The Bracero Program/Los Braceros - Or rather, Slavery by Another Name - The Neverending Saga

As we learned through our readings of Migra!, The Latino Threat, and Lugo's Theorizing Border Inspections, the intersection of migrations and the U.S. border is one of social construction origins.  We learned that the concept of a "border," an "immigrant," and the labels of "undocumented" (in lieu of "illegal" as well as the concept of "alien," are all results of socially and spatially created discourses involved in the rhetoric surrounding immigration and migrations as a whole.  When looking at The Bracero Program, as emphasized in Migra! and attempting to connect its historical presence and impact to contemporary discussions of immigration, migration, and citizenship, one must first look at the realities of The Bracero Program itself.

"The Labor Importation Program of 1942-1964 [better known as The Bracero Program - "Bracero" in Spanish meant "strong-armed one," which is oddly appropriate given that these individuals had to have the strongest of resolutions and dispositions in order to withstand the massive exploitation and abusive environmental circumstances that permeated their existence as widespread temporary agribusiness labor] was a carefully negotiated, bilateral agreement between the Mexican and U.S. governments" (Los Braceros, American University). Initially meant to be a "well-intended" endeavor to ensure the basic needs of these temporary agricultural workers as dictated by the Mexican law of the time, we have since learned that this program was more about sustaining U.S. imperialist land-grabs in Mexico and the U.S. as a means of furthering the development of super agribusiness monopolies in the name of U.S. capitalism.

However, at the time of its creation in 1942, the United States had many more people directly dependent on agriculture than it does today.  According to U.S. Department of Labor statistics for that year, "the U.S. farm population accounted for roughly 22% of the total population" (Los Braceros, American Univ.).  Today's statistic is closer to 3%.  This is not a means of excusing any of the innumerable human rights infractions nor the blatant exploitation of migrant labor in the name of American imperialist greed, but rather, I use this statistic comparison to set the stage for the initial enactment of this program within the discourse of American "history." A massive influencing factor for the establishment of the LIP was precedent.  In 1917, just months after Congress had passed legislation to restrict the flow of Mexican nationals across the border, as we have learned, temporary agricultural workers were exempted from the restriction as a concession to farmers.  This initial period laid the ground work for the LIP and its massive influence on American super-agribusiness economics in both the United States and Mexico.

Discussing the United States and its agricultural sector in this light, oddly enough, reminds me of a lecture given in my Sociological Theory course this week on C. Wright Mills' theory of power stratification in America.  Ironically, Mills was writing during the period of The Bracero Program, the 1950s, to be precise.  As it is dense sociological theory, I won't go into the depths of his writings here, but the bottom line of his treatise on power is that a "power elite" comprised of leaders from the economic, government, and military sectors, whom ascended to power and in turn, reigned over the middle classes, special interest groups, and the masses (everyone else).  In simpler terms, these individuals came from a socially privileged and elitist social class, ultimately having gained massive amounts of financial power through their respective endeavors in economics/commerce and, in turn, had gained governmental and military prominence through their positions as economically prominent individuals.  This principle of a social hierarchy based on the concept of power remaining with an elite few with the capacity to affect the lives of everyone beneath them is reminiscent of the political landscape during The Bracero Program.  The U.S. government leaders had reached agreements with the economic leaders of the time, i.e. the super agribusiness heads and farming moguls and, in turn, the military leaders, i.e. the early members of the Border Patrol and immigration regulation agencies alike in order to collectively utilize their resources to coerce temporary migrant workers into a life of exploitation and abuse, bordering on a modernized form of slavery, in the name of the almighty U.S. dollar.

