After completing the terms of their con-tracts, many braceros opted to stay in the United States illegally or to return to Mexico and cross the border clandestinely at a later time.. In
Trang 1an opportunity to reconnect with kin on the U.S side
of the border After completing the terms of their
con-tracts, many braceros opted to stay in the United States
illegally or to return to Mexico and cross the border
clandestinely at a later time The program also made
major contributions to the development of commercial
agriculture in the U.S Southwest
While the terms of the original agreement mandated
a minimum wage of 30 cents per hour, humane working
conditions, and free round-trip transportation between
Mexico and sites of employment, in practice the U.S
companies hiring bracero laborers frequently failed to
adhere to these requirements Unauthorized and sometimes
exorbitant deductions for food, housing, medical
atten-tion, and other necessities were common, as were abusive
practices such as substandard food and housing, poor
sanitary conditions, physical intimidation, and violence
The program was briefly halted in 1948 in response to a
decision by Texas cotton growers to pay braceros $2.50
per hundred weight, while non-braceros earned $3.00
The Mexican government responded by suspending
the program, an impasse resolved with a U.S
govern-ment apology and a new agreegovern-ment in 1951 under U.S
Public Law 78 (sometimes called the “second” Bracero
Program), which continued until 1964 (with
succes-sive “temporary” extensions in 1954, 1956, 1958, and
1961) Through the 1950s, an estimated 300,000
Mex-icans worked as braceros annually In order to combat
illegal immigration and the tendency of many braceros
to remain in the United States without authorization, in
1954 the U.S government launched “Operation Wet-back,” a program intended to repatriate unauthorized Mexicans, which also resulted in the deportation of some U.S citizens By the mid-1950s such repatriations reached a high of 3.8 million
The Bracero Program is the subject of an expansive literature The most rigorous early scholarly investigation was by the Mexican-American scholar and activist Dr
Ernesto Galarza, whose book Merchants of Labor (1964)
is considered a classic in the field Testifying repeatedly before the U.S Congress and other government bodies, Galarza and others finally persuaded lawmakers to end the program The program’s termination coincided with the rise of the National Farmworkers Association (later United Farmworkers of America, UFW), led by labor organizer Cesar Chavez In many ways, the ending of the Bracero Program—and the glut of cheap migrant labor it provided—made possible the rise of the UFW
Further reading Galarza, Ernesto Merchants of Labor: The
Mexican Bracero Story Charlotte, CA: McNally and Loftin, 1964; Gonzalez, Gilberto G Guest Workers or Colonized Labor?: Mexican Labor Migration to the United States
Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2006
Michael J Schroeder
Brazil, military dictatorship in (19–195)
Following a recurring pattern in Brazilian history (1889, 1930, 1937, 1945), in 1964 a group of military officers overthrew the civilian government of João Goulart (1961–64), installing a military dictatorship that ruled for the next 21 years The roots of the crisis prompting the coup have been traced to a confluence
of events from the mid-1950s These included a dra-matic upsurge in leftist political movements, parties, and unions among urban and rural dwellers, encour-aged by civilian leaders and intensifying after the
1959 Cuban revolution, combined with a growing economic crisis marked by high inflation (nearly 90 percent in 1964) and foreign debt ($3 billion), huge budget deficits ($1.1 billion in 1964); declining foreign investment, and eroding middle-class support
With U.S backing, on March 31, 1964, a group of officers headed by General Humberto Castello Branco seized power Castello Branco ruled as president until
1967, his principal goal economic stabilization Reforms
0 Brazil, military dictatorship in (19–195)
Mexican workers at the border await legal employment in the
United States, February 3, 1954.