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Mexican Labor and World War II: The Bracero Program

A 1951 letter to a Dallas newspaper, detailing the author’s opposition to “wetback labor.”

A 1951 letter to a Dallas newspaper, detailing the author’s opposition to “wetback labor.”

Citation Information: Idar, Eduardo, Jr., “Press statement and telegram from Ed Idar, Jr., to E. M. Dealey,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/46389f80435feed6d6da4cfda727261d.

Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.

Courtesy of Houston Metropolitan Research Center at Houston Public Library via The Portal to Texas History.

Tips for Students

For this source, consider:

the author's point of view
the author's purpose
historical context
audience

Item 13 of 15 in the Primary Source Set Mexican Labor and World War II: The Bracero Program

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Government report responding to Strangers in Our Fields, a book critiquing conditions for laborers in the Bracero Program, 1956.

An excerpt from a 2011 oral history interview with a father who worked as a bracero in Arizona and his son (in Spanish).

A 2011 oral history interview with a man who grew up on a farm in Arizona recounting how hard the braceros worked in the fields.

A 1951 letter to a Dallas newspaper, detailing the author’s opposition to “wetback labor.”

A denied request for “300 Mexican nationals” to harvest pears, issued by the US Department of Labor, 1960.

A transcription of a 1962 Los Angeles Times news story: “U.S. Charges Falsifying of Bracero Pay Books.”

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