How did the Bracero Program come into existence?
In 1942, the United States embarked upon a series of guest worker agreements with Mexico known as the Bracero Program on the grounds that a wartime labor shortage existed and that extra workers were required to supplement the domestic labor force in agriculture and railroads. Employers requested so many men – and only men – that Washington sent the request to Mexico, and men were recruited by the Mexican government. They were physically evaluated and transported north to work. When the war ended, the imported workers were channeled exclusively into agriculture. Some 28 states received several million braceros, as the men were known, in a wartime program that lasted until 1964, long after the war ended. What did you seek out to accomplish when you started filming your documentary on the program? The film is an extension of my research through which I explored why the program existed far beyond its intended stop date. Did the labor shortage persist – or did it ever exist? We sought answe
