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Articles 481 - 510 of 561
Full-Text Articles in Oral History
Interview No. 1572, John Tomlin
Interview No. 1572, John Tomlin
Combined Interviews
Mr. Tomlin recalls how his mother ran the farm after his father’s passing by using Italian and German POWs; in 1946, after finishing his tour of duty in the Army, he returned home and began attending New Mexico State University; the following year in 1947, he started running the farm on his own while he went to school; in 1948, he began hiring braceros; he used a crew of thirty men during the cotton harvest, which ran from mid September to the beginning of December; he had about six braceros who stayed on year-round driving tractors and irrigating; oftentimes, he …
Interview No. 1574, Raymundo Villa
Interview No. 1574, Raymundo Villa
Combined Interviews
Mr. Villa recalls his childhood growing up on a farm near Ysleta, Texas; he remembers that before the braceros were hired as workers, German POWs and the Tigua Indians would often pick cotton on the farm where he lived; when the braceros were contracted, he acted as an interpreter and aide because his boss could not speak Spanish and they could not speak English; oftentimes he had to help his father work on the farm, and he was unable to finish high school; he recalls picking cotton, the size of the sacks they would use, and how much they were …
Interview No. 1570, Sam Sanchez
Interview No. 1570, Sam Sanchez
Combined Interviews
Mr. Sanchez recalls his childhood and early adolescence; he would often work in the fields with his father picking cotton; during the early years of World War II, Italian POWs and undocumented workers often helped with the harvesting of the cotton as well; he recalls missing the first two or so months of school to help with the crops; in addition, he also recounts how he would often go to Rio Vista, a processing center for braceros in Socorro, Texas, to pick up food slops from the mess hall for his father’s pigs; later, when he graduated from high school, …
Interview No. 1062, Ceferino Palomares
Interview No. 1062, Ceferino Palomares
Combined Interviews
Mr. Palomares discusses his family and childhood; he initially learned about the Bracero Program through an advertisement in the local newspaper; his brother, Alfonso, encouraged him to enroll in the program; in 1944, they were both hired at the contracting center in their hometown of Tampico, Tamaulipas, México; consequently, Ceferino continued to go through the center in Tampico for all of his subsequent work contracts; his first contract took him to work on the railroads in Union City, Pennsylvania; when his contract ended six months later, he returned to México; the following year, in 1945, he went to work in …
Interview No. 1119, Anónimo Por Petición
Interview No. 1119, Anónimo Por Petición
Combined Interviews
Mr. XX was hired as a bracero at a recruiting center in Zacatecas, México; he recalls that there were also other recruitment centers in the states of Sonora, Chihuahua, and Aguascalientes in México; there were two types of braceros, specialized and common; the specialized braceros were hired for eighteen months and received higher salaries; the common braceros were hired for only three months at a time; he worked as a specialized bracero weighing cotton; his job was to make sure that the cotton was not mixed with rocks, wood, or any other objects that would make the cotton weigh more; …
Interview No. 1554, Minerva Christine Ann Cheatum
Interview No. 1554, Minerva Christine Ann Cheatum
Combined Interviews
Minerva C. Cheatum was born in El Paso, Texas; shortly after she was born her mother died, and she was consequently raised by her maternal grandparents in Clint, Texas; while still attending high school, she began working as a clerk and typist at Rio Vista, a bracero processing center in Socorro, Texas; she started in August of 1957 and continued working there seasonally until 1962. Ms. Cheatum tells how she came to live with her maternal grandparents shortly after her mother’s passing; she continued to live with them even after her father remarried and moved to California; her grandfather had …
Interview No. 1571, Faye Terrazas
Interview No. 1571, Faye Terrazas
Combined Interviews
Ms. Terrazas recalls responding to an advertisement and being hired to work as a clerk and typist at Rio Vista, a bracero processing center in Socorro, Texas; she worked there seasonally during the spring and summer from 1954 to 1957; her primary responsibility was filling out the contracts for the braceros; she offers detailed descriptions of the facilities and the process for filling out the contracts; there were specific insurance specifications that detailed what the braceros were entitled to receive in the event of an injury or accident; her knowledge of the other screening procedures is somewhat limited; she gives …
Interview No. 1573, George Veytia
Interview No. 1573, George Veytia
Combined Interviews
Mr. Veytia briefly recalls his family and childhood; he graduated from Texas Western in 1954, and shortly thereafter joined the Army, where he served until 1956; after being released from the Army, he came to work as a claims adjuster for an insurance company; his primary responsibility was to receive all the claims from the Bracero Program in Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas; he describes his position with the company, the various types of policies that were applicable in different situations, their coverage, the company’s range of action, and the average number of insured braceros during a harvesting season; in …
Interview No. 969, Juan De Dios Estrada López
Interview No. 969, Juan De Dios Estrada López
Combined Interviews
Mr. Estrada recalls a recruitment/processing center for braceros in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, México, called El Trocadero; the hiring process there was easier if your name was already on the county’s list; another center for braceros was located in Dell City, Texas; ranchers came here and hired braceros; legal and illegal workers were hired at the same time, but illegal workers received fewer wages; in their free time, the workers would go to the movies; sometimes the ranchers would give them rides on their planes for $2.00.
