The Bracero Program

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The Bracero Program

• 1942-1964

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What was the Bracero Program?

• Foreign contract labor program initiated in 1942
  during WWII
• Also known as the Migrant Labor Agreement between
  U.S. Mexican governments
• 4.6 million workers between 1942 1964

• WHY THEN?
• Parallels with other societal changes?
• Why did it begin?
• Why did it end?

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What is a bracero?

• Bracero
• Migrant worker. Mexican laborer who sells the
  work of his arms (BRAZOS) in the fields of the
  United States. Similar to farmHAND or HANDyman

4
What is a bracero?

• Generally speaking, the Latin American migratory
  worker going into west Texas is regarded as a
  necessary evil, nothing more nor less than an
  unavoidable adjunct to the harvest season.
  Judging by the treatment that has been accorded
  him in that section of the state, one might
  assume that he is not a human being at all, but a
  species of farm implement that comes mysteriously
  and spontaneously into being coincident with the
  maturing of the cotton, that requires no upkeep
  or special consideration during the period of its
  usefulness, needs no protection from the
  elements, and when the crop has been harvested,
  vanishes into the limbo of forgotten things
  -until the next harvest season rolls around.
• He has no past, no future, only a brief and
  anonymous present.From Latin Americans in
  Texas, by Pauline R. Kibbe, The University of New
  Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1948

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Sign outside Texas tavern, 1940s
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BACKGROUND

• In the US
• Large Mexican agricultural labor force from
  1880s, especially in CA, TX, and southwest
• Transformation of agriculture in 1920s-1930s to
  larger bank-owned enterprises (beginning of the
  end for family farms) instead of year-round
  farmhands, labor became migrant
• Growers did not want to pay fair wages to
  citizens preferred low-wage undocumented
  workers
• Border Patrol established in 1924, and many
  Mexican workers deported during the Depression,
  creating shortages of agricultural workers
  providing leverage to legal workers STRIKES!

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BACKGROUND

• In Mexico
• Many people fled northward from 1910 revolution
• 1930s agricultural crisis harvests were
  insufficient to support many farming communities
• Imagined possibility of earning relative riches
  in the US (even though wages were often lower in
  Texas than in Mexico)

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WWII and the Bracero Treaty

• 1941-1942 growers claimed labor shortage
  refused to raise wages and demanded importation
  of labor instead of organized citizen labor
• Contract labor had been outlawed since 1885 -- a
  little too much like slavery
• BUT

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The Bracero Program is established

• On September 27, 1942, the first braceros were
  admitted in time for the sugar-beet harvest.
• Reasons The increasingly difficult
  circumstances of the Mexican working class in the
  cities and rural communities in regards to the
  scarcity of nourishment increasing price rates
  and other economic overturnings and Mexican
  workers' hope of earning better wages in the
  United States than in Mexico..."
• HUNGER IN ONE PLACE DRIVES FOOD PRODUCTION IN
  ANOTHER

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Workers in Mexico City hoping to be contracted to
work in the US, 1942
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RECRUITMENT CENTERS
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RECRUITMENT CENTERS
Notice anything about gender?
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RECRUITMENT CENTERS
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RECRUITMENT CENTERS
DDT not just used on crops
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• Braceros received an Alien Laborer's Permit and
  signed a contract, usually for 9-12 months, at
  the end of which they had to turn in their
  permits and return to Mexico.

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Bracero Program Documentation

• Although the bracero treaty called for contracts
  to be written in Spanish, often they were in
  English, and the braceros did not understand what
  they were agreeing to.

17
Upon arrival

• Ranchers would pick up the braceros at the
  borders and transport them to the camps.

18
Bracero Program Contracts

• Braceros were contracted to one employer only.
  Regardless of labor conditions, if they were
  caught outside the farms specified in their
  documents, they were subject to deportation.

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Living Conditions

• Conditions were often very poor, with workers
  sleeping in crowded barracks.

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Employers

• Underpayment was the most common complaintoften
  employers made braceros sign blank receipts and
  paid them far less than the agreed-upon wage.

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• But what were the conditions like for the workers?

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Idaho potato picker, 1950s
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California, 1947
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New Mexico chile harvest, 1950s
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Was it all bad? 2 Testimonials

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1954 OPERATION WETBACK

• According to INS Commissioner Swing, the
  alarming, ever-increasing, flood tide of
  undocumented migrants from Mexico constituted an
  actual invasion of the United States. Operation
  Wetback commenced in June 1954 with a direct
  attackupon the hordes of aliens facing us across
  the borderPlanes were used to locate wetbacks
  and to direct ground teams working in jeepsto
  discourage re-entry, many of those apprehended
  were moved far into the interior of Mexico by
  train and ship.
• Mae Ngai, Impossible Subjects (2004)155-156

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1964 THE END

• Union leaders and others led outcry against
  abusive conditions (and undercutting of union
  wages)
• Increased mechanization of agriculture decreased
  demand for labor
• More liberal rights-focused politics in
  Washington (connections with other movements?)