Status Updates From Mexican Labor and World War...

“In short, the current population of Chicanos in the Pacific Northwest, as well as in many other parts of the nation, had its genesis in the US-conceived and sponsored bracero program in the Pacific Northwest.”

“In many respects the ongoing powerlessness of agricultural wage earners stems from public ignorance of the political and economic reality of the industry.”

“Herein lies the contribution of the thousands of braceros who entered the United States: they replaced the work force that went into industry and made agricultural expansion and sustained high levels of farm production possible. Despite this significant contribution, the braceros were generally treated worse than Italian and German prisoners of war held in northwestern farm labor camps”

“Local labor continues to protest the need to import the Mexican nationals even as they refused agricultural employment...Threats by the Mexican government to withhold braceros from the Pacific Northwest, especially Idaho, over the issue of racial discrimination were real concerns.”

“Amazingly, most Northwesterners failed to understand the strained social circumstances endured by the braceros. Worse yet, neither the farmers nor the communities, both desperately in need of the services of these men, understood that the Ill treatment lowered worker productivity and actually came close to endangering essential war food production.”

“Even as braceros and other farm workers received inadequate medical attention, they were called to support local medical facilities. In 1946, the Caldwell, Idaho, camp contributed $398 to the Caldwell Memorial Hospital Fund”

“Braceros experienced much animosity because Northwest, as other states in the West, had a long history of racial antipathy against certain groups such as native Americans, Asians, and blacks. When braceros arrived in the area, this antipathy was easily transferred to Mexicans.”

“Consequently, Idaho, like Texas, was blacklisted by the Mexican government for its mistreatment of braceros. The action of the Mexican government was prompted by the blatant racism of some Nampa and Caldwell merchants and businesses who posted “No Japs or Mexicans Allowed” signs.”

“In the Northwest, Idaho developed the most notorious reputation for discrimination. Prejudice became so common and deep-seated that in 1946, the Mexican government threatened to forbid ifs workers to go into the state two years later made good on its threat.”

“At Caldwell, Idaho, the bracero camp joined with the Boise League of Women Voters and presented ‘Mexican Serenade’...at the Crystal Ballroom of the Hotel Boise...a local radio station broadcast the program, allowing an estimated 2000 nations in camps in the Boise and eastern Oregon areas to listen. This program may well have been the first Spanish-language broadcast in the Pacific Northwest.”

“Perhaps worse than being held under the thumb of their employers, the braceros were victims of terrible injustices stemming from inadequate camp facilities, inept officials and racism. Their contracts prohibited discrimination, but it occurred because the employers disavowed the entire agreement as meaningless.”

“Farmers dehumanized the Mexican men and reduced them to semicaptive labor force that resembled Latin American peonage. They did so with impunity, all the time hiding their transgressions behind the shield of patriotism and commitment to the war effort. Apparently, the pursuit of human rights, to which they were committed as American citizens, was an ideal not applicable on their farms.”

“By extension, if growers had treated the braceros better, larger per capíta output would have increased their profits. With rare exception, farmers could not see this. To them it was their right to keep their workers materially deprived and socially alienated.”

“The failure of the Nampa strike did not deter the braceros’ determination. The following month, braceros at Caldwell struck to challenge a racially motivated dual wage scale.”

“The strike was in protest of a higher wage scale in the western part of Canyon County, where growers had to compete with Oregon farmers. Government officials described the walkout as a “general strike” because it included the four camps and the men were demonstrating in the streets in Nampa in open defiance of the growers.”

“As in previous years, the braceros’ strikes in Idaho were more serious and prolonged. The first protest developed in June when Caldwell-Boise sugar beet farmers set hourly wages at 20 cents less than the rate established by the county Extension Service.”

“Farm stories and real labor shortages should have moved farmers to pay a bit extra. They did not, even after Governor Earl Snell described the lack of farm help as ‘desperate’ in his state.”

“No sooner had the Mexicans begun to arrive in the Northwest than the farmers began to disregard their contracts...With some exceptions, farmers treated the workers so badly that their actions defied all logic and almost put an end to their very source of labor.”

“Farm labor in the Northwest, in contrast with that in California, was not politicized or publicized. The region lacked a Carey McWilliams, Ernesto Galarza, Paul S. Taylor, or John Steinbeck. In this respect, the braceros were truly dehumanized. Most persons remain ignorant of the vital contribution of these Mexican men.”

“The quietude in these small communities, broken by the anxiety and emotionalism surrounding the world crisis, often translates into increased racial intolerance. The hardest blow was dealt to Japanese residents in the Northwest...the relocation of the Japanese American communities...only served to exacerbate and already strained labor supply.”

“Paid low wages and excluded from rehabilitation, those Mexicans who became permanent residents in the Northwest and elsewhere had no significant choice but to retreat into the backwaters of the depressed rural communities of the 1930s”