Participants

Overview

Aspiring braceros from diverse backgrounds responded to the call for workers, traveling to processing centers for inspection by U.S. officials. Many men attempted to join, but only a portion of applicants were admitted into the Bracero program. Once admitted, these men traveled by bus or packed into boxcars used for transporting livestock and brought to reception centers in the U.S. to undergo further examinations.

Below is a photo of a crowd awaiting instructions to register with the Bracero program, and a bus ticket from Guadalajara, Jalisco to a Bracero inspection station in Empalme, Sonora.

Questions

  • Why did workers come alone and not with their families?
  • How might this experience contribute to feelings of isolation and loneliness on the part of the men who left their hometowns to participate in the Bracero program?

 

Hundreds of men seeking to become bracero workers crowd around two men standing on the ledge of a building while making an announcement to the crowd.

Paper bus ticket from Guadalajara to Empalme, Mexico. The ticket is mounted on a larger paper card marked "Transportation" by researcher Henry P. Anderson.

Group of People Wearing Hats Registering with the Bracero Program Await Instruction from Two Men Standing Above the Crowd Links to an external site., Henry Pope Anderson Papers, larc.ms.0422, Labor Archives Research Center, San Francisco State University.

Bus ticket used by bracero worker Links to an external site. to travel from Guadalajara to Empalme Links to an external site., Henry Pope Anderson Papers, larc.ms.0422, Labor Archives Research Center, San Francisco State University.