Interview No. 961, Jesús Aranda Morales
Interview No. 961, Jesús Aranda Morales
Combined Interviews
Mr. Morales traveled to Chihuahua, Chihuahua, México, in order to begin the hiring process for the Bracero Program; the only requirement was a Mexican Military ID card; he waited at El Trocadero, a processing center there in Chihuahua, for eight days to be hired; from there he was taken to Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, where he had to pay $1.00 in order to get a place where he could spend the night; he was then sent to Rio Vista, a processing center in Socorro, Texas; he was then finally taken to Dell City, Texas, where there was a kind of Bracero …
Interview No. 963, Nicolás Carreón Vega
Interview No. 963, Nicolás Carreón Vega
Combined Interviews
Mr. Carreón briefly recounts his childhood; he focuses on his time in the United States as a bracero from 1953 until the mid 1960s; he discusses work contracts and the possibilities under which a mica card could be obtained; he worked in the cotton fields of Texas and New Mexico, the beet fields of Colorado, and on ranches in Arizona as well; while working in Artesia, New Mexico, he caught pneumonia and was hospitalized for a month; in 1955, he worked without a contract in Pecos, Texas, was caught and sent to jail; in 1958, the cotton field he worked …
Interview No. 977, Manuela Márquez Flores
Interview No. 977, Manuela Márquez Flores
Combined Interviews
Mr. Márquez traveled to Chihuahua, Chihuahua, México, in order to begin the hiring process; he recalls that there were thousands of people from cities all over México waiting to be hired as braceros; because many of them did not have any money, they looked for food in trash cans; Mr. Márquez was hired as a bracero when he was twenty-seven years old; he also remembers that at Rio Vista, a processing center in Socorro, Texas, whenever a potential bracero was turned away due to illness, the rest of the braceros would collect money for that man so he could return …
Interview No. 978, Perfecto Márquez
Interview No. 978, Perfecto Márquez
Combined Interviews
When Mr. Márquez was hired as a bracero in 1957, he was married and had two children; as part of the hiring process, he and a group of other braceros were physically examined while in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, México; upon being hired, they were then transported from there to Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, and were not allowed to bring any personal belongings with them; they were physically examined again in El Paso, Texas and in Rio Vista, a processing center in Socorro, Texas; while in Rio Vista, the Mexican Counsel spoke with the braceros about what was expected of them, and the …
Interview No. 979, Noberto Mata Baylón
Interview No. 979, Noberto Mata Baylón
Combined Interviews
When Mr. Baylón was only sixteen years old, he worked in the United States illegally; in order to cross into the United States, he walked through the mountains, which took him an entire day to do; in 1956, he went to El Trocadero, a processing center in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, México, to begin the hiring process; he paid the security officer in order to get a good place in line while waiting to be hired; in Pecos, Texas, he had very bad experiences because the wages were too low and there was too much work to be done; in addition, there …
Interview No. 1135, Anastacio Montalvo
Interview No. 1135, Anastacio Montalvo
Combined Interviews
Mr. Montalvo briefly recalls his childhood and the Cristero War, which took place during that time; later, in 1942, he began the hiring process for the Bracero Program in Querétaro, México, using someone else’s name; while there, he was medically examined and then sent to the border by train; upon arriving at the reception center, he and other braceros saw movies that gave them information regarding their rights and obligations; he describes his first job in the United States, which was hammering the rail road tracks in California, and his second job, which was picking cotton in Texas; in addition, …
Interview No. 1143, Manuel Vazquez
Interview No. 1143, Manuel Vazquez
Combined Interviews
Mr. Vazquez briefly recalls his childhood; in 1945, he was hired as a bracero, and taken to work in El Paso, Texas; the only requirement for him to work was his Mexican military I.D. card; he recalls that representative from the Mexican consulate approved the work contracts for the braceros, but they denied renewals for those who had already been contracted three or four times; because of this, he often had to return to Chihuahua, Chihuahua, in order to obtain new work permits; upon passing through the Stanton Bridge in El Paso, Texas, he and other braceros were often examined …
Interview No. 1142, Gregorio Trejo
