Henry Pope Anderson's account of the
Bracero Program in California says that workers often could not eat their bologna sandwiches, since they were such a departure from the Mexican diet: "To most
braceros there are at least four things wrong with bologna sandwiches.
By bilateral agreement, the
bracero (a Spanish term for manual laborer) program allowed Mexicans to work seasonally on American farms, starting in 1942.
On the shoulders of this desperate necessity, the
braceros have organized a picaresca laboral'--a picaresque labour movement--'that has been very much to the benefit of the unscrupulous
bracero and pretty damn onerous for our agriculture' (Romero Moliner 1952: 91).
Esta entrevista de historia nos permitio recuperar tanto la experiencia de vida del entrevistado (entendida esta como la trayectoria individual migratoria y su impacto), como los temas centrales relacionados con el impacto de la migracion en Colima durante esos veintidos anos de existencia del Programa
Bracero.
Several years ago, the Mexican government approved a budget of almost $900 million to reimburse the
braceros, but
bracero advocates contend that only about of one-third of that has been released by Mexican authorities.
Ngai looks with respect on the program's effort to set standards for wages, housing, and guarantees of employment for the
braceros.
One notable example, the
bracero program, began in 1942 through an agreement between the United States and Mexico.
Farm workers had been excluded from the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 and, despite many union efforts to organize farm workers without NLRA protections, it was only in 1962 that Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta founded the National Farm Workers Association, the union that became the United Farm Workers (UFW) and won 40% wage increases in table grape contracts in 1966, largely because
Bracero workers were not available (Martin, 2003).
The impact of national quotas for immigrants from Mexico coupled with the end of the
Bracero Program, however, meant that thousands of Mexicans lost their legal right to work in the United States.
The situation led to an extended series of guest worker contracts popularly known as the
Bracero period (1942-1964).
and his wife Inez Mathieu of Spencer, and 7 grandchildren, Elizabeth Lamica, Kristin Mathieu, Jonathan Mathieu, Callie Rae Mathieu, Brett Lamica, Ryan Mathieu, and Logan Mathieu and a great-grandson Justin David
Bracero.
Readers interested in a closer examination of William's attitudes in the period of April 1946 to December 1952--with special reference to his notes on Westbrook Pegler, FDR's "court-packing," the
bracero workers' program, and his self-image as an hard-drinking gentleman farmer in east Texas and the Rio Grande Valley--should have a look at my good friend Rob Johnson's The Lost Years of William S.
The two countries signed the
Bracero Agreement in 1943, which began the importation of laborers or "
braceros" from Mexico to work in the United States.
He examines recruiting, processing and transporting
bracero labor to the US, then takes a stand in defense of indentured labor, examines the case of Henry P.
Harvest of Loneliness/Cosecha Triste: The
Bracero Program (2010) (bilingual English and Spanish)