1. Bracero Program A Case Study

2. Historical Context The US government established the Bracero Program in 1942 to sponsor temporary guest workers from Mexico to work in the agricultural industry in California. Due to a temporary labor shortage, Congress approved an Emergency Labor Program that replaced men enlisted in the military with Mexican immigrants. Four million Mexican workers immigrated to California for the 22 years of the program’s existence.

3. Essential Question What was the impact of the Bracero Program?

4. See Mean Matter SeeMeanMatter Describe what you see. Describe what the image means. Describe how the picture answers the essential question.

5. Working on the Farm Citation: Belen Soto Moreno, "Working on the Farm," in Bracero History Archive, Item #3050, http://braceroarchive.org/items/show/3050 (accessed July 13, 2010).

6. Employment Title: Mexican workers await legal employment in the United States, Mexicali (Mexico) Publication: Los Angeles Times Publication date: February 8, 1954

7. Moving Structures Title: Workers using horses to move a structure. Publication date: 2009-08-05 Citation: Belen Soto Moreno, "Workers," in Bracero History Archive, Item #3054, http://braceroarchive.org/items/show/3054 (accessed August 3, 2010).

8. Wages

9. Headlines "More than 80,000 braceros pass through the El Paso Center annually. They're part of an army of 350,000 or more that marches across the border each year to help plant, cultivate and harvest cotton and other crops throughout the United States". Source: El Paso Herald Post, April 28, 1956

10. Connection to Illegal Immigration “As the U.S. Department of Labor relaxed regulations on Bracero housing, wages, and food charges in the mid-1950s, more farmers hired legal Braceros; admissions peaked at 445,200 in 1956.” Martin, Philip. “Was the Bracero Program a Failure?” History News Network. http://hnn.us/articles/27336.html

11. Cheap Labor “Employers were supposed to hire braceros only in areas of certified domestic labor shortage, and were not to use them as strikebreakers. In practice, they ignored many of these rules and Mexican and native workers suffered while growers benefited from plentiful, cheap, labor.” Source: http://braceroarchive.org/about

12. Essential Question What was the impact of the Bracero Program?