API tools faq
paste
jonstond2

Bracero Program (Latino Studies)

jonstond2
Nov 15th, 2019
188
0
Never
Add comment
Not a member of Pastebin yet? Sign Up, it unlocks many cool features!
text 68.73 KB | None | 0 0
raw download clone embed print report
  1. Introduction
  2. On the request of the American Farm Bureau Federation, the US federal government engaged in negotiations domestically, and eventually with the Mexican government in 1942, to establish a temporary contract labor program known as the Bracero Program. Established under Public Law 45 to overcome an alleged wartime labor shortage, the program brought Mexican labor to the United States. The men were recruited to work primarily in agriculture, although during World War II braceros also supplied railroad labor. The statute was renegotiated in 1951 as Public Law 78, but the basic program remained the same. Each contract was signed by the laborer, representatives of the employer, and the Mexican and US governments. Although there is no evidence that a domestic labor shortage existed during or after the war, the program functioned until 1964, when it came under severe and widespread criticism. Over those twenty-two years, 7.5 million contracts were signed and approximately four to five million men were contracted to work as temporary workers. Although braceros were sent to twenty-eight states, the vast majority were assigned to Texas and California. The system was organized to bring in labor for the harvest seasons, and then to return the workers to Mexico to await the next US harvest. Growers established their foreseen labor needs and passed the information to federal program administrators, who in turn informed Mexican officials. The Mexican government recruited braceros who, having been examined at emigrant worker stations in Mexico and declared physically fit for agricultural labor, were then transported into the United States for further evaluation. In the first years of the program, the men were recruited in Mexico City, but US employers found urbanites unsatisfactory and asked for workers from rural areas who were experienced in farm labor. Consequently, most recruiting took place in poor peasant villages, where the possibility of work seemed a wonderful opportunity. Entire villages virtually emptied of men, and women took over families and work in the fields. Supporters of the program suggested that braceros were ideal “stoop labor,” a common term for “farm labor.” Agricultural interests and government publications presented the Bracero Program to the public in positive terms. However, a number of studies demonstrated that braceros labored under harsh, exploitative conditions for low wages, often working sixteen-hour days in summer heat and being denied rest and drinking water. Employers found braceros to be cost effective: they worked productively for low wages, were accessible, and were returned to Mexico as soon as the harvest ended. Moreover, the braceros effectively lowered wages for domestic workers, displacing them in the process and preventing the organization of unions. Soon after implementation of the program, a rising number of undocumented workers, opprobriously called “wetbacks,” became a national issue. This conflict was ultimately resolved in 1954 through “Operation Wetback,” which steered men wanting work into the federal program. No study has shown that the program helped improve the Mexican rural economy, although agriculture in the United States expanded significantly during this time.
  3.  
  4. General Overviews
  5. There are numerous works that examine the Bracero Program. Anderson 1976 and Mitchell 2012 study the Bracero Program as it operated in California, and Galarza 1978 reviews the program on a national scale. These three studies survey the program in great detail, contending that agricultural corporations molded the state-managed program to serve their interests. They concluded that the law served to provide cheap exploitable labor for agricultural corporations. In keeping with those three studies, the Leonard Nadel Collection (cited under Photographic Collections) provides 1,723 classic photographs centering the bracero work experience and underscoring the transnational character of the program. Calavita 2010 examines the program within the context of domestic politics and US foreign policy and describes it as state-managed migration, a process within which the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) played a leading role. The study appraises the manner in which the INS was a central player and held great power over the operations, rather than defining the Bracero Program as primarily a temporary use of contract labor. Three additional studies consider unique characteristics of the program. Cohen 2011 examines it within a transnational context in which bracero agency, rather than completely controlled beings, acted as one component along with their national government, the US government, and agricultural corporations. Driscoll 1999 remains the only study to review the wartime utilization of one hundred thousand braceros working on railroads. Braceros worked in many states, and Gamboa 1990 reviews the particularities of the program in the Pacific Northwest for the years 1942 to 1947.
  6.  
  7. Anderson, Henry P. The Bracero Program in California: With Particular Reference to Health Status, Attitudes, and Practices. Chicano Heritage Series. New York: Arno, 1976.
  8.  
  9. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  10.  
  11. A pioneering work that illuminates on the entire program, beginning with the recruitment process in Mexico, where aspirants paid bribes to become a bracero and to guarantee their return to Mexico. Widely violated labor contracts were not a concern for authorities. Braceros had little support to contest violations, although there were protests. First published in 1961, this reprint edition contains a new introduction.
  12.  
  13. Find this resource:
  14.  
  15. Calavita, Kitty. Inside the State: The Bracero Program, Immigration, and the I.N.S. New Orleans, LA: Quid Pro, 2010.
  16.  
  17. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  18.  
  19. This widely cited study, originally published in 1992 (New York: Routledge), documents the manner in which the INS provided legal braceros as well as undocumented laborers to growers. Immigration officials informally interpreted, enforced, or modified bracero agreements in order to meet grower demands and the INS policy agenda. State managers and growers interacted in the administration of the program.
  20.  
  21. Find this resource:
  22.  
  23. Cohen, Deborah. Braceros: Migrant Citizens and Transnational Subjects in the Postwar United States and Mexico. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011.
  24.  
  25. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  26.  
  27. An original study of peasants who as braceros became marginalized transnational subjects and required continuing emigration to satisfy basic needs. Braceros’ subjectivity was rooted in their peasantry and was influenced by the modern United States and an emerging national political culture in Mexico. They remained poor and struggled for survival in both national contexts.
  28.  
  29. Find this resource:
  30.  
  31. Driscoll, Barbara A. The Tracks North: The Railroad Bracero Program of World War II. Center for Mexican American Studies Border and Migration Studies Series. Austin: University of Texas, 1999.
  32.  
  33. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  34.  
  35. The only book-length study of the one hundred thousand wartime railroad braceros reviews negotiations between the United States and Mexico, leading to the final agreement and modifications favoring the railroads. Braceros composed a significant percentage of track workers and were treated poorly, with many dying on the job.
  36.  
  37. Find this resource:
  38.  
  39. Galarza, Ernesto. Merchants of Labor: The Mexican Bracero Story; An Account of the Managed Migration of Mexican Farm Workers in California 1942–1960. 3d ed. Santa Barbara, CA: McNally & Loftin, 1978.
  40.  
  41. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  42.  
  43. A classic analysis exposing the inner workings of the Bracero Program and a critical exposé based on archival research and on-site interviews and investigation. Of particular interest is the power exerted over Mexico during negotiations. Agricultural corporations designed the program, managed its administration, and ensured a continuing flow of controlled labor. Originally published in 1964.
  44.  
  45. Find this resource:
  46.  
  47. Gamboa, Erasmo. Mexican Labor and World War II: Braceros in the Pacific Northwest, 1942–1947. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990.
  48.  
  49. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  50.  
  51. The lone study on Pacific Northwest growers’ intervention to resolve a labor crisis and to shape the program. Braceros protested dehumanizing treatment, which countered growers’ expectations. Ultimately, growers determined the program unsatisfactory and terminated using braceros, who eventually returned as migrant farmworkers to become the region’s largest ethnic minority.
  52.  
  53. Find this resource:
  54.  
  55. Mitchell, Don. They Saved the Crops: Labor, Landscape, and the Struggle over Industrial Farming in Bracero-Era California. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2012.
  56.  
  57. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  58.  
