Mexican American Farm Workers

880 Words4 Pages

The Mexican and Mexican American people were very vital from 1900 to the 1950s when it came to farm labor. They did a lot for the farmers here in the United States when the rise for agriculture workers went up. The link between the labor workers and the American farmers came about because of the the worker program that was going on during the first World War, that is when the need for agriculture workers really boosted. There were also times when the need of workers intensified, luckily there was an abundant amount of Mexican and Mexican Americans to help. Despite the major contribution that these workers had towards agriculture many were treated awfully by their bosses.
The worker program that was developed during World War 1 was a stepping …show more content…

Many of them had to look for jobs in other areas because the farm owners were paying them half the normal wage. The farm owners took advantage of these worker because they saw that there were many of them that needed jobs and all this happened during the great depression. Many local authorities repatriated Mexicans, a total of 400,000. What would happen is those who were repatriated would be brought back to work but then sent back and that would become a cycle. Then with this happening many Anglos from the south would come and work by 1937 80 to 90 percent of farm workers were Anglo-Americans. However, after the depression ended and the beginning of World War 2 the demand for labor emerged again. The United States created Law 45 with Mexico so they can import thousands and all the way to millions of workers. The Bracero program brought millions of Mexicans to come and work during the war, this is when the dependency intensified. The Mexican workers helped greatly with the agriculture …show more content…

Many of them did not get paid what they were promised. They seemed to be treated as slaves in a way. They worked long hard hours for an unfair wage. The farm owners would take advantage of the Mexican workers. Many of them were promised health care but they did not get any. In the reading it was mentioned that it was like legalized slavery, and that is exactly what it looked like. The workers came to the United States to work in agriculture but for a fair wage and benefits however that was not the case. They were mistreated and