Mexican Farm Labor Agreement (Bracero Contract), 1958
Dublin Core
Title
Mexican Farm Labor Agreement (Bracero Contract), 1958
Description
Mexican Farm Labor Agreement (Bracero Contract), 1958
https://braceroarchive.org/items/show/3023
Description and Historical Context:
This primary source is a 1958 Bracero Program work contract issued to Dionisio Hernandez Canchola, a Mexican laborer recruited to work in the United States under the terms of the binational Bracero agreement (1942–1964). The contract, written in both English and Spanish and bearing official stamps and signatures, outlines the conditions of Canchola’s employment, including wage rates, duration of labor, housing provisions, and the geographic destination for work. These contracts were created as part of a formal labor system agreed upon by the U.S. and Mexican governments to address U.S. agricultural labor shortages, especially in southern and southwestern states. The document shows how the Bracero Program, where the U.S. government and private growers structured temporary migration through standardized contracts, was formalized and bureaucratized. Created by U.S. labor officials and Mexican recruiters, these documents were often signed by workers in processing centers with little to no room for negotiation.
Analysis and Significance:
Canchola’s contract provides a window into how Latino migration to the U.S. South was shaped by both economic opportunity and state regulation. It tells us the economic motivation that drove workers like Canchola to leave rural Mexico—namely, the promise of higher wages and employment unavailable in their home communities. While the agreement promises a specific wage and employment period, Bracero testimonies often describe broken promises, poor living conditions, and lack of enforcement—highlighting the difference between official documentation and on-the-ground experience. For students of migration in the "Migrant South," this source gives evidence of the economic motivations behind Latino migration, as well as the United States’ complicity in regulating and profiting from this labor system. For the audience, the contract can raise the following important question: How did the terms in these contracts compare to lived realities?
Bibliography:
Cohen, Deborah. Braceros: Migrant Citizens and Transnational Subjects in the Postwar United States and Mexico. University of North Carolina Press, 2011.
Gamboa, Erasmo. Mexican Labor and World War II: Braceros in the Pacific Northwest, 1942–1947. University of Texas Press, 1990.
Mitchell, Don. They Saved the Crops: Labor, Landscape, and the Struggle over Industrial Farming in Bracero-Era California. University of Georgia Press, 2012.
https://braceroarchive.org/items/show/3023
Description and Historical Context:
This primary source is a 1958 Bracero Program work contract issued to Dionisio Hernandez Canchola, a Mexican laborer recruited to work in the United States under the terms of the binational Bracero agreement (1942–1964). The contract, written in both English and Spanish and bearing official stamps and signatures, outlines the conditions of Canchola’s employment, including wage rates, duration of labor, housing provisions, and the geographic destination for work. These contracts were created as part of a formal labor system agreed upon by the U.S. and Mexican governments to address U.S. agricultural labor shortages, especially in southern and southwestern states. The document shows how the Bracero Program, where the U.S. government and private growers structured temporary migration through standardized contracts, was formalized and bureaucratized. Created by U.S. labor officials and Mexican recruiters, these documents were often signed by workers in processing centers with little to no room for negotiation.
Analysis and Significance:
Canchola’s contract provides a window into how Latino migration to the U.S. South was shaped by both economic opportunity and state regulation. It tells us the economic motivation that drove workers like Canchola to leave rural Mexico—namely, the promise of higher wages and employment unavailable in their home communities. While the agreement promises a specific wage and employment period, Bracero testimonies often describe broken promises, poor living conditions, and lack of enforcement—highlighting the difference between official documentation and on-the-ground experience. For students of migration in the "Migrant South," this source gives evidence of the economic motivations behind Latino migration, as well as the United States’ complicity in regulating and profiting from this labor system. For the audience, the contract can raise the following important question: How did the terms in these contracts compare to lived realities?
Bibliography:
Cohen, Deborah. Braceros: Migrant Citizens and Transnational Subjects in the Postwar United States and Mexico. University of North Carolina Press, 2011.
Gamboa, Erasmo. Mexican Labor and World War II: Braceros in the Pacific Northwest, 1942–1947. University of Texas Press, 1990.
Mitchell, Don. They Saved the Crops: Labor, Landscape, and the Struggle over Industrial Farming in Bracero-Era California. University of Georgia Press, 2012.
Citation
“Mexican Farm Labor Agreement (Bracero Contract), 1958,” The Kudzu Experience, accessed July 21, 2025, https://kudzu.ecdsomeka.org/items/show/187.