Module Outline

More than a dozen Mexican men working as braceros are standing in the back of a truck bed parked in front of a building a tree. Some men wearing hats have descended from the truck with a ladder and are walking toward the building.

This module provides an overview of the lives of farm workers in the Bracero program (1942-1964) using primary sources such as photographs, maps, flyers, and pamphlets. It touches on transnational migration, the living and working conditions of migrant farm workers, Filipino American workers, and labor unions. These primary source materials show both tensions and alliances between distinct groups of migrant agricultural laborers, with an emphasis on the Bracero Program and the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC).

These primary source materials were selected from the Henry P. Anderson papers Links to an external site. at the Labor Archives and Research Center. Henry P. Anderson (1927-2016) was a researcher, labor organizer, and advocate for farm workers. His papers cover agricultural labor conditions, corporate agriculture and farm economy, pesticide use and effect on workers, agriculture-related legislation, farmer associations, and labor, religious and political organizing efforts to improve agricultural working conditions. 

This module was created by Labor Archives and Research Center Links to an external site. archivists Leah Sylva and Tanya Hollis in collaboration with Cabrillo College Links to an external site. Librarians Michelle Morton and Aloha Sargent. 

Learning Outcomes

Through this module, students will be able to: 

  • Explain the history of the Bracero program
  • Discuss migratory farm labor, how people joined and life in the Bracero program, Filipino American farm workers, and labor organizing by the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee 
  • Analyze primary source documents related to the Bracero program such as images, maps, pamphlets, and flyers from the Henry P. Anderson Papers

Overview of Topics Covered

This module uses primary sources to examine the Bracero Program and the lives and working conditions of migrant farm workers.  Each primary source includes guiding questions.

  • Migratory Farm Labor 
  • Becoming a Bracero
  • Life in the Bracero Program
  • Filipino Migrant Agricultural Workers 
  • Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC)

Secondary Sources

Note:  Links are to books in the Cabrillo College Library Links to an external site.

Astorga Morales, Abel and Rosa Martha Zárate Macías. Our Grandfathers were Braceros and We Too... Links to an external site.  Somos en Escrito P, 2021.

Flores, Lori A. Grounds for Dreaming: Mexican-Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the California Farmworker Movement Links to an external site.. Yale UP, 2016.

Garcia, Alberto. Abandoning Their Beloved Land: The Politics of Bracero Migration in Mexico Links to an external site.. U of California P, 2023. 

Gonzalez, Gilbert. Guest Workers or Colonized Labor?: Mexican Labor Migration to the United States Links to an external site.. Routledge P, 2007.  

Loza, Mireya. Defiant Braceros: How Migrant Workers Fought for Racial, Sexual, and Political Freedom Links to an external site.. U of North Carolina P, 2016. 

Mitchell, Don. They Saved the Crops: Labor, Landscape, and the Struggle Over Industrial Farming in Bracero-Era California Links to an external site.. U of Georgia P, 2012.