Analysis Of Harvest Of Loneliness By Gilbert Gonzalez

Harvest of Loneliness by Gilbert Gonzalez presents personal accounts of Mexicans who participated in the Bracero Program. These accounts reveal the illusory, false hope embedded in the program along with its inhumane abuses. Such false hope being that for many Mexican men living in Mexico was difficult to provide for their wives and children, many wanted to own more land but did not have any means. Thus, the Bracero program was a strong alternative for them because their American job earnings could be sent back to their families in Mexico to buy more land or tools to possibly do their own farming in Mexico. However, the Braceros’ earnings were only a couple of dollars for a strenuous ten to twelve-hour day of intense labor in the hot weather. These miniscule earnings were then subtracted by the price of their meals. Part of the inhumane abuses were having more Braceros than work. As the Braceros waited for work, they starved from not having money for food and still had to pay a dollar in Empalme for the space on the ground they used to sleep on. Also, these men underwent an extensive physical exam including the fumigation of their bodies and having their hands checked to see if they were rough enough to work in a farm. Their health was critical in ensuring

The accounts predominately ranged from Mexican Braceros and their families to a few non-Latino scholars who studied the Bracero program. With this, the non-Latino officials in charge of the Bracero program were not included, making it seem that there could be some bias in the film due to the common ethnic identity amongst the interviewees. If non-Latino officials of the Bracero program and farm owners who hired Braceros were interviewed, this addition of accounts would create a more wholesome argument because both sides would have been