Defiant braceros
Subtitle: how migrant workers fought for racial, sexual, and political freedom
By: Mireya Loza
Series: The David J. Weber series in the new borderlands history; David J. Weber series in the new borderlands history
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press; The University of North Carolina Press
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 237
ISBN-13: 9781469629759; 9781469629766
Subjects: Mexicans; Economic conditions; Mexican Foreign workers; Race identity; Social conditions; Seasonal Farm Laborers Program; Political activity; History
Description: "In this book, Mireya Loza sheds new light on the history of the Bracero Program (1942-1964), the binational agreement between the United States and Mexico that allowed hundreds of thousands of male Mexican workers to enter this country on temporary work permits. While this program and the issue of temporary workers has long been politicized on both sides of the border, Loza argues that the prevailing romanticized image of braceros as a family-oriented, productive, legal workforce has obscured the real, diverse experiences of the workers themselves. Focusing on underexplored aspects of workers' lives such as their transnational union organizing efforts, the sexual economies of both gay and straight workers, and the ethno-racial boundaries among Mexican indigenous braceros, Loza reveals how these men defied perceived political, sexual, and racial norms. Basing her work on an archive of more than 800 oral histories from the United States and Mexico, Loza is the first scholar to carefully differentiate between the experiences of Spanish-speaking guest workers and the many Mixtec, Zapotec, Purhepecha, and Mayan laborers. In doing so, she demonstrates how these transnational workers were able to forge new identities in the face of intense discrimination and exploitation"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 185-219) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction : Making braceros; title: Interlude : Me modernicé; title: Yo era indígena : race, modernity, and the transformational politics of transnational labor; title: Interlude : ¡Yo le digo!; title: In the camp's shadows : intimate economies in the Bracero Program; title: Interlude : Documenting; title: Unionizing the impossible : Alianza de Braceros Nacionales de México en los Estados Unidos; title: Interlude : Ten percent; title: La política de la dignidad : creating the Bracero Justice Movement; title: Interlude : Performing masculinities; title: Epilogue : Representing memory : braceros in the archive and museum.