Bracero Railroaders

The Forgotten World War II Story of Mexican Workers in the U.S. West

Erasmo Gamboa (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

248 Seiten

2016
University of Washington Press (Verlag)
978-0-295-99832-9 (ISBN)

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Desperate for laborers to keep the trains moving during World War II, the U.S. and Mexican governments created a now mostly forgotten bracero railroad program that sent a hundred thousand Mexican workers across the border to build and maintain railroad lines throughout the United States, particularly the West. Although both governments promised the workers adequate living arrangements and fair working conditions, most bracero railroaders lived in squalor, worked dangerous jobs, and were subject to harsh racial discrimination.

Making matters worse, the governments held a percentage of the workers’ earnings in a savings and retirement program that supposedly would await the men on their return to Mexico. However, rampant corruption within both the railroad companies and the Mexican banks meant that most workers were unable to collect what was rightfully theirs.

Historian Erasmo Gamboa recounts the difficult conditions, systemic racism, and decades-long quest for justice these men faced. The result is a pathbreaking examination that deepens our understanding of Mexican American, immigration, and labor histories in the twentieth-century U.S. West.

Erasmo Gamboa is professor of American ethnic studies at the University of Washington. He is the author of Mexican Labor and World War II: Braceros in the Pacific Northwest, 1942–1947.

Preface and Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

1. Labor and the Railroad Industry before World War II

2. The Great Depression, Deportations, and Recovery

3. We Will Need the Mexicans Back

4. Railroad Track Workers Needed;

Where Are the Domestic Laborers?

5. Bracero Railroaders, “Soldiers of Democracy”

6. Contractual Promises to Keep

7. The Perils of Being a Bracero

8. The Deception Further Exposed

9. Split Families: Repercussions at Home and Away

10. Victory and Going Home

11. Forgotten Railroad Soldiers

Epilogue

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Illustrations follow page

Erscheinungsdatum	05.11.2016
Reihe/Serie	Bracero Railroaders
Zusatzinfo	13 b&w illus., 1 table
Verlagsort	Seattle
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	476 g
Themenwelt	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik ► Allgemeines / Lexika
	Natur / Technik ► Fahrzeuge / Flugzeuge / Schiffe ► Schienenfahrzeuge
	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► 1918 bis 1945
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Kulturgeschichte
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
ISBN-10	0-295-99832-6 / 0295998326
ISBN-13	978-0-295-99832-9 / 9780295998329
Zustand	Neuware