Start Date

5-3-2024 9:20 AM

End Date

5-3-2024 10:30 AM

Disciplines

History

Subjects

Immigrants -- North America -- History, Mexican Americans -- History, Seasonal Farm Laborers Program -- History, World War II -- Labor -- United States, Transnationalism

Abstract

The Bracero Program was an agreement devised between Mexico and the United States which provided a state-sanctioned avenue for Mexican men to work as contract laborers in the United States. It was originally intended to alleviate the World War II labor shortage in the United States, but would continue past the war until 1964. Its longevity was due to the central role it played in bringing Mexico and the United States into a modern, transnational relationship. I aim to examine the relationship between the two nations in two contexts: an historical-economic one, and an ethnographic one. These lenses are two sides of the same coin, in that they are both ways of viewing the change that modernity and transnationalism brought to Mexico and America.

Keywords: Bracero Program, World War II, Mexican Immigration, Mexico-US Relations, American Labor Politics

Part of the panel: Hidden Histories during WWII
Moderator: Professor Richard Beyler

Creative Commons License or Rights Statement

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/41797

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History Commons

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May 3rd, 9:20 AM May 3rd, 10:30 AM

A History of The Bracero Program as an Agent of Transnational Modernity in the 20th Century

The Bracero Program was an agreement devised between Mexico and the United States which provided a state-sanctioned avenue for Mexican men to work as contract laborers in the United States. It was originally intended to alleviate the World War II labor shortage in the United States, but would continue past the war until 1964. Its longevity was due to the central role it played in bringing Mexico and the United States into a modern, transnational relationship. I aim to examine the relationship between the two nations in two contexts: an historical-economic one, and an ethnographic one. These lenses are two sides of the same coin, in that they are both ways of viewing the change that modernity and transnationalism brought to Mexico and America.

Keywords: Bracero Program, World War II, Mexican Immigration, Mexico-US Relations, American Labor Politics

Part of the panel: Hidden Histories during WWII
Moderator: Professor Richard Beyler