Viewfinder; Los Braceros

Production of Los Presario strong arms to aid the USA is made possible by the public television stations of the Pacific mountain network and by Amador and Rosalee boost those in honor of all the Mexican families with toiled in the American fields. My humus if they had a sou Casa overlook a spider yet the seed of your cellar five media young negroes but I doubt that of a cardinal compass grandchild's in federal custody in Feith good Noyce have sued your IT WAS look at me do you want to film it as me he got a few feet on in the mean of a scene of quiting playing golf you know he goes isn't that what the museum of N but I say to us. Philip I love it but assholes with affirmatively Basle swear that this confederate left a bit up but I've never had enough instead of needles you feel mean pigeon and you'll be rather put on notice that only they insist to put or not believe unless it back get them. That value also fortunate that you are not also likely have their own but a settled life story haven't you put up

your by the even me Jonas. They all tell us about sales. It's not that they would yell out this billboard to be that but I for one have become a hoarder but I miss most about us I mean yes it's own Historia in it I meant the no call has come through with you on this same record all said say you know settle for meals of the hour. It began in 1942. Shortly after the United States entered World War Two in agreement between the U.S. and Mexican governments allowed and encouraged Mexican men to work on thousands of temporary jobs in the United States. The news about this new but a serious program spreads quickly to every bustling city and remote village in Mexico to get started. All a man had to do was to apply at one of the country's screening centers. First of all they ran ads newspaper ads. The Mexican

government to attract people from particular the rural areas to come into the cities and one of the first cities that opened up the center as well as Mexico City in 1942 and in 1942 attracted to many of them actually to be contracted. They figure they get it for 5000 They got about 50000 people just in the city of Mexico the first time they try to contract them during the more than 20 years that even a single program was in effect more than two million Mexican men came across the border to work. Most trying to escape wrenching poverty at home. You have to remember when these folks came over they were mostly seem like they were destitute. If I didn't do their best you know like I said I would die over there because it was for a while most work was in farming ranching and on railroads in the western and southwestern states. But our signals were scattered throughout much of the United States including the Midwest and south as the name suggests.

Recruiters look for men with strong arms and something else. That's one of the things that recruiters look for with calloused hands because they wanted men who had experience in manual labor. The benefits program was administered by the United States Department of Labor. It required that employers pay at least minimum wage plus supply the men with other benefits such as housing mediators with the Department of Labor were on call to help resolve any problems in the early 1950s. Bob Porter worked with but our saddles as part of his job would be done yeah. I'm not County Farm Bureau in Las Cruces New Mexico. They had local compliance man department labor and as I recall there were about three of them here and they were Hispanic Spanish speaking people. Who had a good feel for both farming and for the brasero and these guys responsibility was to handle complaints and and to take care of any disputes that might arise either from the job or

living conditions or whatever while still in Mexico. Perspective but all signals were screened to make sure they had no criminal record. As a result there were no serious incidents of law breaking involving the US fiddles during the entire history of the program. Initially it was set to end after World War 2 when the G ice came home but that didn't happen because of the World War Two veterans did not want to return to the field so I can give you a real good example of that is my father. My father worked in the fields and my mother worked in the canneries and so when my father was working in the fields will war to erupt. He was drafted and so someone had to take his place. So that's when the better cell program came in to take his place. Somebody came for a reason other than work. A retired teacher in San Jose California used the program as a way to go back to school. I already knew that. What I want to get an education the best set of program

is the instrument to help me start in on that road. But I can say about up to my own father about Seattle in the 1940s. You two men who were lured by simple curiosity little Norn the know your struggle for me was because there are more neighbors die you just are more used to you goes your nosegay or young as you kicked it over a needle in a poor sod neutrally medical foster you've got now it's worth it. And it's about the world but I would prefer to work it out who is also a man of the North if this goes to New York. Yes is there a recital every minute there was like it on but if you work it out though because you live for those you want to see through the use of their first stop in the United States was the city of El Paso Texas

which shares the border with the state of Chihuahua Mexico and bustle has always been until very recently the major port of entry for Mexicans coming into the United States and this was also a major port of entry for the process. Men coming over the border were often transported by train from Mexico's interior then processed at a facility like this one that does center in the town of silk for real outsiders. It started as a poor form for housing in rural poor people and even helped German and Italian prisoners during World War Two. But following the war and until 1964 it was the clearing house where thousands of but I Pharaohs were contracted to work in the United States do part of what I'm thinking my father was a farmer. I was born in the country and I studied agriculture at school in Mexico and his background in

