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Bittersweet Harvest: The Bracero Program, 1942-1964

Presented by Museum of History and Art, Ontario at Museum of History and Art, Ontario

August 25-October 30, 2011

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A multi-faceted bilingual exhibition that illuminates the largest guest worker program in U.S. history runs at the Museum of History and Art, Ontario, from August 25 through October 30, 2011. [Reproduction Credit: "Bracero in the Field" - by Leonard Nadel, 1956.
Courtesy Smithsonian National Museum of American History]

Organized by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History (NMAH), circulated by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), with funding made possible by the Smithsonian’s Latino Center. “Bittersweet Harvest: The Bracero Program, 1942-1964” traces the entire Bracero experience from leaving home and family to making new lives in the United States, incorporating explanatory text, powerful photographs, and moving audio excerpts from oral histories contributed by former contract workers.

The Museum is augmenting the Smithsonian exhibit with three free public programs, including an acclaimed film, an informative lecture, and one of the Museum’s popular family discovery days. In addition, the Museum is inviting anyone locally or regionally with personal or family guest worker program experience to contribute oral histories and related documents, which will be made part of the exhibit and forwarded to the national Bracero History Archive.

Facing big labor shortages during World War II, the United States initiated a series of agreements with Mexico to recruit Mexican men to work on American farms and railroads. In 1943, President Franklin Roosevelt announced the Emergency Farm Labor Program, more familiarly known as the Bracero Program. Derived from the Spanish word braza, meaning “arm,” referring to farm hands or labor for hire, the program enabled millions of Mexican Nationals to come to the U. S. to work on short-term labor contracts.

Small farmers, large growers, and farm associations in California, Texas and 25 other states hired Braceros to provide manpower during peak harvest and cultivation times. By the time the program was cancelled in 1964, an estimated 4.6 million contracts had been awarded.

As the program grew, so did the controversy it provoked. Mexican Nationals, desperate for cash, were willing to take harsh jobs at wages scorned by most Americans. Farm workers already living in the U.S. worried that their jobs would be taken and wages driven down. Exploitation of Bracero workers and violations of their legal rights and civil liberties prompted efforts to repeal it. As NMAH exhibit curator Peter Liebhold explains, “The braceros experienced exploitation but also opportunity…The program was truly bittersweet.”

In 1956, Leonard Nadel, a successful magazine photographer, documented the harsh reality of Bracero life, intending to highlight employer violations and improve working conditions. Nadel’s images, which the Smithsonian acquired in 2000, provide the visual focus and impact of Bittersweet Harvest.

Freestanding banners with photographs and text depict the recruitment, processing, and working and living conditions of farm laborers and their wives, families, friends and communities, while audio stations enable visitors to hear excerpts of oral histories of former Braceros.

According to NMAH director Brent D. Glass, “The exhibition explores complex issues of race, class, community and national origin while highlighting the irrefutable contributions by Mexican Americans to American society.”