鈥�

The show features videos, photographs and memorabilia from Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories, as well as Kirtland Air Force Base. Organizers placed historical objects in conversation with artists鈥� responses to New Mexico鈥檚 involvement in the development of nuclear technologies. Special attention is paid to the Tularosa Basin downwinders, a community of people unknowingly exposed to the Trinity Test plutonium bomb explosion on July 16, 1945. Generations of multiple kinds of cancer followed.

The exhibit includes promotional photographs and pamphlets extolling family life in the community. A 1951 photograph of children playing in a swimming pool depicts what was then called Sandia Base as a mirror of suburban America.

鈥淲e鈥檙e using that as a tool to show the labs as constructed communities,鈥� Romero said.

Those employees settled outside city limits in safe communities isolated from local people and cultures.

Drawing from the museum鈥檚 permanent collection, this exhibition presents a definition of nuclear beyond the scientific. The 鈥渘uclear family鈥� consists of a mom, dad and their children in a single-family household. While the 鈥渘uclear age鈥� defines a new age in science, it also marks a new era in history.

The laboratories successfully promoted the idea of the nuclear community to recruit people for work. Primary sources, like promotional materials and government documents, are included in the exhibition and allow for a deeper look into how communities were created, which communities were ignored, and how communities connected to the fallout of the nuclear world in New Mexico have continued to survive.

New Mexico鈥檚 role in the development of the nuclear bomb and as the test site has been viewed in popular culture through the lens of a few isolated figures and events. The stories and legacies across the state and Southwest region, however, exist in a much broader context. This exhibition raises important questions: How do nuclear institutions impact communities? What stories are told by and for the people connected with the labs? How do artworks reveal the consequences of scientific innovation? Featuring the work of artists like Nina Elder, Luis Jim茅nez, Patrick Nagatani and Eric J. Garc铆a, visitors are invited to engage with a broader view of the nuclear world and the land and people it affects, especially in New Mexico.

A photograph from 1942 shows a group of hard-hatted and masked men huddle on a dirt road.

鈥淭he title is 鈥楪as Attack,鈥� 鈥� Romero said. 鈥淲e wanted to show, 鈥業s it science fiction?鈥� 鈥� she continued. 鈥淣ear this piece, we have some nuclear fallout pamphlets Sandia handed out at the base 鈥� how to survive a nuclear disaster.鈥�

Another promotional image shows two women in white coats, presumably working at the lab.

鈥淲e do know women worked at the lab,鈥� Romero said. 鈥淪ome did come in at higher levels. They鈥檙e promoting it as equal opportunity.鈥�

A 1960 Los Alamos National Laboratory photo of a man working above a sign blaring 鈥淒anger 鈥� Neutrons and Gamma Rays鈥� was meant to convey transparency in a field dominated by secrecy.

鈥淲e knew that during the Manhattan Project it was nothing but secrecy,鈥� Romero said. 鈥淣ow it鈥檚 become very public information in how we鈥檙e defending the nation post-World War II. Now we can talk about what we do on the hill.鈥�

Two chilling, colorized film stills by Greg MacGregor capture experiments by Los Alamos National Laboratory at a Nevada test site northwest of Las Vegas. One shows a scientist examining a shattered mannequin; another shows a hiding mother mannequin holding her child.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e testing nuclear bombs,鈥� Romero said. 鈥淭hey set up a whole village. He鈥檚 looking at the damage done to a mannequin after an explosion.

鈥淚t was a whole make-believe village,鈥� she continued. 鈥淭hey were testing new building materials and the effect of bombs on canned food.鈥�

The mother and child mannequin were hiding in a makeshift bomb shelter.

鈥淚 think they got eviscerated,鈥� Romero said.

鈥淭his is what鈥檚 happened in New Mexico since 1943. It has seen a lot of victims in its wake.鈥