farming made whole Sidra meat is a doddle unnatural for the program. Mr There you go came from northern Mexico where cotton was widely grown. That gave him and some fellow but I said it was an advantage since picking cotton was a skill in high demand in Texas and New Mexico where don't know if we're going to hear more. Well we were special because we knew about all sorts of work on the farm but there were Service didn't have our knowledge so we were able to teach where we're going to go. After close to 15 years as of a sadle Mr they got don't move back to Mexico and had a long career with a sportswear manufacturing company. Today he lives in quantities the Mexican city across the Rio Grandy from El Paso. This was the first time he'd been back to real b stuff and drag it on the border. But I'm not for people of a rough you're with if you want to wear them weed on day no Pinyin your

number but no move no with a dollar can get all your myth in the convento go right out of your day being a cat I can go on there. Oh I look up we're working in Britain and you haven't developed it. Well part of you will be still serves as a popular community center.

Much of it in a state of arrested became many of its own the Dolby buildings crumbling. But that makes it easy to imagine what life was like for a man coming over the border to work in this unfamiliar new world. Still here old metal bed frames where the arrested were being sent to their assigned barracks where men congregated and slept sinks and bathrooms Quonset huts were health screenings took place while considered necessary. These were still humiliating. The brass needles were stripped disinfected for lice then examined. I mean it about she remembers it well

as a new high school graduate in 1957. Her very first job was in the Rio Vista typing pool processing contracts for incoming and outgoing but to say to us her family came from Mexico so she spoke fluent Spanish. She processed up to 40 contacts a day working for the program until it ended in 1964. The ones that I remember most vividly are the people that came from the State of the haka. They were indigenous people and they were very poor. They had walked for miles and miles and when they came here they had that type of sandal and their feet were bleeding. It was just awful they had their white clothes and everything. And I don't know how long they had need because I was typing a contract for one of the gentleman and I was asking him questions. And suddenly. I looked at one thing you noted at the typewriter to type what I was typing and I looked up and he was there any more. So I looked around and nobody said anything none of the rest that was

that there was about 200 residents in the building at that time. And I said where is a gentleman that I was talking to and they said here right there right in front of you and I looked over my desk and sure enough he had passed us that you know he had fainted after being screened and processed the residuals were issued. I did if occasion cards recruiters from farms ranches and railroad companies selected the workers they needed and sent them by bus or train to their new jobs. Few if any of our sales were rejected. The United States Department of Labor mandated that but assiduous made minimum wage paid by the hour or by the pound for jobs like picking cotton. As mentioned before those with prior agricultural experience proved to be more valuable but in the month ahead of the top but at the near me and so the company will run through. The negatives immune to the Camorra

you saw me first really top up in a parallel thread. You had a lot of that. But the same thought that a wow this isn't the border the. Yukon the bizarre her lot IO that is just. And the help of their own men went through with it about who her acceptance of but I said depended largely on where they worked. Among the worst places to be assigned was eastern Texas. Culturally more like the deep south than the American Southwest. Discrimination was still evident particle in states like Texas which was denied when the program began. Because of the long history of discrimination. There were still signs that said no Mexicans or dogs allowed in various restaurants or public parks public areas in the southwestern states of New Mexico Arizona and West Texas.

Many farmers and ranchers were familiar with Mexican culture and spoke Spanish. You see the opinio worked as a bit of a siddur in 1959 but has never mastered English. He never had to let my other particular spot on insecure columnist by no one. Baby and I went up with him for years but only from Corporal hey you're out on this by now I mean we've been most but not all of the money that I said earned made its way to their families in Mexico and Amanda miscanthus. And they had to put the Naomi moment although via. Me said the man was picking us. Ulemas force. Well you can see in the know we look east they carry the beloved of. Holding the contrast between the time the dust settles were first contracted and when they finally went home to Mexico was dramatic and made a lasting impression on me nearby Cheatham.