  59. This is an extraordinary work illustrating the stark political reality of a contract labor program. Agencies managing the program served monopolistic capitalist interests above all. Braceros were highly controlled, their legal protections were widely violated, and their wages were frozen, causing domestic labor to be displaced. Several chapters document the complex struggle to end the program.
  60.  
  61. Find this resource:
  62.  
  63. Domestic and Transnational Negotiations to Implement and Maintain the Program
  64. Continual negotiations over a surfeit of issues relating to the Bracero Program took place from the law’s onset. Until its termination, the program was marked by the constant parley between representatives of growers and various federal and state agencies to address concerns on both sides. Meetings took place on the transnational level between the United States and Mexico as well. The need for Mexican workers was not newly expressed during World War II. However, the war did make the claim for importing labor a legitimate one, although there was little evidence that a shortage existed. This is brought out in McClain 1970, which also examines the initial negotiations among the various interested constituents in the United States and the transnational negotiations with Mexico. The continual discourse could only be marked by controversy and complexity, and Craig 1971 reviews the diplomatic and domestic political ramifications of the program, which functioned interactively. Kirstein 1977 examines the various key controversies that affected the program: the claim of a labor shortage, the treatment of braceros, and the movement to terminate the program. Hawley 1966 provides a review of the domestic ideological and political struggles carried out by grower organizations for extending the program, and the critics with whom they contended. The campaign to end the program and the response by interest groups in the United States and the Mexican government are treated in Mitchell 2012 (cited under General Overviews) as well as in Creagan 1965, which contends that ending the program led to new labor shortage problems.
  65.  
  66. Craig, Richard B. The Bracero Program: Interest Groups and Foreign Policy. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1971.
  67.  
  68. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  69.  
  70. A political-science approach that examines the complex domestic, political, and foreign-relations ramifications. During US-Mexico program negotiations, diplomatic and domestic conflicts interacted in the reach toward consensus. The program’s termination illustrated domestic politics affecting US foreign policy.
  71.  
  72. Find this resource:
  73.  
  74. Creagan, James F. “Public Law 78: A Tangle of Domestic and International Relations.” Journal of Inter-American Studies 7.4 (October 1965): 541–556.
  75.  
  76. DOI: 10.2307/165274Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  77.  
  78. Reviews the negotiations resulting from conflicting interest groups and Mexico’s interests in extending Public Law 78 beyond 1964. Mexico pressured unsuccessfully to extend, arguing that “wetbacks” (undocumented workers) would replace the braceros. Various Mexican groups opposed the termination while others supported it. Termination caused new problems, which a phase-out would have prevented. Available online by subscription.
  79.  
  80. Find this resource:
  81.  
  82. Hawley, Ellis W. “The Politics of the Mexican Labor Issue, 1950–1965.” Agricultural History 40.3 (July 1966): 157–176.
  83.  
  84. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  85.  
  86. Reviews the basic domestic conflicts for and against supporting the program. Strong grower organizations were able to utilize support and to counter critics. Growers argued that if the program were to end, everyone and everything, including the national interest, would be seriously harmed. Their arguments weakened in the liberal civil-rights era. Available online by subscription.
  87.  
  88. Find this resource:
  89.  
  90. Kirstein, Peter N. Anglo over Bracero: A History of the Mexican Worker in the United States from Roosevelt to Nixon. San Francisco: R and E Research, 1977.
  91.  
  92. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  93.  
  94. The focus stresses the program as a venture into debated diplomatic negotiations, with pressure groups influencing and ultimately dominating the administration of the program. The binational agreements involved a host of agencies, including railroad corporations. Employers’ preferences for a cheap labor force—one that could be treated poorly and exploited—were satisfied.
  95.  
  96. Find this resource:
  97.  
  98. McClain, Johnny Mac. “Contract Labor as a Factor in United States–Mexican Relations, 1942–1947.” PhD diss., University of Texas at Austin, 1970.
  99.  
  100. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  101.  
  102. The work addresses the heated domestic bureaucratic negotiations beginning with the growers’ controversial claim of a labor shortage. Includes diplomatic negotiations and the preferences expressed by Mexico, as well as those of the United States. Ultimately, the program was designed and managed by US growers, and Mexico served as a huge labor pool.
  103.  
  104. Find this resource:
  105.  
  106. The Immigration and Naturalization Service, Border Patrol, and “Operation Wetback”
  107. Following passage of Public Law 45, which established the Bracero Program, a stream of undocumented males, known by the racialized term “wetbacks,” entered alongside the contract workers. However, with wartime emergencies, the undocumented were redefined as a potential security problem. The war increased the intensity of border control, with primary attention to Mexican men. Although the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was initially ill prepared to deal with the large number of undocumented border crossers, the agency managed to scale-up border enforcement, by using new technology, techniques, transportation, and increased personnel. What had been an easy border to cross became the most patrolled region of the United States, and the undocumented male “wetbacks” were addressed as a national problem. Deportations rose significantly after 1944. Mexican authorities also wanted to control the emigration of rural labor to benefit its agricultural industrialization agenda, and they joined with the INS to control border crossings. Although a host of labor protections were written into the Public Law 45 agreement, these were largely ignored, and in 1954 an effort called “Operation Wetback” aimed to steer the undocumented workers into the legal bracero stream. García 1980 notes that the operation was a massive national campaign to identify, capture, and deport the undocumented, and, with that, the US-Mexico border came under greater control, although there was some opposition. Growers along the Texas border preferred undocumented laborers and resisted increased patrolling. However, as shown in Hernández 2010, Texas growers eventually altered their practices by hiring braceros; the migration of undocumented men fell, whereas that of women and children rose sharply. Coombs 1963 (cited under Government-Sponsored Publications) notes the rising concern with “wetbacks” (undocumented workers) in the post-1951 years and the negotiations focusing on grower concerns leading to “Operation Wetback.” The national media played an important role in broadcasting the “wetback” problem. Wetbacks Swarm In (cited under Magazine Articles), published in Life magazine, raised the question as a negative issue to national attention. In a chapter on “Operation Wetback,” Mitchell 2012 (cited under General Overviews) argues that it served as a means by which California growers gained greater control over labor and its accessibility, while Mexico’s requested policy revisions were overruled. Scruggs 1988 (cited under Consequences for Domestic Farm Laborers) devotes a chapter to “Operation Wetback” and illustrates the power of the operation: in the first two months the Border Patrol returned 57,000 “wetbacks” from California. Braceros increased in that state by 25 percent during peak harvests. In Copp 1963, the “wetback” issue resolved by “Operation Wetback” benefited growers by successfully driving males into the Bracero Program. The program reached its highest levels of contracted laborers in the decade following “Operation Wetback,” but working conditions remained as before, with widespread violations the norm.
  108.  
  109. Copp, Nelson Gage. “‘Wetbacks’ and Braceros: Mexican Migrant Laborers and American Immigration Policy, 1930–1960.” PhD diss., Boston University, 1963.
  110.  
  111. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  112.  
  113. The program controlled the border; stopped undocumented migrants, known as “wetbacks”; and served to overcome labor shortages and meet temporary demands. Criticisms of the program are countered with the argument that the agricultural industry, consumers, braceros, and Mexico benefited from the program, and border control was achieved. Published in book form in 1971 (San Francisco: R and E Research) and republished as recently as 1984 (Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms).
  114.  
  115. Find this resource:
  116.  
  117. García, Juan Ramon. Operation Wetback: The Mass Deportation of Mexican Undocumented Workers in 1954. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1980.
