The Bracero Program



How has transnational migration reshaped the relationships that migrating individuals have with their previous communities?

Arguably one of the most highly controversial exchanges brought by the United States government on an international scale, is one that not many Americans do not know about, despite the fact that the aftermath of this event plays a major part in their daily lives.


Northwest Farm News, September 9, 1943

During the beginning stages of World War II, the United States dealt with an issue of labor shortages which the U.S. government attempted to fulfill both domestically in hiring women to the workforce, and with the aid of foreign citizens who were recruited to meet the agricultural demands required in wartime. In David G. Gutiérrez Walls and Mirrors: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the Politics of Ethnicity, Gutiérrez explains that Mexico was reluctant in joining any labor consensus with the United States without obtaining strong assurances that their citizens would be protected. (Gutiérrez, 1995, p.134) On August 1942 both the U.S. and Mexican government came to terms with the agreement declaring it the temporary Emergency Farm Labor Program.  

From the start of the program Gutiérrez reports that 500 braceros were participating in the Emergency Farm Labor Program, however, a few months later a report shows 4,189 braceros were working in the United States. In 1944 the rates rose to 62,091. In the final year, the program ended Gutiérrez cites that the that a total of active Bracers in the program reached 220, 000. (Gutiérrez, 1995, p.134)


The reason for these high rates was due to the fact that the Bracero participates were on a six months contract which provided for greater finical stability than Mexican men had back home. In a show of Push/Pull factors, Mexican migrants were pulled toward the program because of the economic benefits, and pushed out of their home environments because of the cultural influences brought by the Machismo effect the Mexican men to be the sole providers of their families. Often times financially desperate family men made up the majority of the Bracero workers.

The massive amount of Braceros can also be explained by the ways these men were recruited.  In the documentary Harvest of Loneliness, by co-directors, Gilbert Gonzalez, and Vivian Price, recognizes that many Braceros came from second or third generational families whose father and grandfather were Braceros themselves. (Gonzales, 2010) Many of these young impressionable men were influenced by their family members in applying for the program, in order to bring in money to the household.
Right: Image of Bracero program registration. Left: Migrant bound to the U.S.

Despite the positive benefits of being a Bracero farm worker, the overwhelming majority the Braceros had negative experiences while in the U.S. Because the U.S. government had not regulated the rights and rules of farmers and farm workers, leaving the latter vulnerable and at the mercy of the formers influences. Housing and working conditions were horrendous. Many of the Braceros were working 12 to 14-hour shifts with the majority of time in direct sunlight. It was common for Braceros to be laid off. Kitty Calavita in her book Inside the State: The Bracero Program, Immigration, and the I.N.S., explains that layoffs were more prone to large farms than smaller ones. (Calavita,1992, p. 70).

Image of pesticides being sprayed on Bracero workers before going out to the fields.  
The Bracero Program was set to end on July 1, 1947, however because of the farmer's interest in cheap labor, and the thousands of foreign workers who provided the labor, the U.S. Congress was pressured into continuing the program. It took nearly four years before a permanent act would allow for migrant workers from Mexicos to work on U.S. farms, with the passage of the Migrant Labor Agreement of 1951. (Calavita,1992, p. 26)

In the 1950 and 1960’s was an time where organizations such as LUCA, and the United Farm Workers Union advocated for the rights for agricultural workers. The Bracero program which had started off as a temporary labor program turned into a new way of life for families of Mexico and dramatically altered the culture and tone of farm workers in the United States.

References:

Gutiérrez, D. (2007). Walls and Mirrors: Mexican Americans, Mexican immigrants, and the     politics of ethnicity. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Calavita, K. (1992). Inside the state: The bracero program, immigration, and the I.N.S. New Orleans, LA.: Quid Pro.

Gonzales, G., & Price, V. (Directors). (2010, May 20). Harvest of Loneliness: The Bracero Program [Video file]. Retrieved December 05, 2018, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1658805/

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