Becoming a Bracero

Yellowed and stained paper cover of Public Law 78, "Information Concerning Entry of Mexican Agricultural Workers into the United States."

The Bracero Program was an international agreement that contracted five million guest workers from Mexico to work seasonally in the United States between 1942 and 1964. Promoted as a short-term solution to labor shortages during World War II, the program was also a response to a wave of militant labor actions in the 1930s that threatened profits in California agriculture. The Bracero Program was extended year after year and codified under Public Law 78 in 1951.

Information Concerning Entry of Mexican Agricultural Workers into the United States Links to an external site., Henry Pope Anderson Papers, larc.ms.0422, Labor Archives and Research Center, San Francisco State University.