  118.  
  119. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  120.  
  121. Undocumented migration accompanied the Bracero Program, and the INS initially legalized the undocumented, by using bracero contracts. In the early 1950s, with the national media focusing on undocumented workers, or “wetbacks,” the operation brought a temporary end to undocumented migration; nonetheless, it rose in the late 1950s to satisfy the needs of growers.
  122.  
  123. Find this resource:
  124.  
  125. Hernández, Kelly Lytle. Migra! A History of the U.S. Border Patrol. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010.
  126.  
  127. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  128.  
  129. With increased border patrolling, and eventually with “Operation Wetback,” men entered into the Bracero Program but women and children entered into the undocumented stream. Deaths along the border became a new phenomenon, and the number of women and children arrested and deported rose dramatically. Meanwhile, the Bracero Program reached its zenith.
  130.  
  131. Find this resource:
  132.  
  133. Global Comparative Approaches
  134. A missing chapter in research on the Bracero Program concerns its relation to a long history of guest-worker programs across the globe. Most investigations isolate the program as one between Mexico and the United States, but more-recent scholarship places it within a larger transnational context, where it is one of a variety of programs in which developed nations transport labor from the underdeveloped world to work sites. The first chapter in Gonzalez 2006 delves into contract labor programs implemented by the colonial powers Great Britain (1840–1917) and France (1912–1917) to contract labor from India and Algeria. The work identifies significant parallels between the Bracero Program and the colonial labor programs. Hahamovitch 2003 widens the focus to explore two centuries of contract labor programs that ensured a managed importation of controlled, inexpensive laborers. Within that context, the Bracero Program comprises a variation that works toward the same objectives.
  135.  
  136. Gonzalez, Gilbert G. Guest Workers or Colonized Labor? Mexican Labor Migration to the United States. Boulder, CO: Paradigm, 2006.
  137.  
  138. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  139.  
  140. Significant parallels are drawn between the Bracero Program and colonial labor programs. The Bracero Program’s recruitment, selection processes, and work and living conditions are reviewed. Includes a case study of the power of growers to force the University of California to terminate an ongoing research project on the program.
  141.  
  142. Find this resource:
  143.  
  144. Hahamovitch, Cindy. “Creating Perfect Immigrants: Guestworkers of the World in Historical Perspective 1.” Labor History 44.1 (2003): 69–94.
  145.  
  146. DOI: 10.1080/0023656032000057010Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  147.  
  148. The defining characteristics of contract labor programs operating during the 19th and 20th centuries, including British colonial programs, are identified. The Bracero Program is contextualized within the contract labor transported from Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean, and within European nations. Despite drawbacks, guest-worker programs remain utilized globally. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
  149.  
  150. Find this resource:
  151.  
  152. Contesting that a Labor Shortage Required a Bracero Program
  153. Both agricultural corporations and US officials administering the Bracero Program reasoned that an existing labor shortage was the fundamental justification to implement the program. That argument has remained the conventional wisdom. However, recent research is beginning to counter that explanation. Valdés 2011 argues that the purpose of the program was to overcome farmworker unionization and strikes. Menchaca 1995 notes that in Ventura County, California, an agricultural center, no farmworker shortage existed when the Bracero Program was lobbied for and signed into law. Not surprisingly, Chavez 1992 notes no farmworker strikes affected agriculture across the United States during the twenty-two years that the Bracero Program functioned. Majka and Majka 1982 acknowledges that a rural labor shortage existed but that it could have been resolved with adequate recruiting in areas where surplus labor was available, thereby avoiding the need for braceros. In a study that examines the Bracero Program within a context of utilization of Mexican farm labor and very poor working conditions, Scruggs 1988 (cited under Consequences for Domestic Farm Laborers) includes a discussion that sheds light on the alleged shortage. Nonetheless, the infomercial produced by employers of braceros, Why Braceros? (cited under Films and Documentaries), contends that there are insufficient laborers available and thus a bracero program is a continuing necessity.
  154.  
  155. Chavez, Cesar. “Reflections on Social Justice.” Harvard Forum, Institute of Politics, Harvard University, 6 April 1992.
  156.  
  157. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  158.  
  159. In an hour-long talk Chavez contends that a key objective of the program was to keep unions out of the agricultural industry. He notes that no strike affected agriculture during the Bracero Program and concludes that this is the kind of labor policy adhered to by the industry.
  160.  
  161. Find this resource:
  162.  
  163. Majka, Linda C., and Theo J. Majka. Farm Workers, Agribusiness, and the State. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1982.
  164.  
  165. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  166.  
  167. An early study that argues the federal government negotiated Public Law 45 rather than implement a strategy to recruit available unemployed. In the face of rising undocumented migration, Public Law 78 was created, which imposed conditions that Mexico opposed. The Department of Labor administered the program, which stagnated wages, displaced domestic labor, and eliminated strikes.
  168.  
  169. Find this resource:
  170.  
  171. Menchaca, Martha. The Mexican Outsiders: A Community History of Marginalization and Discrimination in California. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995.
  172.  
  173. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  174.  
  175. A chapter presents evidence that the Ventura County, California, agricultural associations lobbied in Washington for a temporary contract labor program to counter a wave of strikes that struck the local area. Their demands were met and for thirty years no labor strike affected the area.
  176.  
  177. Find this resource:
  178.  
  179. Valdés, Dionicio Nodín. Organized Agriculture and the Labor Movement before the UFW: Puerto Rico, Hawai‘i, California. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2011.
  180.  
  181. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  182.  
  183. Valdés contests conventional wisdom that has long supported the view that the program began due to a labor shortage. Posits the underlying reason was unionization and strike actions by domestic labor. California growers opportunistically argued there was a labor shortage in order to import Mexican labor.
  184.  
  185. Find this resource:
  186.  
  187. Bracero Work, Treatment, and Living Conditions
  188. Much of the literature concerning the bracero law reveals two contradictory perspectives on nearly every aspect of the program. By the terms of the international agreement, braceros were guaranteed rights that no worker in the United States received: a set wage at the prevailing rate, standard housing, safe transportation, plentiful and nutritious food, insurance, free medical care, and more. However, there were limitations, as noted in Anderson 1976 (cited under General Overviews): braceros could not strike, negotiate for wages, or organize as workers. Moreover, as Galarza 1956 and Galarza 1959 demonstrate, the guarantees were routinely violated; state and federal supervision of employers’ treatment of workers was virtually absent. Gonzalez 2006 (cited under Global Comparative Approaches) compares the Bracero Program to the guest-worker programs implemented by Britain in colonial India and by France in colonial Algeria. Those aspiring to get onto the recruiting list were commonly required to pay a bribe to a local official of up to 1,000 pesos, which drove the men into debt. According to Martínez 1958 (cited under Consequences for Domestic Farm Laborers), braceros were often denied medical care, and the severity of the illness would be cause to be sent back to Mexico. It has been shown by the Leonard Nadel Collection (cited under Photographic Collections) that braceros often lived in shacks, tents, and old barns. Scruggs 1988 (cited under Consequences for Domestic Farm Laborers) and Mize and Swords 2011 place the Bracero Program, with all its problems, within a century of Mexican labor migration. Topete 1961 relates a bracero experience (from the viewpoint of the bracero) that coincides with the critics of the program. A chapter relates to a protest and strike over wages, food, and work conditions. On the other side of the spectrum are the voices that promote favorable views of the program. Gorman 1957 (cited in Magazine Articles) in Today’s Health, a journal of the American Medical Association, paints a very positive image of the program and includes several photographs of happy and smiling braceros. The researcher interviews citizens in a Mexican town and claims that the recollections of the braceros and their families are generally very positive (Snodgrass 2011). The negatives are outweighed by the positives.
