...agricultural economy was the creation of the Bracero Program in which more than 4 million Mexican farm laborers came to work the fields of this nation. The braceros converted the agricultural fields of America into the most productive in the planet. The Bracero Program was a corporative international program through which the United States imported large number of Mexicans workers (mostly farmworkers). This program came about because of farm labor shortages caused by American entry into World War 11. The men were recruited to work primarily in agriculture, although during World War II braceros also supplied railroad labor. The majority of the braceros were experienced farm labors from important agricultural regions of Mexico. Huge numbers of bracero candidates arrived by train to the northern border. Their arrival altered the social environment and economy of many border towns. The program brought Mexican workers to replace American workers dislocated by the war. The program was intended to be temporary, but because of dependence of American farms on Mexican labor it kept going for nearly two decades after the war. The braceros contracts were controlled by independent associations and the Farm Bureau. The contracts were in English and the braceros would sign them without understanding theor full rights and the conditions of employment. When the contracts expired, the braceros were required to turn in their permits and return to México. The braceros could return to their native lands...
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...transported thousands of laborers to replace those abroad, and the program lasted from 1917 to 1921 (Kang, 10/21/2017). The program was successful in the United States and for growers, but it left a bad taste in the mouth of Mexican officials. Mexican government became wary of future involvement with the United States in the Bracero program of World War II because of the treatment of workers during the first labor program as it states in the book Braceros: Migrant Citizens and Transnational Subjects in the Postwar United States and Mexico,” ... the memory of thousands of migrants returning after World War I with little to show for their work...” (Cohen,25). Additionally, as the book further explains the growers in the labor program were informal where the agricultural businesses set the wages, and conditions, without the state intervening (Cohen,27). These are issues that will further continue in the Bracero program, but with more discussion between the state of Mexico and the United States on how to handle the labor force. Once the war ended and the economic conditions changed through the great depression there was a shift in policy and opinion on the Mexican workforce. The Mexican laborers were tolerated when the United States needed the labor force, once economic...
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...was a sharp reversal for the history of Chicano. It was a new dawn where there was desperation. The depression had left population decline, hopeless communities, broken dreams, the war brought high population, rejuvenated hopes and uprising society. There was a great labor shortage due to the war and great industrial expansion. The Chicanos could get entry into jobs due to the increased demand for the military officers. The move opened ways for the Chicanos; they left their traditional economic activities and were employed in the army and the industries that had been closed up to them previously. Due to labor shortage experienced, it caused the US to turn to Mexico; there was a great need for laborers who would work for the Americans. This was the cause for the formulation of the bracero program. On august 4 1942, the US and Mexicans instituted a bracero program. The bracero program is believed to have the development of rich American agricultural industry. More than four million Mexican laborers came to work in the field of this nation. The bracero converted the American agricultural fields into the most productive in America. These farmers were experienced and very hardworking despite two million of them dying during the Mexican revolution of 1910. There was great demand for laborers in the US due to the Second World War. They left their farming activity having in mind they would make more money through the braceros program than producing for subsistence...
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...The Braceros Program and the immigration process Immigration plays a big role in the world’s economy and the United States is one of the top countries in relation to the immigrants traffic, both incoming and outgoing. Nowadays, the American government has come up with a large number of strict laws in order to control such transit and prevent undocumented entries, but it has not always been like this. In fact, during World War II and the years beyond that, the American government was in need of immigrants in order to get the economy going and to provide enough labor for the demand. Mexico was a neighbor country with lower wages, therefore an easier task for the government to deal with. The solution was to make a series of laws and political bilateral agreements with Mexico to import workers. But the Mexican Government was expected to lay down certain conditions for its approval of the American plan. Unregulated hiring of its citizens for employment abroad had been prohibited by Article 123 of the Constitution of 1917, which provided that such employment must be validated by local municipal authorities and by the employer’s consular representative, and on the basis of a formal contract, since American government had kicked out over 50,000 immigrants to Mexico due to the great depression. The demands for Mexican farm workers that were rejected by the United States Department of Agriculture and the Department of Justice in 1941 were happily established in the spring of the subsequent...
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...patterns. But the First World War greatly reshaped global migration patterns, and these lasting transformations would ultimately lead to the formation of America’s H-2A migrant laborer program. The onset of the First World War created a temporary end of European migrants to the United States. It was soon recognized that Mexican workers were needed in order to fill the existing labor shortages. During the wartime period they did just that, but after the War it abruptly came to a halt. “Soon afterward [WW1], the Great Depression arrived and Mexican workers were seen as a threat to American jobs. More than 500,000 people, including some United States citizens, were forcibly deported” (A brief history, 2012). A decade into America’s...