Interview No. 1142, Gregorio Trejo
Combined Interviews
Mr. Trejo very briefly recalls his childhood; when he was nine years old, he and his family moved to Plateros, Zacatecas, México; from there they moved to Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, before returning to Zacatecas; because one of the recruiting and contracting centers was in Zacatecas, Zacatecas, he was aware of the Bracero Program; he recalls that the governor of Zacatecas did not want workers from the cities of Fresnillo or Plateros to be hired as braceros because there was plenty of work for them to stay and do in the mines; in spite of this, he managed to have his …
Interview No. 1260, Antonio García
Interview No. 1260, Antonio García
Combined Interviews
Mr. García recalls his childhood and family; he went to school through the fourth grade, and he quit school at the age of thirteen in order to work; when he was seventeen, he decided to enlist in the Bracero Program; although he was not yet of age, he arranged for his military ID card to state that he was eighteen years old in order to begin the hiring process; he goes on to describe what the contracting center in Durango, Durango, México was like; his first contract took him to work in the cotton fields of Texas; he describes what …
Interview No. 1583, Julius Lowenberg
Interview No. 1583, Julius Lowenberg
Combined Interviews
Mr. Lowenberg briefly describes his family; after graduating from high school, he worked for the South Pacific Railroad as a machinist apprentice; he later came to work for the Public Health Office at the Stanton Bridge in El Paso, and at Rio Vista, a bracero processing center in Socorro, Texas; despite the fact that he had little training, his primary duties involved taking x-rays of the braceros as they were coming into the United States; he describes what he did for each location, what a typical work day was like, and the medical examinations and the delousing process the braceros …
Interview No. 1013, Loreto Martínez Villegas
Interview No. 1013, Loreto Martínez Villegas
Combined Interviews
Mr. Martínez recalls his first job cleaning grass from a pond for 25 cents, and his undocumented work in Brownsville, Texas; he remembers hearing about the Bracero Program over the radio in 1947; in 1954, he joined the program and worked in California, Indiana, Oklahoma, and Texas; he describes the hiring process in the contracting centers of Monterrey, Nuevo León, México and Chihuahua, Chihuahua, México; additionally, he discusses the medical exams he endured at Rio Vista, a processing center in Socorro, Texas; he recounts daily activities on farms, the different wages they received, and how work was performed; furthermore, he …
Interview No. 1014, Anacleto Morales Franco
Interview No. 1014, Anacleto Morales Franco
Combined Interviews
Mr. Morales worked as a bracero from 1955 to 1964 in California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas; he recalls how he got his first bracero contract in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, México, and what the hiring process was like; furthermore, he states how much braceros had to pay to get a good spot in line outside of the contracting center, what it was like to go through the center, and the medical tests he was given; he describes his trip via cargo train to the border and his time at Rio Vista, a processing center in Socorro, Texas; additionally, he discusses the …
Interview No. 1022, Cornelio Soto Ramírez
Interview No. 1022, Cornelio Soto Ramírez
Combined Interviews
Mr. Soto grew up in Otáez, Durango, México; economic hardship led him to leave the country in the 1950s; after working for two years at the México-U.S. border, he became a bracero in 1956; he describes how he survived in Empalme, Sonora, México while waiting to go through the processing center, how he got his first bracero contract, and his trip to the border; additionally, he explains the bracero hiring process, the medical exams he endured, the reception center in California, and his trip to a farm; he details their daily activities, their housing, their wages, their hobbies, and the …
Interview No. 1011, Heriberto Martínez Díaz
Interview No. 1011, Heriberto Martínez Díaz
Combined Interviews
Mr. Martínez recalls growing up in Francisco I. Madero, Durango, México; he remembers finding out about the Bracero Program in 1953; as a bracero, he worked in California, Missouri, Montana, and Texas; he recounts how he enlisted in the program and the requirements he needed to fulfill; additionally, he describes several trips he made to contracting centers in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, México, and Jalisco, México; he also details his time at Rio Vista, a processing center in Socorro, Texas, and the medical test he had to endure; furthermore, he describes the daily activities he performed in the field, how the work …