  189.  
  190. Galarza, Ernesto. Strangers in Our Fields: Based on a Report regarding Compliance with the Contractual, Legal, and Civil Rights of Mexican Agricultural Contract Labor in the United States, Made Possible through a Grant-in-Aid from the Fund for the Republic. 2d ed. Washington, DC: Joint US-Mexico Trade Union Committee, 1956.
  191.  
  192. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  193.  
  194. On the basis of personal research among braceros, the work contends that the enforcement of the contract remained in the growers’ hands, resulting in wholesale violations such as poor work conditions, wage cheating, poor housing, and limited medical care. Seldom did the Mexican or US governments intervene effectively to enforce contracts.
  195.  
  196. Find this resource:
  197.  
  198. Galarza, Ernesto. “California’s Captive Farm Workers.” Statement to National Advisory Committee on Farm Labor, 5 February 1959. Guide to the Ernesto Galarza Papers, 1936–1984. Special Collections M0224, Stanford University Libraries.
  199.  
  200. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  201.  
  202. Serving as the secretary-treasurer of the National Agricultural Workers Union, Galarza delivers a scathing eighteen-page summary of the program. He reviews limited insurance coverage, fixed low wages, frequent injuries, poor working conditions, strike prevention, and the role of the government in protecting corporate growers.
  203.  
  204. Find this resource:
  205.  
  206. Lopez, Paul, ed. ¿Que Fronteras? Mexican Braceros and a Re-examination of the Legacy of Migration. Rev. ed. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt, 2010.
  207.  
  208. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  209.  
  210. The book comprises fifteen chapters written by recognized experts and emerging scholars who examine the numerous complex aspects shaping the program. The work offers an overview of subjects never touched on before, centering on bracero voices, and includes topics of gender, impressions abroad, media, braceros in Arkansas, and more.
  211.  
  212. Find this resource:
  213.  
  214. Mize, Ronald L., and Alicia C. S. Swords. Consuming Mexican Labor: From the Bracero Program to NAFTA. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011.
  215.  
  216. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  217.  
  218. This in-depth study covers the interaction of racism, braceros, undocumented migrants (“wetbacks”), growers, and US-Mexico diplomacy to construct three phases of the program’s operations. Agribusiness utilized a highly organized state management to ensure that Mexican labor—domestic, contract, or undocumented—served its needs.
  219.  
  220. Find this resource:
  221.  
  222. Snodgrass, Michael. “The Bracero Program, 1942–1964.” In Beyond La Frontera: The History of Mexico-U.S. Migration. Edited by Mark Overmyer-Velázquez, 79–102. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
  223.  
  224. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  225.  
  226. The chapter paints a positive image of the program. Despite the criticism from the Mexican media, Mexico’s economy was served well. The needs of poor braceros and the villages from which they came benefited from the extra income provided by laboring in the United States, despite the real negative experiences.
  227.  
  228. Find this resource:
  229.  
  230. Topete, Jesús. Aventuras de un bracero. 2d ed. Mexico City: Editora Gráfica Moderna, 1961.
  231.  
  232. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  233.  
  234. A bracero speaks of his experience (and the experiences of all braceros), from the difficult stay at examination stations in Mexico to the harsh work, crowded barracks, protests and strikes, and the often-penniless return to Mexico. The experience led him to seriously doubt the United States as a paradise for workers.
  235.  
  236. Find this resource:
  237.  
  238. Women, Families, and Villages Left Behind
  239. Examination stations were placed at various sites in Mexico after 1951. Given the large number of men requested by growers, and the methods used by the Mexican government to recruit, entire villages were vacated of men, and only the old, the young, and women stayed behind to wait for the men’s return, which could be a few months or more than a year. A bracero contract never ensured a determined number of days at work. These conditions prompted a bracero employer, cited in Cunningham 1957, to write that a family staying behind is the most practical plan for all concerned. However, being left behind had consequences for those families, as Rosas 2011 illustrates. The women of San Martin de Hidalgo, Jalisco, were deeply affected by the absence of husbands, but with mutual support they endured the experience. Summoned by local teachers, women met regularly to share their feelings and to overcome, as best they could, the absence of their husbands. Images of women with sorrowed faces as men board trains to depart can be seen in Mraz and Storey 1996 and in the Leonard Nadel Collection (cited under Photographic Collections). According to the women who experienced the Bracero Program from the Mexican side, as seen in Harvest of Loneliness (Gonzalez, et al. 2011, cited under Films and Documentaries), wives often gave birth to children when the men were away, which forced women to depend on their extended families and the other females in the village. Families were deeply affected by the absence of husbands and fathers for indeterminate periods.
  240.  
  241. Cunningham, Robert R. “North and South of the Border.” America, 17 August 1957, 500–502.
  242.  
  243. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  244.  
  245. The article contends that families would negatively affect every aspect of the program if they were to accompany the braceros north. Bracero earnings would be reduced in order to support the family, and disadvantages would fall onto impoverished, allegedly primitive, and uneducated families who would have most likely endured better in Mexico.
  246.  
  247. Find this resource:
  248.  
  249. Mraz, John, and Jaime Vélez Storey. Uprooted: Braceros in the Hermanos Mayo Lens. Houston, TX: Arte Público, 1996.
  250.  
  251. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  252.  
  253. Fifty compelling photographs by the Mayo brothers of program operations in Mexico City from 1943 to 1948. Included are images of wives and families, shedding tears, waving good-bye as braceros board trains. Aspirants in the city streets, in examination centers, and protesting excessive paperwork add dimension to aspects of the program.
  254.  
  255. Find this resource:
  256.  
  257. Rosas, Ana E. “Breaking the Silence: Mexican Children and Women’s Confrontation of Bracero Family Separation, 1942–64.” Gender & History 23.2 (2011): 382–400.
  258.  
  259. DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0424.2011.01644.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  260.  
  261. A path-breaking study illuminates the gendered transnational program. Mothers were expected to become the family providers in the absence of husbands, which deeply affected the family. Resilient women often became single mothers for years at a time, meeting in schools to share their feelings in mutual support.
  262.  
  263. Find this resource:
  264.  
  265. Discoursing the Benefits from the Bracero Program
  266. Ever since the Bracero Program was first implemented, a tension existed between those who favored the program and found it mutually beneficial and those who opposed it, claiming that it exploited the braceros. Not a few stood on middle ground between the two. University research in Hancock 1959 details the benefits for bracero farming and the modernization of Mexico. By contrast, strong critiques were led by Ernesto Galarza (Galarza 1956, cited under Bracero Work, Treatment, and Living Conditions), who describes the program as one that exploited a cheap, controlled labor designed to serve agricultural interests above all. Fuller 1955 writes that the program fits the historical growers’ objectives regarding farm labor, such as low wages and nonunion work force, which grower organizations had long campaigned for and instituted. Spradlin 1961 (cited under Consequences for Domestic Farm Laborers) provides an overview of the reform amendments to Public Law 78 and posits that the reforms to correct any problems were in place and only required implementation. Anderson 1976 (cited under General Overviews) contends that widespread contract violations and mistreatment of the braceros define the entire program, regardless of reforms. The arguments defining the two main sides for and against the program are presented in Coombs 1963 (cited under Government-Sponsored Publications), which also contains a seldom-told story of a man leaving his village and family, the harsh experiences he encounters at the processing stations, and the hard work. The story is not one of successful earnings. A chapter in Gonzalez 2006 (cited under Global Comparative Approaches) analyzes the manner in which agricultural corporations use public-relations approaches to defend the program against criticisms and to stimulate positive thinking.