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...encourage us to think further about these societies’ position in the world. Space can evoke the re-appropriation of spaces (manifest destiny) while the word exchange refers to the borrowings between cultures, languages, but also the exchange of all kinds of goods between nations. The immigration is linked to this notion as it implies the motion of legal and illegal people to other countries. We will focus on the journey of immigrants to the US by showing the pros and cons of these trips. To what extent has the immigration always been a major issue in the US economically and demographically speaking but has also contributed in its construction ? I. The Immigration, a word known by the Americans since the discovery of the US Throughout US history, immigration has been the main source of an increase in its population. Most of the now-native Americans are the descendants of immigrants who came centuries ago. The US receives more immigrants than the combined total of the rest of the world. Many decades ago, because immigrants were needed as a means for obtaining labor, development, and achieving growth as a nation, the US borders became lenient (indulgent). There was a general trend of people immigrating from south (Mexico) to north (America), for many reasons including better jobs, wages, educations, and escape from local violence. In the earlier part of the twentieth century, the US government started irrigation projects, which further drew attention mainly from Mexico. After 1917...
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...In his book, Harvest of Empire, Juan Gonzalez describes this feeling of being split in two, a feeling of not belonging here nor there due to the treatment of Mexican-Americans by white America. “They are both native-born and immigrants, pioneers and aliens, patriots and rebels; no matter how far back you trace their ancestry on our soil, they are still battling to emerge from the obscure margins of official US history, still clamoring to be fully recognized and understood” (Gonzalez 97). Still. Still fighting to be American, to be accepted as Americans by Americans. Still. Some of us didn’t even ask to be here. As Eva Longoria says, “We didn’t cross the border. The border crossed us.” “Manifest Destiny” is what the Americans called it....
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...smoking and second-hand smoke, acid rain, ozone depletion, global warming, and history revisionism. In each topic Oreskes and Conway delve into how these discussions and arguments took place, and the goals that were being accomplished. The section of the book which had the best resonance was the section on history revisionism concerning Rachel Carson and her work relating to DDT. The reasoning is partly a personal matter on both the concept of history revisionism and the effects of DDT. Aside from personal, the issue with historical revisionism...
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...Illegal Mexican Immigrants and Their Life in California There are many negative stereotypes of illegal Mexican immigrants. Many Americans don’t like the idea that illegal immigrants don’t pay many forms of taxes. Because of their undocumented legal status, we don’t have much information about their background. Their presence in the society creates uncertainty. They are seen as a factor of social instability. Many Americans also blame them for the taking over jobs. However, the reality is that California is becoming more and more dependent on its illegal Mexican immigrant population. These illegal immigrants from Mexico are a reliable source of low cost labor for California. They take the low paid, seasonal, menial and physically demanding jobs that the U.S. citizens are not willing to take. They stabilize the economy of California by keeping the labor cost low, thus keeping a lid on the inflation rate. They contribute to the government by paying sales tax directly and income tax at least indirectly. They are not here to enjoy benefits, as they are not eligible for most public assistance. The vast majority of them are here in California for work and better life. They are peaceful being and they work very hard to earn their place. The reality shows that illegal Mexican immigrants bring substantial positive impacts to California not only economically but also culturally. The huge number of illegal Mexican workers shows us their ethic of hard work and the importance of love for...
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...Why did the Bracero Program make it difficult to organize farmworkers into a union? The Bracero Program made it difficult to organize farmworkers into a union because the plant owners were too strong and in power. They felt inferior because the Americans plant owners were the ones paying them. And felt that they didn't had the same rights to fight for their believes. The plant owners were treated them with harm instead of treating them as human being. When the war came to an end the mexicans needed to immigrate to a different plantation of the need of money, either way it was difficult to stand for what they believed in. . How did Cesar Chavez differ from many of the Latino community leader that came before him? How did his leadership help...
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...lost a lot of people to go to the war, resulting in fewer people working. This gave the opportunity for many more Mexicans to come to the U.S. to get a job again. To help increase the number of legal migrant workers in the U.S., the U.S. signed an agreement with Mexico called the Bracero program. This program legally allowed immigrants to come to the U.S. for a certain amount of time, and then leave afterward. Southern farm owners loved this idea so much, except they wanted the immigrants for longer. They rallied and protested to have the contracts allow the immigrants to stay longer, because the longer they stayed, the more they could get out of the cheap labor. During this time though, there were still many illegal immigrants. The way that southerners fixed this is they would take these immigrants to the Mexican border, have them step across the line, give them a bracero contract, and had them legally come back to work on the farms for them. This was known as “drying out the wetbacks.” This was the easiest way for Mexicans to get bracero contracts and was used quite often up until 1964 when the contracts ran...
