Living Conditions

Overview

Agricultural production in the U.S. relies on a revolving door of foreign workers performing low-wage labor. Chinese, Japanese, Sikh, Filipino, and Mexican workers have all filled this role, feeding our domestic population while remaining ineligible for the legal protections and security of U.S. citizenship.  

The photograph and pamphlet below document housing conditions for workers in the Bracero program.  The pamphlet, created by the Joint United States-Mexico Trade Union Committee, calls attention to the exploitation of Mexican workers and calls on the U.S. government to enforce its own regulations for housing standards. It includes photographs from Watsonville, Gonzalez, Tracy, and Stockton.  The Joint United States-Mexico Trade Union Committee was affiliated with the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and attempted to organize workers across borders. They organized conferences and published materials such as the pamphlet below and Ernesto Galarza's important exposé on the Bracero program Strangers in our Fields Links to an external site. (1956).

Questions

  • What do you notice about housing conditions in the photograph below?
  • What changes does the pamphlet call for?
  • How might solidarity between trade unions in the United States and Mexico make an impact and effect change?

Color photograph of a cot and wood burning stove in front of wall constructed of cardboard in makeshift housing for migrant agricultural laborers

PDF of pamphlet below Download PDF of pamphlet below

Pamphlet containing pictures and descriptions of poor housing conditions in labor camps for Mexican workers contracted under the Bracero Program, including crowded, unsanitary, and unsafe conditions with no access to medical care.

 

Pamphlet containing pictures and descriptions of poor housing conditions in labor camps for Mexican workers contracted under the Bracero Program, including crowded, unsanitary, and unsafe conditions with no access to medical care.

Cot and wood burning stove in front of wall constructed of cardboard in makeshift housing for migrant agricultural laborers Links to an external site., Henry Pope Anderson Papers, larc.ms.0422, Labor Archives and Research Center, San Francisco State University.

Galarza, Ernesto. Strangers in Our Fields. Based on a Report Regarding Compliance with the Contractual, Legal, and Civil Rights of Mexican Agricultural Contract Labor in the United States Links to an external site.. Joint United States-Mexico Trade Union Committee, 1956.

Joint United States-Mexico Trade Union Committee. The Shame of Housing for Mexican Contract Workers Links to an external site., pamphlet, Henry Pope Anderson Papers, larc.ms.0422, Labor Archives and Research Center, San Francisco State University.