When they came here the cat was very quiet they would sleep and it was very quiet when they came back from going to the farms a big contract that every one of them had a radio. And every one of them had it full blast and on a different station so you could imagine what it sounded like. Green. Drink not only a job with me with mother but it was helping people helping somebody to better their life. It was great. All. While the selfless United States was the starting point for many of us it also

most eventually spent time in California which had and still has the most productive Iger coal through land in the United States. Whether harvesting brussel sprouts along the coast or picking tree. In the sucky Valley Press it was continued a long tradition of immigrant labor in the state the city of Stockton honors contributions of the better said us with this statute downtown. Stockton resident worked as a bar Sydow and remembers back breaking labor using tools that were eventually outlawed or will be about where the goal of you know like the mother would go to a part of an adult there was a girl I really want to hurt the good. The hot summers often made working conditions unbearable

heat stroke and dehydration could stop a man in his strikes. Salvatore Chavis was laid up by heat stroke but as luck would have it when he recovered he found another job in cooler conditions for many who have been you know one we all know important in how they got there in the military you know very hard because you have about a little bit of money you need to get there what a portable phone your so annoying man and as a mother. No no no manners and I love the commute that is commensurate with history hadn't but us signals were also critical to the Pacific Northwest especially in places like the Yakima Valley in eastern Washington. Well something unique about this valley is that it's one of the nation's premier

valleys in terms of agricultural production it rivals the San Joaquin Valley in California the Salt River Valley and in Arizona that would underbelly and Texas and the only limitation here is the short growing season. During World War Two when field hands were drawn to the Seattle area to work in the defense industry but us it was filled to the void. Harvesting sugar beets or hops and working on the railroads. But unlike California and the southwest with their long Mexican-American history the Northwest knew little about these newcomers making life more isolating lonelier for the typical but what community was there that he could interact with. In contrast to a bit of settle in California or Arizona there are no Mexican restaurants to speak of. There's no entertainment for Mexican people. There is no social fabric that is in the communities today was

nonexistent in the 1940s. Still the contributions made by bit are settles in the North-West were publicly valued and eventually many of the men brought their families to the United States establishing themselves in farm towns like ranger with its lively Mexican radio station and miners and top and with a colorful mural honoring the men who did so much to help the United States in the 1940s and beyond. This man went through a lot to get their jobs and to get you know what they considered a better life or at least a little extra money to take home. I never watched the World War Two documentaries. They talk about how Americans won the war and true and the sacrifices that Americans went through but who

further Americans who fled the allies. There was Mexicans Searles in recent years a concerted effort has been made that our saddles the respect and. Mission they deserve. This includes trying to recoup money deducted from their paychecks in the first two years of the program. Well the best set of program lasted from 1040 to 1964 and there were periods of time when 10 percent of the but I said those paychecks would be held back. And the idea was to hold it back until they return to Mexico at which point they would be given that 10 percent. So it was kind of an in forced savings program but millions of dollars that were held back just disappeared and was just all water got me somebody else will but I'll settle for most activists like Louise my God you know of Stockton California and the Neolithic Ilmor fever in Granger Washington are working with attorneys to find out what happened to those millions

of dollars. Well it's been a long struggle. They're confident that one day the dust settles or their families will receive at least some of the money they're due. On the cultural front. Musicians like one bottle of Seattle's to celebrate the

musical heritage of the biggest settles in the form of reading stories of struggle hardship and trial of the most ambitious program of all this being conducted by the Smithsonian Institution. Working with the Institute of oral history at the University of Texas at El Paso. The goal. To record in their own words as many life stories as possible from the dust settles in the United States and Mexico many of whom are now in their 80s and 90s capturing the stories any story is important I think people need to capture that and learn about their history and about their family because you know once what's your relatives have passed away and you lose that story and you'll never know it I think that's just really hard. The program officially ended in 1964 in part because of accusations that it undermined wages for U.S. citizens. In the 22 years of its existence.

More than four and a half million contracts were drawn up for two million Mexican men while some returned home to Mexico. Many more stayed in the United States. Becoming a permanent legal resident or citizen adopted. The majority of the law is what I said but a song was about that city that so not have it there would be not made a gun that the U.S. has called this. Message but I see on the bill the roof I mean Yet I. Haven't won it therefore I don't know middle school. Yes and also when you're mad. So you get our support of it by now the. Production of Los percent strong arms to aid the USA was made possible by

the public television stations of the Pacific mout network and by Amador and Rosalee Bush DOS in honor of all the Mexican families who have toiled in the American fields.