  267.  
  268. Fuller, Varden. Labor Relations in Agriculture. West Coast Collective Bargaining Systems 3. Berkeley: Institute of Industrial Relations, University of California, 1955.
  269.  
  270. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  271.  
  272. A review of grower organizations acting historically to oppose unionization, to control wages, and to ensure an accessible labor surplus—all policies that the program upheld. In relation to braceros, Department of Labor advisory committees composed of growers and labor presented opposing policy recommendations in every respect; growers maintained their predominance nonetheless.
  273.  
  274. Find this resource:
  275.  
  276. Hancock, Richard H. “The Role of the Bracero in the Economic and Cultural Dynamics of Mexico: A Case Study of Chihuahua.” PhD diss., Stanford University, 1959.
  277.  
  278. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  279.  
  280. Researched in Chihuahua, Mexico, parallels are drawn between the Bracero Program and existing Mexican labor systems. Braceros benefited through improved farming skills and higher standards of living; villages that sent no braceros stagnated. Bracero remittances formed Mexico’s second-leading source of revenue, lessening political unrest in Mexico.
  281.  
  282. Find this resource:
  283.  
  284. Consequences for Domestic Farm Laborers
  285. The shortage of labor does not appear to have been the key matter that required the importation of hundreds of thousands of braceros. Norris 2009 finds that domestic workers were very active in securing worker benefits. Fuller, et al. 1956 acknowledges that domestic labor was available and that through investigations, including interviews among growers, workers and government agencies sought to find the reforms to ensure that domestic workers are employed effectively. Coalson 1952 contends the labor was available and that weak enforcement of the program, meaning low wages, pushed domestic labor out of the employment lines. In general, it is argued that agriculture has historically made inefficient use of domestic labor. The tradition of the utilization of surplus labor, documented or not, in agriculture going back to the 19th century carried over into the Bracero Program, according to Scruggs 1988. Blame for problems in the program can be placed on the shoulders of federal administrators for not organizing the rational distribution of labor, which is the missing link in the program. Tension between braceros and domestic labor often arose, not always just because of the choices made by braceros to take employment opportunities away from domestics and, consequently, lowering wages. Martínez 1958 details the tensions that erupted, fueled by competition for jobs and jealousy over women in common dance halls. The more optimistic views on the program’s benefits for Mexico and its potential for reforming the program’s negative effects on domestic workers are encapsulated in Spradlin 1961. Modifications in Public Law 78, passed in 1961, would surely serve to overcome the past barriers facing domestic workers, if enforced, which they were not.
  286.  
  287. Coalson, George O. “Mexican Contract Labor in American Agriculture.” Southwestern Social Science Quarterly 33 (December 1952): 228–238.
  288.  
  289. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  290.  
  291. Braceros harmed domestic workers’ employment despite conditions written into the program to hire American laborers first; the low wages from these jobs discouraged domestic workers from seeking employment. The postwar programs’ extensions are reviewed; growers came to rely on an oversupply of braceros, an essentially inefficient but profitable use of labor.
  292.  
  293. Find this resource:
  294.  
  295. Fuller, Varden, John W. Mamer, and George L. Viles. Domestic and Imported Workers in the Harvest Labor Market, Santa Clara County, California, 1954. Berkeley: Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics, University of California, 1956.
  296.  
  297. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  298.  
  299. Growers imported Mexican labor without regard for employing available domestic labor. This investigation, based largely on domestic worker interviews, intended to identify measures available to resolve domestic unemployment while ensuring labor force for growers. Posits two approaches are available: continue the program, or reform bracero employment standards and emphasize domestic employment.
  300.  
  301. Find this resource:
  302.  
  303. Martínez, Daniel. “The Impact of the Bracero Programs on a Southern California Mexican-American Community: A Field Study of Cucamonga, California.” MA diss., Claremont Graduate School, 1958.
  304.  
  305. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  306.  
  307. A unique view of a Mexican American farmworker community affected by a thousand braceros who earned less than $25 per week, were treated poorly, and were denied health care. The community competed with the braceros for work, and friction erupted regarding employment and relations between braceros and local women.
  308.  
  309. Find this resource:
  310.  
  311. Norris, Jim. North for the Harvest: Mexican Workers, Growers, and the Sugar Beet Industry. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2009.
  312.  
  313. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  314.  
  315. The study focuses on domestic workers from Texas and how they became a significant source of labor in the sugar beet industry. During the Bracero Program they were able to secure advantages in pay, working conditions, and job security.
  316.  
  317. Find this resource:
  318.  
  319. Scruggs, Otey M. Braceros, “Wetbacks,” and the Farm Labor Problem: Mexican Agricultural Labor in the United States, 1942–1954. New York: Garland, 1988.
  320.  
  321. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  322.  
  323. This work, based largely on primary research, underscores the push from Mexican peasants’ need for work resolved through becoming either a “wetback” (undocumented worker) or a bracero, which solves the pull; that is, the growers’ labor requirements. Domestic workers were affected negatively, and federal legislation to protect domestic migrant labor remained tabled.
  324.  
  325. Find this resource:
  326.  
  327. Spradlin, T. Richard. “The Mexican Farm Labor Importation Program—Review and Reform (Part II).” Legislation Notes. George Washington Law Review 30 (December 1961): 311–327.
  328.  
  329. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  330.  
  331. The article provides an overview underscoring Mexico’s economic dependence on the program while domestic workers continue to face serious drawbacks. A summary of 1961 congressional hearings to extend Public Law 78 for two years, which included amendments signed onto by President Kennedy that were intended to overcome the negative drawbacks. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
  332.  
  333. Find this resource:
  334.  
  335. Government-Sponsored Publications
  336. Whereas Galarza 1956 (cited under Bracero Work, Treatment, and Living Conditions), Anderson 1976 (cited under General Overviews), and others criticized the program severely in nearly all its aspects, government publications from the state and federal to the diplomatic levels were quite the opposite. The latter publications played a similar role to that of the films and publications sponsored by agricultural associations. The Pan American Union stood at the forefront during the early period to present a very favorable rendition of the program. Among the works written for that international organization we find Almazán 1945, Baker 1953, Jones 1945, and Tercero 1944. In McWilliams 1943, the activists in Mexican American issues agree that the program has filled the wartime labor shortage and has done so in a very responsible fashion. In later years, California State Department of Employment 1959 and Rasmussen 1951, compiled for the Department of Agriculture, present a similar if not identical view and describe the program as troubled in some respects but, overall, mutually positive. The two latter works stress the matter of labor shortages, which require a contract labor program; they also contend that the international agreement protects braceros from any form of exploitation or mistreatment. The federal administration arm of the program assures that the bracero contract will be respected and any violations corrected. Of particular interest are the articles and books coming from the offices concerned with diplomatic relations. Coombs 1963, writing for Americas, visited a bracero-sending community, witnessed the living conditions at the emigrant worker stations, saw the loneliness experienced by braceros in the United States, and noted the meager benefits accruing to braceros. Overall, the works listed here compliment the program and stress that the vital interests of Mexico and the United States are enhanced and that the “Good Neighbor Policy” is strengthened by it.
