The Brave Ones

Rampant social and racial discrimination in the American Southwest during the 1940s offered little opportunity for a community of Yaqui miners from Sonora, Mexico.

The choice was clear: labor in the dangerous copper mines like previous generations and dream of someday making it big on the baseball diamond.

One group of men and women, however, had the courage to challenge the status quo and forge a new way of life.

Michael A. Orona is originally from the Southwestern United States. He is of Chihene Nde (Apache) and Yaqui ancestry. For over two decades he has traveled the world promoting human rights and currently makes his home in the Washington, DC area.