The Bracero program & Mexican farm workers in the U.S. (part 2 of 2)

The bracero program was continued in one form or another long past the end of World War II.  It ended in 1964 due to fears that the Mexican workers were taking jobs from native born citizens of the United States.  In addition, a serious car accident involving a bus loaded with braceros in which many were killed helped convince the Mexican government that the program needed to be ended.

At the outset of the bracero program, Texas (a major user of Mexicans as farm laborers) was unwilling to join it.  This was because its farmers wanted to pay lower wages and be less careful about the conditions under which the workers lived.  The workers entered the state illegally, and thus were particularly vulnerable.  The farmers insultingly called them “wet backs,” since many of them had to swim the Rio Grande in order to enter Texas, and employed them by the thousands.

The Rio Grande Valley.  Map courtesy of University of Texas at Austin.

In 1946, however, the government of Mexico withdrew all its workers from Texas due to serious abuses and at that point, the state entered the bracero program.

There are many sites on the internet which talk about the bracero program and farm laborers from Mexico.  The Smithsonian recently organized an exhibition about it, which can be found on-line and which I like very much.  The exhibition includes some great posters with especially fine photographs, plus text in both English and Spanish.  You can find the posters at: http://www.sites.si.edu/bracero/Bracero%20Posters.pdf, and learn more about the traveling exhibit at http://www.sites.si.edu/bracero/.  

Another one of the wonderful Smithsonian posters (with photo: Leonard Nadal).

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We are in the process of creating a documentary, Strong Roots, Bright Flowers:  Arts of Mexican Immigrants and Chicanos, which talks about the bracero and other farm labor programs as they are related to the creation of música norteña/TexMex music.  You can see a trailer from it on YouTube - go to this LINK; or sign up for our monthly newsletter here LINK where we can keep you up to date.