  337.  
  338. Almazán, Marco A. “The Mexicans Keep ’Em Rolling.” Inter-American 4.10 (October 1945): 20–23, 36.
  339.  
  340. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  341.  
  342. Braceros filled the wartime labor gap and were treated with respect in an unfamiliar environment. The average bracero earned from $300 to $400 during his stay, equivalent to 1,500 to 2,000 pesos—a considerable sum. Braceros earned in six months in the United States what they would have in two years in their village.
  343.  
  344. Find this resource:
  345.  
  346. Baker, Verne A. “Braceros Farm for Mexico.” Américas (Journal of the Pan American Union) 5.9 (1953): 3–5, 30–31.
  347.  
  348. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  349.  
  350. Braceros return to Mexico having learned new farming methods and having earned enough income to buy modern equipment—which together worked to increase agricultural production and raise the standard of living for the bracero and his family. Predicts that over time, Mexico will become the prime beneficiary of this process.
  351.  
  352. Find this resource:
  353.  
  354. California State Department of Employment. Mexican Nationals in California Agriculture, 1942–1959. Sacramento: California State Department of Employment, 1959.
  355.  
  356. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  357.  
  358. An overview of the program details why it was enacted, the conditions centered in Public Law 45 and Public Law 78, and legal responsibilities for the protection of workers. The procedures through which braceros are contracted and employed as well as the stipulations governing work conditions, wages, and compliance policies are outlined. The percentage of braceros in branches of California agriculture is identified.
  359.  
  360. Find this resource:
  361.  
  362. Coombs, S. W. “Bracero’s Journey.” Américas (Journal of the Pan American Union) 15.12 (December 1963): 7–11.
  363.  
  364. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  365.  
  366. In a novel approach, the article opens with the arguments for and against the program and continues with the author’s personal experience traveling with a bracero, from the village to the processing stations and then to the work site. Illustrated with fifteen photographs. The bracero experience is more complex than that presented by the program’s proponents.
  367.  
  368. Find this resource:
  369.  
  370. Jones, Robert C. Mexican War Workers in the United States: The Mexico–United States Manpower Recruiting Program and Its Operation. Washington, DC: Pan American Union, 1945.
  371.  
  372. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  373.  
  374. The work contends that Mexico and the United States were on friendly terms during the negotiations for Public Law 45. The international agreement stipulated a wide number of protections guaranteed to braceros. Mexican consuls were to ensure that the contract was upheld and to act on behalf of braceros when violations occurred. Ultimately, the program provided a move forward in inter-American affairs.
  375.  
  376. Find this resource:
  377.  
  378. McWilliams, Carey. “They Saved the Crops.” Inter-American 3 (August 1943): 10–14.
  379.  
  380. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  381.  
  382. The article stresses the importance of the program for solving the labor shortage, by using a highly managed system that avoids problems affecting migratory labor. Braceros are productive, they earn good wages, their contracts are upheld, and they are offered educational opportunities. The key problem facing braceros comes from tensions with Mexican domestic laborers.
  383.  
  384. Find this resource:
  385.  
  386. Rasmussen, Wayne D. A History of the Emergency Farm Labor Supply Program, 1943–1947. Agriculture Monograph 13. Washington, DC: US Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Agricultural Economics, 1951.
  387.  
  388. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  389.  
  390. The author addresses the political discourse in the Department of Agriculture and Congress, leading to the implementation of the program. The subsequent discussions between Washington and Mexico City led to modifications and renegotiated agreements. The study reports that nine thousand braceros failed to return to Mexico in 1945 and did so in protest of poor conditions.
  391.  
  392. Find this resource:
  393.  
  394. Tercero, Dorothy M. “Workers from Mexico.” Bulletin of the Pan American Union 78 (September 1944): 500–506.
  395.  
  396. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  397.  
  398. In step with the “Good Neighbor Policy,” this wartime review of the program underscores that the bracero is guaranteed wages, housing, medical care, and more. The numbers of men contracted, the states where men are located, and the types of work are identified. Braceros are treated excellently, and friendly relations between the two countries are firmed.
  399.  
  400. Find this resource:
  401.  
  402. Magazine Articles
  403. There is little difference in the manner in which magazine articles treat the Bracero Program and how it is presented by academics, government officials, and those activists who favor it. Generally, the early magazines articles were very positive and, like the governmental publications, followed a nearly identical political line. Issler 1943, Across the Border, and Mexicans Assist were nearly uniform in portraying the program in very positive terms. Bracero contracts were enforced, the men earned good wages, and it served the two nations and the interests of the bracero well. In the 1950s and 1960s the program was not as positively approved of as it had been during the early wartime period. However, there were exceptions. Gamio León 1961 discusses the Mexican media claim that the program brought economic improvements to Mexico, as well as the continuous means to do so. A cultural change among the hundreds of thousands of braceros would now work to change their impoverished villages. This was certainly a new means to supporting the program. The undocumented entry became a national issue, and Wetbacks Swarm In offers photographic material for the reader that certainly causes attention. At the same time, the article points to Senate discussions leading to Public Law 78 as the solution. Gorman 1957 presents a very positive rendition of the program. However, with time, criticisms could not be ignored and played a central role in published discourse. In the months leading up to Public Law 78, AFL-CIO criticisms and grower preferences for green carders coming across the border are brought forward by Braceros. A similar refrain appears in Migrant Workers’ Plight, which showed a deepening dissension among the proponents and opponents of the program. The stage was being set for the program’s eventual termination.
  404.  
  405. “Across the Border: Southern California Citrus Growers See 100% Harvest Now That Mexican Workers Are Helping in the Groves.” Business Week (31 July 1943): 85, 88.
  406.  
  407. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  408.  
  409. Claims that employing these workers assures that 100 percent of the harvest is procured rather than the 25 percent realized before braceros arrived. The growers are pleased, and the braceros earn an average of $31 to $35. A 10 percent portion of a bracero’s pay is returned to Mexico, where it can be used to improve conditions at home.
  410.  
  411. Find this resource:
  412.  
  413. “‘Braceros’: Congress Will Be Called On to Legislate Entry of Mexican Farm Labor into US.” Fortune 43 (April 1951): 58, 60, 65.
  414.  
  415. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  416.  
  417. During the months before the enactment of Public Law 78, the question of “wetback” (undocumented worker) entry, a new bracero agreement and AFL-CIO complaints, and California grower disenchantment took center stage. Growers would prefer allowing workers to cross the border and to get a green card allowing a year of residence.
  418.  
  419. Find this resource:
  420.  
  421. Gamio León, Carlos. “Braceros Bring Home New Ways.” Américas 13.5 (1961): 20–21.
  422.  
  423. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  424.  
  425. Mexico is a multicultural nation in which culture predisposes some to live in poverty. Suggests that one of the best means to change culture is to send poor Mexicans to an environment in which a higher level of culture ordains. The Bracero Program is a means to that end.
  426.  
  427. Find this resource:
  428.  
  429. Gorman, Thomas. “They Help Feed America: A Photo Story of the Braceros.” Today’s Health 35 (October 1957): 24–27.
  430.  
  431. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  432.  
  433. This very positive rendition of the program tells that braceros eat well, live well, are treated with great respect, and, above all, earn enough to buy a parcel of land, to start a store, or to get an education. Mexico favors the program, and the “Good Neighbor Policy” is maintained. This consumer health magazine was published as Hygeia between 1923 and 1949.