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...The Democratic Party and America’s Issues We are now four months away from the Presidential Elections, and we must choose what is best for America. The current running candidates are Barack Obama with the Democratic Party, and John McCain with the Republican Party. Barack Obama is now representing the Nation’s Democrats; he recently said that he is trying to balance hard head with a big heart. (Election 2008 P.48). Obama has planed many solutions to our current issues, on the health care issue according to Democrats. Org we will join 36 industrialized nations in making sure everyone has health care, starting by fixing the prescription drug program and investing in stem cell and other medical research. America right now is at a very critical situation from whatever point we look at. We are struggling economically, which is making America suffer in many ways. We have millions of illegal immigrants who contribute so much to our nation, but yet they are in a dark shadow where we do not see a close light to this issue. The war, we’ve had so many innocent Americans fighting for our country and giving their lives I thing it’s unfair. One of our major issues is the illegal immigration, “the current system makes criminals out of some 12 million people who only want to work hard on whose efforts large parts of the economy now depend.” (Bush Baiting). We also have thousands of young people who need to go to school, because America’s youth is what going to make this country more successful...
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...farm worker strike in U.S. history—to protest for, and later win, higher wages for those farm workers who were working for grape and lettuce growers. He again fasted to draw public attention. UFW organizers believed that a reduction in produce sales by 15% was sufficient to wipe out the profit margin of the boycotted product. Chavez undertook a number of "spiritual fasts", regarding the act as “a personal spiritual transformation”. In 1968, he fasted for 25 days, promoting the principle of nonviolence. In 1970, Chavez began a fast of "thanksgiving and hope" to prepare for pre-arranged civil disobedience by farm workers. Also in 1972, he fasted in response to Arizona’s passage of legislation that prohibited boycotts and strikes by farm workers during the harvest seasons. These fasts were influenced by the Catholic tradition of penance and by Gandhi’s fasts and emphasis of nonviolence. Immigration The UFW during Chavez's tenure was committed to restricting immigration. Chavez and Dolores Huerta, cofounder and president of the UFW, fought the Bracero Program that existed from 1942 to 1964. Their opposition stemmed from their belief that the program undermined U.S. workers and exploited the migrant workers. Since the Bracero Program ensured a constant supply of cheap immigrant labor for growers, immigrants could not protest any infringement of their rights, lest they be fired and replaced. Their efforts contributed to Congress ending the Bracero Program in 1964. In 1973, the UFW was...
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...llegal immigrants in the United States (US) have long been a topic of debate for policymakers and the public. The rationale about them is that they do not pay taxes; they add to the costs of taxpayers and use up funds in resources meant for assisting citizens and legal immigrants (the legal citizens). Therefore, they are perceived as a threat to the US economy. The true impacts of illegal immigrants on the US economy are discussed by debating over the economic benefits as well as economic costs of these immigrants. The negative impacts, discussed first, presented the decreases in low skilled jobs’ wage rates for legal immigrants and citizens instigated by illegal immigrants, the social services such as educations and healthcare that they utilize and add to taxpayers. Then contrary to the negative impacts, the positive impacts reveal benefits of low production costs, increases in the local market sales, undocumented tax generation, impact on growth and employment brought forth by illegal immigrants. These impacts, both negative and positive, are independently analyzed and weighed against each other. The discussion does show a slight net positive impact on the US economy in contrast to the normal belief about illegal immigrants. There was a time when people came freely and settled within the land, but as societies became more civilized and community laws established, immigration became a point of concern for the advanced societies. They did not just want any person to enter the...
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...EL RINCON DEL MUNDO The small town of Guadalupe has Spanish history, as does most of the southwest region of the USA. Most of Guadalupe’s jobs center around agriculture. “El Rincon del mundo” which is what the region was thought of, literally mean the edge of the world in English. The name of Guadalupe is derived from either “La virgen de Guadalupe” or “Rancho de Guadalupe”. THE SKINNY BEAR Oso Flaco or (skinny bear) is a salt water lake near Guadalupe, gets it’s name from a story of a Spanish adventurer who kills a bear then eats its meat not knowing that the bear had been poisoned by the local Native Americans. The teens of Guadalupe organize a youth group called “Thee Group B”. “The Group B” has it’s own house band called “Soul Explosion” which eventually changes it’s name to “Congress”. Soul Explosion and Thee Group B have bonfires and party at the outskirts of town. THE DUNE THAT NEVER MOVES In 1923 The Ten Commandments a silent movie by Cecil B. DeMille is shot at the southern end of Guadalupe. A gigantic set is created for the film, complete with 20-ton pharaoh statues and a “City of Pharaohs”. After completion of the film the set is bulldozed with sand giving it term “The Dune that never moves”. To big city folk like those whom make movies there, Guadalupe and her surrounding area looks very different from what they are used to, from it’s farmland, to the fact that in the whole town there is not a single traffic light, to it’s cities building’s...
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