"In 1951, the FSA (Farm Security Administration) guaranteed minimum standards of housing (including laundry, bathing, toilets and waste disposal), a minimum wage of $0.30 per hour (READ THAT AGAIN), at least 30 days of work upon arrival, free transportation and other essential living and labor criteria (Los Braceros).  These somewhat "humane" standards, well, at least humane through the eyes of those enacting them, were short-lived, as the American Farm Bureau Federation stripped them down through an unquestioned legislative move, leaving on a skeleton of the original agreement made between the United States and Mexico regarding treatment of temporary workers.  The U.S. only had one concern when it came to treatment of workers: adequate labor. During this period, oddly enough, illegal recruitment and smuggling became commonplace practices, often without consequence or punishment.  The human rights organizations of contemporary America would be having a field day with this.  In 1954, Operation Wetback (a term which originated during this period as well - not my favorite descriptor but a point of historical accuracy nonetheless), succeeded in deporting over one million "illegal" southwestern residents in a militant and brutal fashion.  This was the ONLY major action to curb "illegal" settlement throughout the Bracero Program.  Again, the monster of American imperialist and capitalist greed rears its head.  We just had to have more and more temporary agricultural workers for those ever-growing super agribusiness fields popping up everywhere across the American southwest and Mexico during this period.

I found the table included in this case study from American University entitled "Los Braceros" to be of particular interest when discussing a history of this program as it gives a numerical breakdown of Braceros, Legal Immigrants, and "Illegals" Apprehended. The table is as follows:

Table 1 
 

	1949	1953	1964	1965	1970	1974
Braceros	107,000	201,380	177,736	20,284	0	0
Legal Immigrants	7,977	18,459	34,448	40,686	44,821	71,863
Illegals Apprehended	233,485	676,602	43,844	55,349	277,377	709,959

Source: U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service Annual Reports 1949-1954 and 1964-1974.

The Bracero Program adhered to the ever-present economic principle of supply and demand.  However, in the case of The Bracero Program and in the case of contemporary immigration politics, once the need runs out, there's no need for the supply.  And thus, we arrive at the need for a regulatory policing unit to remove the "unwanted" and now "unnecessary" migrant worker population who had served the purpose of fueling the American imperialist agricultural machine for decades, thus aiding in ultimately creating the global economic power that would eventually become the United States superpower that we, as a collective, are aware of today.  

I also wanted to share this graphic regarding industry output, particularly U.S. agriculture's contribution to the national income of selected years during the Bracero Program: 

Table 2

1942	1945	1948	1951	1953	1956	1958	1960	1964
$123.168	$164.067	$207.478	$279.3	$305.6	$350.8	$367.4	$414.5	$510.1

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture.  Agricultural Statistics 1942-1964. 
Note: figures are shown in billions.

Ultimately, I've dragged this out long enough.  The bottom line is that the Bracero Program set a precedent for abuse and exploitation of migrant labor that is still prevalent in U.S. global economics, both with regards to Mexican labor forces, as well as those from the Middle East and other areas of the globe.  The descendants of the Bracero legacy include the various temporary workers visa statuses including H-1B, H2-A, H2-B, J-1, L-1, L-2, and Q-1, each of which is tied to the employer's whims and holds NO DIRECT PATH OR GUARANTEE TO PERMANENT STATUS.  In other words, if the worker loses favor with the employer, hello, Border Patrol, greetings Detention Center and deportation papers.

The United States has a blatant history of systemic and blanket discrimination, exploitation, othering, and abuse in the name of imperialist, capitalist, and militaristic greed that has come at the expense of millions of individuals over the course of its existence.  It can be seen in The Bracero Program, the temporary work visa programs, the rampant Islamophobia, homophobia, and numerous other instances in which anyone deemed a "threat" to the hegemonic balance of American "culture" as the dominant force of Western civilization, anyone deemed incapable of diluting themselves and mixing into the assimilationist "culture" that has become synonymous with American exceptionalism and nationalist idealism is ultimately deemed expendable.

I am attaching a few articles that I browsed while brainstorming the rather lengthy response I've laid out here, as well as a YouTube video I found on The Bracero Program, as well as images of Bracero documents that I found while browsing the Internet, learning the never-ending legacy of The Bracero Program, which, in its own way, was and continues to be "slavery by another name."

We Should Remember the Bracero Program...and Shudder

Los Braceros - Case Study

May 2014: Immigrant Deportations Today and the Legacy of "Operation Wetback"

Forgotten Voices: The Story of the Bracero Program