  434.  
  435. Find this resource:
  436.  
  437. Issler, Anne Roller. “Good Neighbors Lend a Hand.” Survey Graphic 32 (October 1943): 389–394.
  438.  
  439. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  440.  
  441. The majority of California farmers run small-sized operations; they welcome braceros with festivities and treat them with courtesy and respect. Braceros are viewed as a means to ensure efficient use of manpower; they are given English lessons and instruction in farming skills, which they can employ at home.
  442.  
  443. Find this resource:
  444.  
  445. “Mexicans Assist: Southern Pacific Reports 8,325 in Its Track Crews; Road Takes Care to Keep Its Visiting Workers by Boosting Morale.” Business Week (14 October 1944): 54.
  446.  
  447. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  448.  
  449. The article notes that on the Southern Pacific Railroad, the largest railway employer in the United States at the time, 8,325 braceros are employed—which amounts to 72 percent of the company’s workers. Braceros feel as if they are at home, and 10 percent of their wages are deducted and placed into a savings account to be returned in Mexico.
  450.  
  451. Find this resource:
  452.  
  453. “Migrant Workers’ Plight.” Fortune 60 (November 1959): 274, 276.
  454.  
  455. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  456.  
  457. The Bracero Program may be in trouble due to the difficult conditions affecting domestic farm labor. Growers offer wages that only braceros accept, creating domestic labor shortages that the braceros then fill. Discussions are in place to ensure the enforcement of the program and to resolve the problems for domestic laborers.
  458.  
  459. Find this resource:
  460.  
  461. “Wetbacks Swarm In: Mexicans Disrupt Border Economy by Sneaking Over for Low Wages.” Life 30.21 (21 May 1951): 33–37.
  462.  
  463. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  464.  
  465. The title of the article underscores the national preoccupation with undocumented migrants, known by the term “wetbacks.” Eighteen photographs illustrate an alleged invasion, and the Senate discusses a solution: a bill allowing the screening and transporting of Mexican labor to the United States.
  466.  
  467. Find this resource:
  468.  
  469. Photographic Collections
  470. Several photographic collections illustrate the transnational nature of the Bracero Program and include images from the emigrant worker stations in Mexico, the border sites, work sites, housing, recreation, worship, and more. Perhaps the most important collection comes from the Leonard Nadel Collection. The Nadel photographs begin with the Mexican peasant-sending village and then extend to encompass photographs of the emigrant worker station, the US border, the work site, and back to Mexico. The Hermanos Mayo Photograph Collection was taken in the early years of the program and concentrates on photos taken in Mexico City. These, too, tell of the experiences that men lived as they sought bracero contracts. In the United States there are a number of collections that concentrate on a particular region, and the Braceros in Oregon Collection attends to braceros in that state. The Ernesto Galarza Papers concentrates on California, but it also contains photographs taken in Mexico at the emigrant worker stations. Calisphere: The Bracero Program contains a collection of images of the early phase of the program and includes photos ranging from men boarding trains in Mexico, arriving at the work site, and at work. Also includes photographs of men trying to force their way across the border in an attempt to become braceros.
  471.  
  472. Braceros in Oregon Collection. Oregon State University Archives.
  473.  
  474. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  475.  
  476. More than a hundred photographs of braceros in the Oregon countryside, working, being transported, and living in housing. The program in Oregon lasted only until 1947, so the photographs are few compared to other sites where the braceros labored through the twenty-two years of the program.
  477.  
  478. Find this resource:
  479.  
  480. Calisphere: The Bracero Program. Bracero Photograph Collection, University of California Library.
  481.  
  482. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  483.  
  484. Dorothea Lange photographs of the first braceros examined at the Mexico City station, boarding trains, at the work site, and departing trains in Los Angeles. Other images from the Los Angeles Times are of crowds of men pushing across the border to become braceros.
  485.  
  486. Find this resource:
  487.  
  488. Ernesto Galarza Papers, 1936–1984. 1 box. Special Collections M0224. Stanford University Libraries.
  489.  
  490. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  491.  
  492. Folders 1–7 in Box 65 contain a large number of photographs; several are taken at the emigrant worker station in Mexico but most are centered in California. A number of photographs are available of the Chualar, California, accident in which thirty-two braceros were killed.
  493.  
  494. Find this resource:
  495.  
  496. Hermanos Mayo Photograph Collection. Archivo General de la Nación, Mexico City.
  497.  
  498. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  499.  
  500. This collection includes four hundred photographs taken during the early years of the program, at the processing center at the soccer stadium in Mexico City. Thousands of men were photographed waiting to enter the station, in the examination rooms, signing contracts, and boarding trains while families and wives wave good-bye.
  501.  
  502. Find this resource:
  503.  
  504. Leonard Nadel Collection. National Museum of American History, Behring Center, Smithsonian Institution.
  505.  
  506. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  507.  
  508. Rich collection of 1,732 photographs depicting the program. Included are sending villages, examination stations in Mexico and along the US border, work sites, and workers’ return to Mexico. There is no better collection to show the conditions under which braceros worked and lived, and the conditions wives and families experienced while husbands labored as braceros.
  509.  
  510. Find this resource:
  511.  
  512. Films and Documentaries
  513. In keeping with the bibliographical history on the Bracero Program, we find favorable and unfavorable perspectives coming from films and documentaries. In the 1950s and 1960s, agricultural interests made sure that their voices would lead the public to support the program. The television program hosted by Jack Linkletter contains a twenty-minute segment, On the Go: Braceros, in which a bracero employer defines the program as functioning perfectly, and that under its auspices braceros are treated as guests. And there is no better example of positive representation than the eighteen-minute infomercial film Why Braceros?, sponsored by the California Council of Growers. This public-relations film underscores the contractual obligations that growers gladly adhere to and the national benefits arising from the program. Both these works are focused on securing support for continuing the program. By contrast, two films by farmworker union activist Harvey Richards provide another perspective. Factory Farms (Richards 2005a) centers on braceros at work and on their role as the main ingredient in growers’ attempts to keep unions out of agriculture. The Harvesters (Richards 2005b), opens with the plight of domestic farmworkers as agricultural corporations maximize the use of braceros, alluded to in the documentary as “his [the farmer’s] secret weapon.” At least one recently produced television documentary, Los Braceros: Strong Arms to Aid the USA (Hosley 2006), presents a favorable image to the program as it functioned in Northern California, where men benefited well working as braceros. The documentary Harvest of Loneliness (Gonzalez, et al. 2011) provides a critical overview, emphasizing the exploitation experienced by the men, and the program’s transnational nature in which wives and families in Mexico were deeply affected by the absence of men. Vázquez Medrano 2002 is a documentary featuring one particularly negative aspect that became known long after the program ended. Former braceros are filmed protesting, demanding to recover 10 percent that had been taken from their paychecks and placed into a savings account but had never been returned. The documentary Bracero Stories (Mullins 2008) takes a middle-of-the-road approach to include arguments coming from stern critics of the program, on the one hand, and, on the other, its strong supporters. The audience is left to determine which interpretation to accept.
  514.  
  515. Gonzalez, Gilbert G., Adrián Salinas, and Vivian Price, dirs. Harvest of Loneliness: Cosecha Triste, 2010. DVD. New York: Films for the Humanities & Sciences, 2011.
  516.  
