Celebrating Hispanic Heritage MonthSept. 15 – Oct. 15

A Bittersweet Harvest

The Bracero Program

1942-1964

and César Chávez

A WebQuest for Grade 7

Due Dates: lunes, el veintiséis de septiembre – 702 martes, el veintisiete de septiembre – 701,703

César Chávez

• The American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s had many heroes. One of them was César Chávez, who lived from 1927 to 1993, and who dedicated his life to helping Mexican- Americans achieve equality.

• This WebQuest will help you become familiar with the works of César Chávez, and with a part of the American Civil Rights Movement and American history that is largely ignored.

The Bracero Project

• Bracero(named for the Spanish term bracero, "strong-arm" (lit. "one who works with his arms") and ultimately derived from brazo, "arm")

Introduction

• Dependence on Mexican labor has been a source of great opportunity as well as great conflict for Mexicans and Americans. In 1942, facing labor shortages caused by World War II, the United States initiated a series of agreements with Mexico to recruit Mexican men to work on U.S. farms and railroads. These agreements became known as the bracero program. (Bracero is a term used in Mexico for a manual laborer.)

Between 1942 and 1964, an estimated two million Mexican men came to the United States on short-term labor contracts. A little-known chapter of American and Mexican history, the bracero program touched the lives of countless men, women, families, and communities. Both bitter and sweet, the bracero experience tells a story of exploitation but also of opportunity.

The first Braceros arrive in Los Angeles by train in 1942.

Bracero workers being fumigated with DDT, in Houston, Texas, 1956.

DDT was banned in 1972 as a toxic chemical and a probable carcinogen.

DDT Fumigation

• Nadel described the photograph with this caption: “Much in the same manner and feeling used in handling livestock, upon crossing over the bridge from Mexico at Hidalgo, Texas, the men are herded into groups of 100 through a makeshift booth [and] sprayed with DDT.”

• (Smithsonian Museum of American History)

• http://americanhistory.si.edu/ONTHEMOVE/collection/object_441.html

Bracero Housing

• “The Mexican workers will be furnished without cost to them with hygienic lodgings, adequate to the physical conditions of the region of a type used by a common laborer of the region and the medical and sanitary services enjoyed also without cost to them will be identical with those furnished to the other agricultural workers in the regions where they may lend their services.”

• —The Bracero Agreement

Bracero Housing

• Photograph by Leonard Nadel.

• Note from the photographer: “This is housing provided by a Texan farmer for 200 braceros in this long building, with the beds made out of stretched canvas, upper and lower. Such close living conditions make for high incidences of respiratory illnesses among the braceros.”

• http://americanhistory.si.edu/ONTHEMOVE/collection/object_1113.html

“Working in the fields,” 1956. Photograph by Leonard Nadel, the Smithsonian Institution.

• The Short-Handled Hoe – “• el cortito” • “The hardest work would be

thinning and hoeing with a short-handled hoe. The fields would be about half a mile long. You would be bending and stooping all day. Sometimes you would have hard ground and by the time you got home, your hands would be full of calluses. And you’d have a backache.”

• —Roberto Acuna, migrant worker, interviewed by Studs Terkel. “Working”

• (New York, 1974), p.10.

Bracero worker’s homes in Mexico

• Photograph by Leonard Nadel.

• Note from photographer: “This is one of the two rooms for a family of nine people living in San Mateo — about 20 miles south of Mexico City. The other room serves as a kitchen, work room, and storeroom. When work is available in the village, a Mexican laborer may earn about 10 pesos per day. Because of this, the wage earner of the family here wants to get to work as a farm laborer in the U.S. where he may earn much more working from 4 weeks to 6 months.”

• http://americanhistory.si.edu/ONTHEMOVE/collection/object_1106.html

Task

• Using the attached worksheet, answer the 15 questions on the life of César Chávez and the Bracero Program in the United States.

Browse the Archives of the Bracero History for images & oral histories

Browse the images from the National Museum of American History

The Story of the Bracero ProgramClick on the picture for a video

The César Chávez FoundationClick to go to the Website

Sí se puede

• (Spanish for "Yes, it is possible" or, roughly, "Yes, it can be done”) is the motto of the United Farm Workers. In 1972, during Cesar Chavez's 24 day fast in Phoenix, Arizona, he and UFW's co-founder, Dolores Huerta, came up with the slogan.

• President Barack Obama adopted the English version "Yes, we can!" first during the 2004 Illinois Democratic primary race for U.S. Senate, and it became a slogan of his 2008 presidential campaign.

Resources

• http://www.pbs.org/itvs/fightfields/book1.html

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bracero_Program

• http://www.mhcviva.org/events/detail/2010-02-20-Bracero-Program-Exhibit.html

• http://americanhistory.si.edu/exhibitions/small_exhibition.cfm?key=1267&exkey=770&pagekey=773

• http://hnn.us/articles/27336.html