US Latinx Activism and Protests: From the Farm to the (Legislative) Table

Testimonials of Bracero Workers: The Bright and Dark Side of the Bracero Program

Introduction to the Bracero Program

In response to World War II, the United States faced many repurcussions, damages and shortages in numerous areas. One of them were land workers. The majority of men were sent to fight as soldiers to fight in the for their country, in return the agricultural systems and development suddenly reached a point where it could potentially lead to a halt. Until the United States created a treaty in 1942 under the Kennedy administration to recruit Mexican migrants to come to work in the United States legally. However, during the 1950's Before, illegal migration was an issue until the treaty of the Bracero program came into place. The treaty was a sign of hope for a lot of Mexican migrants, because it meant that they could come to the United States to work and start a new life. Life in Mexico was not pleasing, nor satisfactory for around 2-4 million people who chose to participate in the Bracero program. However, the testimonials that you will see today expose that the new life or American dream that they were expecting was far from the contrary.This page will introduce testimonials of Rafael Morales, Emilio Solis Palleres and others who will collectively share to agree that they chose the Bracero for a better life, share their experiences, but all in a different manner. 

Happy Endings 

The first set of testimonials is from former Bracero workers Rafael Morales and Benny Carranza. Carranza was in fact, a professional basketball player for Mexican basketball league who participated in the Bracero Program and was very optimistic about the program in his first years. However, he also used his biliteracy in Spanish and English to be a mediator of conflict within the workers and owners. He voiced how the treatment they received when the owners would at times check their teeth as if they were horses. Overall, Carranza received the title of "el patron" in the Mexican community and utlized his status to be an influential and aide for his fellow bracero workers. Rafael Morales also shares his story of being a Bracero worker than turned for the better in the end. Throughout the period of the Bracero Program, illegal entries did not subside and instead continued as soon as word of work and wages reached the borders of Mexico. Morales testified he crossed the border at least 25 to 30 times. A truck going up to Stockton changed his life by going uphill. Although he was inexperienced at first, his employer Harold McCLish hired him despite his inexperience in driving trucks and working prune drying machines. Eventually, he sent for his family to live in a house in Windsor where Morales became foreman of the ranch. 

An employer of Bracero workers in the Sonoma County, Talmadge "Babe" Wood. Sonoma County is a county in Northern California known for their infamous winery. Before they were developed into what they are today, like most parts of the United States during World War II they experienced extreme shortages on farmers to work on their farmland. Out of the many ranchers in Sonoma County, it is said that Wood was most likely the first rancher to hire Bracero Workers in the county. The following videos share the perspective and story of an employer and employee of the Bracero program. 

Emilio Solis Palleres shares a slightly different perspective of his experiences as a Bracero worker. Palleres shares one of his most consequential and significant experiences as a Bracero in his experiences in harvesting cotton. He reveals that he almost had his arm amputated while working with a cotton gin and continues to imply that if you left because you were unable to work you would be sent back to your home country. The video cuts to his saying: "I lived a comfortable life." This statement arguably sets him apart from the other testimonials I gathered for his page, because unlike Chris Luna, Rafael Morales, and Fausto Ríos, Palleres reveals that he was able to live "a comfortable life" due to his employer helping him and his family gain papers in order to reside in the United States. 

Revealing Injustices

Other Bracero Workers such as Fausto Ríos share their perspective with as an approach to reveal the injustice and racism behind the program. Ríos shares in his testimonial that he was adamant and initially prevented himself from sharing his life as a Bracero. Although the initial focus of people who participated in the program did it to pursue a better life and believed they were taking advantage of an opportunity, after witnessing and experiencing the reality of the program, it haunts former participants such as Ríos. However, this haunting nightmare gave him the reason to break his silence and to share his story to the Los Angeles Times. The following photographs below further summarize the treatment the Bracero workers recieved starting from the health checks, living conditions, and deportation. 

Chris Luna was also a former Bracero worker who was part of the program since the beginning. The following photograph illustrates the treatment that Luna describes. Luna confesses that he was referred to as a "dog" and was prevented from returning to Mexico when he realized the program was barbaric. Despite many Mexican migrants who came to the United States in search of a better life through the Bracero Program, workers such as Luna and their desire to return to their home country reveal the degree of the inhumane nature of the program was not worth suffering. The photograph illustrates that these workers were only expected to work. The maltreatment, how they were being clothed, or fed wasn't anyone's concern which aligns with Luna's confession of being referred to as a dog in which they were treated like one. Most of the program's priority was whether they were able to work or if they were clean most of the time. 

Albert de Luera Escabar, another Bracero worker and participant of a podcast where he shared his testimony, disclosed the eating conditions of the program in which he summarized: "They didn't give you a chance to rest... imagine the camp of seven to ten thousand people, giving them food to eat on long tables like this. At two or three in the morning, you would have to get in line to eat, because if you work up late, you have to go off to work without eating." Workers had to work all day, hours on end with their backs hunched over with little rest and poor food. It was not only men that participated in this program, but even young children, Josie-Cario Johnson who is a daughter of a former Bracero worker, was sought out and helped her family in the fields to pick out tomatoes. Escabar implies that they were fed just enough to last and it wasn't anyone's responsibility whether or not you were fed.

Conclusions

Unlike how we apply for jobs today, where we send in resumes, have traditional interviews, and wait for an email that informs us that we either got the job or didn't, Mexican workers went through unspeakable turmoil which is constantly repeated throughout this book. The image below where the man is hanging onto the fence can be interpreted by the man clinging onto the hope that he can get to the other side of the fence to start a new life in the United States. This was the case for every person who spoke in their testimonials.

This page strived to reveal the various perspectives of the Bracero Program. Some had happy endings who were able start a new life for their family, some carried their traumas from the program and wished to reveal them through their testimonials. However, they collectively share the same message in which each strives to expose the history and strengthen the existence of the Bracero Program. Strengthening the existence of the Bracero Program also highlights those who were part of that history. Not only does the history of the Bracero Program function as representation for the Chicanx community, it serves as a movement to spread international awareness of its injustices. The Bracero Program which was supposed to end around the end of World War II, eventually ended in 1964 which allegedly stretched the continuation of illegal migration. All in all, the program highlights the injustice, the maltreatment, and encourages for radical change and to exercise human rights of the Chicanx community. The Bracero Program and the testimonials of the program contributes as another key part of history that sets a global precedent to prevent its injustices from being repeated.

Citations:

https://www.srcity.org/Blog.aspx?IID=70&ARC=43
https://museumsc.org/bracero-program/
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-07-18/former-bracero-farmworker-breaks-silence
https://www.npr.org/transcripts/5205763 
https://borderzine.com/2015/05/utep-historians-chronicle-lives-dreams-of-mexican-braceros-in-u-s-labor-program/

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