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Researcher recounts bracero-era hardships and the shifting role of women in Mexico
Summary
At a Mission Historical Museum lecture, Dr. Abila summarized oral histories from wives and widows of bracero workers, describing long separations, economic hardships, deductions from pay, living conditions in U.S. labor camps, and social consequences for women left to provide for families.
Dr. Abila, a lecturer introduced at a Mission Historical Museum event, described findings from oral-history interviews with women whose husbands worked under the U.S.-Mexico Bracero program, which she said began on 08/04/1942 and ended in 1964.
The lecture summarized how long labor contracts, low net pay after employer deductions, and housing provided by employers shaped women’s daily lives back in Mexico. “Most workers were grabbed by the arms to make sure that they had muscles,” Dr. Abila said, describing physical inspections at processing centers. She also recounted pay stubs that, after deductions, left some men with only “1¢” for a week and examples where farmers deducted costs for blankets, insurance and board from wages.
The program’s processing sequence, Dr. Abila said, started with health checks in Mexico City, then moved to border processing centers (referred to in the talk as El Centro) where men sometimes waited “for weeks, even months” before transport to U.S. work sites.…
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