Viewfinder; Contra IV for DVD; Los Braceros

That's weird. I'm starting to look like my mom. How did that happen. Yeah it's funny how things happen isn't it. It sure did kill you. OK I'm sorry. I moved over to the table tonight.

My best work. I wish I got to set up a studio seems easier to control any have more room to room with their friends. Man I know right. But it's like I got used to being able to write and everything looks nice and back to me everything you shot turned out really well. I see.

I know I probably should just get a STD. I keep moving. That's right. You are like a lot cooler. Now it's not just right that's the only problem.

Thanks Amy. Yes. Oh David. OK one two three four five six seven eight nine 10 11 12 can you hear me. Is it making any sense. I just want to keep on talking. Hey me. Yeah. OK. So do you have any travel plans this summer Damon going to go camping or river rafting are OK. I am hoping to do that. Both of those things but the big trip is India in October really you know. So words I have to say two weeks vacation. The rivers are going to run all summer and very high. I've been where I'm not going in the spring it's too dangerous it's too dangerous I mean I think a couple of

people have already drowned or said they miss yours you know. Idiots is right. Also when the water's really high it's never a funded run them it's like the floating through the rapids right at water level has to drop a little bit so you have the rushing water over the boulders I guess. That should be fun. You really go any way. Careers you started to talk. How did you think about organizing a documentary. Well one of the things I knew was that we wanted to make it this documentary in a different way by having it be modular so that different stations could run different segments I don't know if that's important or not for that for this but I thought about obviously to make it so that it made sense in terms of a continuum. And so the first segment I thought should be an overview of what the Brussels program was about to give people some basic background and then find different parts of the country where Bristow's were especially important to helping the U.S. economy during World War Two and of course beyond. So

those parts of the country were obviously California and the northwest which had the greatest number of brasero especially California in the north west had one out of fiber cereals that came to the country and then of course the southwestern states because the southwest especially around Paso and West Texas was a place where a tremendous number of brasero Swint to help pick cotton initially and then from El Paso which was the sort of the clearinghouse for a lot of brasero. The railroads the U.S. railroads ran from El Paso and so it was a good place for Bristow's to get jobs with the railroads or to be transported to the places where they could work on. Farms throughout the western U.S. One of the movie things about the dark matter is when you actually go back to the sites with some of the people who worked on the scene and some of the research shows how did you find out that you could still do that. Well we had a tremendous amount of help from the University of Texas at El Paso and there's the Institute of oral history which is part of the university there and somebody who I was working with

here at the station said that the people at the University of Texas at El Paso are working with the Smithsonian Institution to capture the brasero oral histories before all of them pass away. And so I was able to contact them and they were extremely enthusiastic about helping us out and told me about this Rio Vista Center which is part community center but also on its grounds are all these old buildings where the researchers were processed beginning in the 19 the late 1940s or early 1950s. So that's how I found out about it and so we spent an entire day there. You know we talk in America about the greatest generation the brasero sort of the same age as those World War Two veterans. And it was very interesting how different the times were because the Brazils were invited into the United States to aid America in its war effort. And they actually played a very important. Oh absolutely. They were absolutely critical to us. I would say even winning the war because so many men so many G.I. is went overseas to help in the

war effort that there was a vacuum left a tremendous vacuum left on American farms especially some crops weren't even being picked we spoke to a farmer in Las Cruces New Mexico who said that the cotton crop was just dying in the fields he desperately needed workers and so the brasero filled the gap. Dr. David LAN from California State University Sacramento has done a lot of work on the history of the brasero made a good point and that's also in the show where he said you know we have plenty of monuments to the G.I. is to the people who helped us win the war against fascism. But we have no monuments in the United States not really no big monuments. That are publicly recognized to honor the brasero because they fed the Allies and you know an army runs on its food so runs on its stomach rather So it's about time that we honor these men as you talk to experts in different parts of the country. Did you find that were received vary by region. It varied by region. Generally there seem to be more open

acceptance in the southwest and in California in large part because especially right now I'm sort of binational you know I mean we have so thoroughly integrated Mexican and Latin culture into our own cultures here and here in California and throughout the southern parts of the southwest especially that a lot of farmers who are along the border spoke Spanish and so they were used to having people from Mexico come over anyway and so I think that the researchers were more comfortable and generally better treated in the southwest and in parts of California. In places like the northwest it wasn't that they weren't badly treated or appreciated. It's just that there was no culture there was no back when there was no Latin history up in the north west so you could imagine how lonely and experienced that would have been for a lot of brasero us some of us would want to become citizens. Well what happened was the personals generally were contracted. They had when they came to start that again what happened what would happen is if you wanted to become a brasero you would go to a processing center or a screening center in Mexico. You would be screened for a criminal

background check. A very cursory sort of health check and then you would be sent to one of the places on the border of Dallas or El Paso where you were thoroughly screened and then you were hired and after your six month contract was over with generally what would happen is you'd have to go back to Mexico and then get another contract and you'd be going back and forth and back and forth. It was easy or relatively easy or easier than perhaps it is right now to get a green card and residency that you so that you could stay in the United States and once you had your green card you can go through the process of becoming a citizen. What happened to was some farmer's so valued the brasero that they helped the brasero not only get their green cards but said if you stay and work on my farm that will be the beginning of the path to citizenship for you. So not only could the brasero stay and you know work on their own toward getting their passports or their green cards but some of the farmers helped them as well. It seems that it may have been a slightly easier process then than perhaps it is now although don't quote me on that

because I'm not absolutely certain. Well it's very interesting that you have been making this program of the time in which immigration from Mexico to the United States is a national and even an international issue. Did you know that was. Well you know it's funny. It is really timely and I don't know if that was by mistake or by design. You know it just happenstance that we happened to be producing the show right now but we have been it's been in the you know planning for the last couple of years. But it's fun. It's a subject especially right now that you know amongst my friends or even here at the office we talk about a lot and nobody seems to know what the right thing to do is because it's such a confusing issue. It really really is and I feel for people you know I feel for the people who are already here. I don't think we can survive without people coming over from South America. Excuse me. I don't think we could really survive our economy would certainly not do as well without people coming up from Central America and certainly

from Mexico. Well it's interesting that there's a desire now on the part of the federal government and to some extent agribusiness to have another guest worker program. So it's interesting for you to have had the opportunity to document the one that started this whole process. Exactly and you know the Brasero program which lasted from 1042 to 1964 wasn't a one time deal in other words the pattern of migration from Mexico to the United States people coming or going to work and then going back to Mexico has been going on for well over 100 years. Whatever the program it ended in part because I think that there was a concern that the by by having a lot of restaurants stay in the United States that would help depress wages for U.S. citizens and that's also one of the arguments that's being used right now. If people are willing to come over to work for a minimum wage or be paid under the table that depresses legal wages and it also prevents the Department of Labor from

you know raising the minimum wage that makes any sense because that's something that people are talking about now. You know you took it to the next generation and you talked to a number of children of their boomers now so there are certainly adults. What was that like talking to them about their parents. I think the people who we talk to down to a person said that they really really appreciated the sacrifices that their parents made for them and that they could not have succeeded without their parents obviously coming over here and stressing one thing and one thing above all else hard work and education hard work and education that's the classic American American immigrant story I think. You come here you want your children to do better and you push them to be educated and to study. And that's something that even in my own family my parents did. Well thank you very much. OK. Did I screw anything up. Not that we can fix it. Did you have any other thing that would make sense to efface something now. OK great research really. I don't like

being on camera. OK this is actually something I kind eyes and I had it actually with ya put this together thank you for 30 seconds and don't worry about it.