bracero presentation

8/8/2019 Bracero Presentation

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The Bracero Program

Mexico and the United States

1942 - 1946

The Bracero Program1942 - 1946


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What is the Bracero Program?

The official name for the Bracero Program

was the Mexican Farm Labor ProgramAgreement signed by the Mexican and

American governments on August 4,

1942.


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What did the program

agreement say? The agreement said that Mexican

workers could come to the United

States to work as farm laborers for a

fixed amount of time.

The agreement also said that workers

should be paid 30 cents per hour andbe treated humanely


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What does

Bracero

mean in

Spanish?

Why do you think

this was calledthe Bracero

program?Picture of a Bracero named Plutareo, standing in a

field in Salinas, California.


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Why did the Bracero Program

happen?

The United States was just coming out

of The Great Depression and in themiddle ofWorldWar II. There were

very few men to work in farms, and

farmers could not afford to pay high

wages to men who would work in them.


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This is a WorldWar II

Recruitment Poster.

What is the purpose of this

poster?

Who do the two arms inthe poster belong to?

How does this poster

relate to the BracerosProgram?

Discuss your answers with a

partner sitting next to you.


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How did people get chosen for the

Bracero program?Getting chosen was a very difficult process.

Workers traveled from their home towns toreception centers in big cities.

At the centers, they would go through medicalexaminations and paperwork.

Often, they would wait for weeks to find out if theyhad been picked.


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A picture of men being fingerprinted at a Processing Center in

Hidalgo, Texas.


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After being chosen,

men would travelby trucks, cars or

trains to their

farm in the United

States.

This is a truckload of

chosen Braceroswaiting to be

driven to their

farms.


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Eventually, 4.6million Mexican workers

came to as many as 36states through the

Braceros program.

Braceros worked in many different types

of farms: including


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What was life like as a

Bracero?Working as a Bracero was often difficult.

Often, Braceros were ill-treated and notpaid the wages they were promised.

Braceros found it difficult to get medicaltreatment and faced discrimination inmany places in the U.S.


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Bracero living quarters, California


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Why did the Bracero Program

end in 1964? Many labor groups in the United States

saw the Mexican workers as a threat to

their own jobs - they protested theBracero program strongly.

Many Mexican workers stayed past the

terms of their program. They becameillegal immigrants, living in the United

States and raising families here.


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While many Mexican workers remained

in the United States long after theBracero program ended, many workers

and their families were repatriated to

Mexico by the U.S. INS.

What do you think are the implications of

the Bracero program on Americanimmigration and labor laws?

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