  517. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  518.  
  519. Interviews with braceros and wives of braceros are central to this award-winning documentary. Photographs, newsreels, and documentaries illustrate sending villages, examination stations, and work sites. Braceros speak of abusive treatment, and village women describe fending alone. Braceros and their wives oppose guest-worker programs to solve post–North American Free Trade Agreement migration.
  520.  
  521. Find this resource:
  522.  
  523. Hosley, David H., prod. Los Braceros: Strong Arms to Aid the U.S.A. Sacramento, CA: KVIE Public Television, 2006.
  524.  
  525. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  526.  
  527. The PBS broadcast presents a very positive historical rendition of the program. Braceros come to the United States to escape poverty and in so doing resolve the wartime labor shortage. The program opened opportunities otherwise closed to the men and allowed a significantly better life for them and their families.
  528.  
  529. Find this resource:
  530.  
  531. Mullins, Patrick, prod. and dir. Bracero Stories. DVD. Santa Fe, NM: Cherry Lane Productions, 2008.
  532.  
  533. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  534.  
  535. The first Bracero Program documentary produced in the United States. Interviewed are former employers of braceros who speak very favorably of the benefits for braceros; farmworker activists describe the program as slavery. Braceros speak of their experiences and favor a new guest-worker program. The film neither criticizes nor advocates for the program. Award-winning documentary.
  536.  
  537. Find this resource:
  538.  
  539. On the Go: Braceros. CBS television program, 15 January 1959. UCLA Film and Television Archive.
  540.  
  541. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  542.  
  543. This twenty-minute segment of an hour-long TV program hosted by Jack Linkletter offers a very favorable version of the program. The bracero interviewed, living with his family in the bracero camp, plans to start a business with his earnings, amounting to $50 a day. Braceros are shown residing under ideal conditions.
  544.  
  545. Find this resource:
  546.  
  547. Richards, Harvey, prod. and dir. Factory Farms, 1959. DVD. Oakland, CA: Estuary, 2005a.
  548.  
  549. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  550.  
  551. An important film that originates from the farmworker unionization drive. The central theme: the growers secure unlimited braceros in violation of the contract, in order to pay low wages that ensure poor living conditions and underemployment for domestic labor.
  552.  
  553. Find this resource:
  554.  
  555. Richards, Harvey, prod. The Harvesters, 1960. DVD. Oakland, CA: Estuary, 2005b.
  556.  
  557. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  558.  
  559. The film centers the objectives of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee operating in California’s Central Valley. Corporate agriculture controls the labor force and lowers wages by way of the Bracero Program, which displaces domestic laborers and creates abysmal living conditions for them and their families.
  560.  
  561. Find this resource:
  562.  
  563. Vázquez Medrano, Jorge Luis, dir. The Bracero Program: Sad Recollections / El Programa Bracero: Tristes Recuerdos. VHS. Mexico City: Motor Films, 2002.
  564.  
  565. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  566.  
  567. The film’s objective is to make known that braceros had 10 percent of their wages deducted and placed into savings accounts in Mexican state banks, where the money disappeared. At a protest in Mexico City, braceros express their disdain for the theft and demand their wages be returned immediately.
  568.  
  569. Find this resource:
  570.  
  571. Why Braceros? San Francisco: Wilding, 1959.
  572.  
  573. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  574.  
  575. Council of California Growers sponsors this infomercial lauding the program and contending that the international agreement and contracts are strictly observed. The film warns that if the program were to end, the consumer would have fewer fruits and vegetables to purchase and there would be fewer jobs.
  576.  
  577. Find this resource:
  578.  
  579. Newscasts and Newsreels
  580. Several theater newsreels and television newscasts presented the Bracero Program to the public, most of which were favorable to the legislation. The NBC newscast Braceros Pick California Tomatoes provides film of braceros in the fields, and Mexican Laborers Hired to Work in US Bracero Program, narrated by the well-known Chet Huntley, presented the program in a positive light, as a law that worked to benefit both nations. The newscast provides film of a bracero leaving his village, being processed at the border, and at work in California fields. Newsreels screened in movie theaters also provide information for the public. Here we find Good Neighbors: Labor Supply, in which braceros are brought to the border and inspected, sent to work, and then returned to Mexico. The question of undocumented workers, or “wetbacks,” is dealt with in two newsreels. The first, US Tightens Patrol on Mexico Border, situates the chasing of undocumented men as they cross the border and raises the need for a guest-worker program to solve the matter. The second, “Wetbacks”: Hundreds of Alien Workers Rounded Up, addresses the “wetback” question as it was being discussed nationally at the time and mentions that a new labor agreement is in the works.
  581.  
  582. “Braceros Pick California Tomatoes.” Media ID 1353KNBC96. Narrated by Bill Brown. Stockton, CA: NBC News, c. 1963.
  583.  
  584. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  585.  
  586. Braceros wait for their names to be called at the work site and to be sent to a field. They pick tomatoes, do manual work referred to as stoop labor, are said to earn as much as $2 an hour, and are preferred over domestic labor. The expanding tomato industry intends to continue using braceros.
  587.  
  588. Find this resource:
  589.  
  590. “Good Neighbors: Labor Supply, U.S. Eases Entry of Mexican Farm Hands.” Narrated by Ed Herlihy. Universal Newsreel 23.319. Universal-International News, 1950.
  591.  
  592. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  593.  
  594. The newsreel notes that braceros are allowed to enter the United States legally. Men with baggage are filmed crossing the Texas border and entering the station for medical exams. With puzzled looks on their faces they sign their contracts with a fingerprint, are filmed at work, and are seen returning to the border. Silent newsreel.
  595.  
  596. Find this resource:
  597.  
  598. “Mexican Laborers Hired to Work in U.S. ‘Bracero’ Program.” Media ID 00H7134. NBC News with Chet Huntley, 19 November 1963. NBC News Archive.
  599.  
  600. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  601.  
  602. Huntley narrates as a bracero leaves his family with the hope to earn enough to buy a plot of land. Filmed at the examination stations, the man is sprayed with DDT; he arrives at the work site, where braceros are said to be treated very well. The arguments against the program are countered.
  603.  
  604. Find this resource:
  605.  
  606. “U.S. Tightens Patrol on Mexico Border.” Narrated by Gregory Abbot. National Archives Identifier 99364, Local Identifier PARA-PN-8.42. Paramount News, 19 January 1949.
  607.  
  608. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  609.  
  610. The continuing undocumented migration was captured in this postwar newsreel viewed in movie theaters. Men were seen scrambling across the border, chased by the US Border Patrol, arrested, and deported. The newscast proposes the renegotiation of the bracero agreements as the solution.
  611.  
  612. Find this resource:
  613.  
  614. “‘Wetbacks’: Hundreds of Alien Workers Rounded Up.” Narrated by Ed Herlihy. Universal Newsreels 27.584. 1954.
  615.  
  616. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  617.  
  618. Filmed near Stockton, California, the Immigration and Naturalization Service engaged in a campaign, known as “Operation Wetback,” to capture undocumented migrants for return to Mexico. In this one-minute episode, dozens of compliant men are searched and then bused to the border. Silent newsreel.
Add Comment
Please, Sign In to add comment
Public Pastes
We use cookies for various purposes including analytics. By continuing to use Pastebin, you agree to our use of cookies as described in the Cookies Policy.  OK, I Understand
Not a member of Pastebin yet?
Sign Up, it unlocks many cool features!