Interview No. 994, José Ignacio Astorga Corral
Interview No. 994, José Ignacio Astorga Corral
Combined Interviews
Mr. Astorga briefly recalls his childhood and family; later, in 1955, he learned of the opportunity to work in the United States; he explains how he was able to obtain authorization to appear on the county’s list of eligible workers despite the fact that he was a minor; in order to begin the hiring process, he traveled to the contracting center in Hermosillo, Sonora, México; from there, he went through the reception center in El Centro, California, where he underwent medical examinations; as a bracero, he worked in Arkansas, California, Colorado, Michigan, and Texas, picking apples, cotton, peaches, strawberries, and …
Interview No. 1128, Jose Gamez
Interview No. 1128, Jose Gamez
Combined Interviews
Mr. Gamez briefly recalls his childhood and early adolescence; in 1942, he came to the United States illegally to work in the fields; it was while working illegally that he learned of the Bracero Program from other ranchers and workers; when he was initially recruited to work as a bracero, in 1943, neither a physical exam nor formal paperwork was required; he recalls that women and under aged boys were allowed to work as braceros if they were accompanied by adult males; his contract ended in 1945, and he was forced to go back to working illegally; in 1947, under …
Interview No. 1129, Manuel Gamez
Interview No. 1129, Manuel Gamez
Combined Interviews
Mr. Gamez briefly recalls his childhood and early adolescence; in 1949, when he was seventeen years old, he came into the United States illegally to work; it was while working illegally in Tornillo, Texas, that he learned of the Bracero Program; his boss at the time sent him to the processing center so that he could officially go through the hiring process and become a bracero; he continued working for that particular rancher over the next eight years; the rancher he worked for spoke Spanish, which made communicating much easier; he recalls celebrating birthdays and holidays by having special lunches …
Interview No. 1141, Emilio Solís Pallares
Interview No. 1141, Emilio Solís Pallares
Combined Interviews
Mr. Solís briefly recalls his childhood; after his father’s death, he began working in the fields when he was only eleven years old; he continued working in agriculture throughout his adolescence and young adulthood; in 1943, financial difficulties coupled with a shortage of work led him to the United States to work illegally; he had great difficulties while working in the U.S. because he was often caught by immigration; although by this point he had learned of the Bracero Program, he could not afford to go to Chihuahua, Chihuahua to begin the hiring process; in 1947, he was finally able …
Interview No. 1122, Jose E. Chavarría
Interview No. 1122, Jose E. Chavarría
Combined Interviews
Mr. Chavarría briefly describes his childhood; when he was very young, his father killed his mother, and he fled from home; he went to live with his grandmother, but the rest of his family soon split up; shortly thereafter, he went to work on a dairy farm where the rancher not only employed him, but treated him like a son; in 1947, he went through the hiring process and became a bracero; upon being hired, he was sent to Rio Vista, a processing center in Socorro, Texas, where he underwent medical examinations; he details his first job picking cotton and …
Interview No. 1132, Nereo Heredia L.
Interview No. 1132, Nereo Heredia L.
Combined Interviews
Mr. Heredia vividly describes what his life was like growing up in Villa Escobedo, Chihuahua, México; the first time he signed up to work as a bracero was in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, México; there were no physical exams of any kind, in fact, all he had to do was sign a paper; he went to work in the cotton fields of La Mesa, New Mexico; the second time he signed up for a contract was out of Chihuahua, Chihuahua, where he went through a stringent hiring process; from there, he was sent to Rio Vista, a processing center in Socorro, …
Interview No. 1130, Ma. Julia G. Contreras
Interview No. 1130, Ma. Julia G. Contreras
Combined Interviews
Ms. Contreras briefly recounts her childhood and how she moved around quite a bit; she moved from Cananea, Sonora, México, where she was born, to Ciudad Juárez, then to Douglas, Arizona, and El Paso, Texas, before moving back to Ciudad Juárez; in July of 1950, she was hired by the Office of Populations and began working there as a clerk and typist; this office was the first stop for braceros who were about to enter the United States; she describes her job, which was to register the braceros, as well as the daily operations of the office and what some …