Bracero Railroaders: The Forgotten World War II Story of Mexican Workers in the U.S. West

by Erasmo Gamboa

Overview

Desperate for laborers to keep the trains moving during World War II, the U.S. and Mexican governments created a now mostly forgotten bracero railroad program that sent a hundred thousand Mexican workers across the border to build and maintain railroad lines throughout the United States, particularly the West. Although both governments promised the workers adequate living arrangements and fair working conditions, most bracero railroaders lived in squalor, worked dangerous jobs, and were subject to harsh racial discrimination.

Making matters worse, the governments held a percentage of the workers’ earnings in a savings and retirement program that supposedly would await the men on their return to Mexico. However, rampant corruption within both the railroad companies and the Mexican banks meant that most workers were unable to collect what was rightfully theirs.

Historian Erasmo Gamboa recounts the difficult conditions, systemic racism, and decades-long quest for justice these men faced. The result is a pathbreaking examination that deepens our understanding of Mexican American, immigration, and labor histories in the twentieth-century U.S. West.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780295998329
Publisher:	University of Washington Press
Publication date:	07/01/2016
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Erasmo Gamboa is professor of American ethnic studies at the University of Washington. He is the author of Mexican Labor and World War II: Braceros in the Pacific Northwest, 1942–1947.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments ix

List of Abbreviations xi

Introduction 3

1 Labor and the Railroad Industry before World War II 10

2 The Great Depression, Deportations, and Recovery 26

3 We Will Need the Mexicans Back 39

4 Railroad Track Workers Needed; Where Are the Domestic Laborers? 51

5 Bracero Railroaders, "Soldiers of Democracy" 61

6 Contractual Promises to Keep 76

7 The Perils of Being a Bracero 105

8 The Deception Further Exposed 125

9 Split Families: Repercussions at Home and Away 147

10 Victory and Going Home 159

11 Forgotten Railroad Soldiers 182

Epilogue 198

Notes 201

Bibliography 225

Index 231

Illustrations follow page 94

What People are Saying About This

Ana Elizabeth Rosas

"Gamboa captures the rigors and limited opportunities of the bracero railroad workers in the Pacific Northwest. Bracero Railroaders is an invigorating treatment of a displaced generation of Mexican men who cannot remain in the margins."