I recently wrote an article about a mural honoring the braceros for The Californian, a newspaper in Salinas, Calif.
The city, in Monterey County, is known for the vast fields of lettuce, spinach and other crops that surround it, drawing migrant laborers to pluck the goods. It also is the birthplace of John Steinbeck, whose novel The Grapes of Wrath chronicled the plight of the Okies who fled the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression to settle in the agricultural valleys of the Golden State.
During World War II, a government program lured Mexican farm workers to the Southwest to fill a labor shortage, although the Bracero Program ran well past the end of the war. The braceros, so-called because they worked a pair of arms or "brazos," fulfilled 4.5 million contracts.
My article touched on the exploitation of the braceros in a city that now is 65 percent Latino. The Anglo population, vastly outnumbered descendents of those Okies, did not appreciate the sympathy, according to impressive racist comments on the article.
Quips about the mural being "another cave painting" clearly arise from bitter resentment of violent Latino gangs that roam the streets of Salinas today; meanwhile, the politically correct counter with cracks about local "rednecks" running meth labs.
Another comment juxtaposed the two factions rather colorfully: "Let us Okies paint a large target on the wall of the Steinbeck building and then line up all the gangbangers... POW! POW! POW!"
Welcome to post-racial America. Here's the article in question (there was an earlier Web-only version, too, with a bit more attitude that got edited out for the print publication).
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Salinas mural celebrates bracero labor: Alisal district office project teaches ‘what many hands do’
By Todd R. Brown
For The Salinas Californian
February 24, 2009
The role braceros played in shaping Salinas and other western agricultural hubs is more subtle than a public monument might convey.
In essence, the Mexican guest workers who toiled in the region’s fields from the 1940s to 1960s helped weave a portion of the social fabric of modern Monterey County.
On Monday morning, Rafael Silva, 75, of Salinas, discussed his contribution to American history as a bracero from Jalisco. Silva spoke at the inauguration of the "Nuestros Braceros Mural," which students are helping paint on the wall of the Alisal Union School District office.
Silva’s seven children, he said, are now secretaries, teachers, doctors and lawyers contributing to Uncle Sam’s economy.
About 30 pupils and scores of adults sat through a program to celebrate the start of the painting project, complete with songs by Mariachi Salinas and a visit from county Supervisor Simón Salinas. Students were encouraged to bring their bracero grandfathers, many of whom showed up to claim front-row seats.
The mural is one way to acknowledge the braceros, who came to remedy a World War II labor shortage and continued through the program’s official end in 1964. About 4.5 million contracts were awarded in all.
"These men, coming here, how many leaders and professionals did they give the United States? I don’t think they got the credit," said Laura Caballero of Greenfield, a coordinator for the event.
After a history talk in Spanish, students took paintbrushes and headed outside the district office to smear green paint on the bottom of the mural, which features scenes of crop picking and, more ominously, a line of workers being fumigated before heading to the fields.
Mexican artist Rafael Ramirez said he included the image to ensure that people "can see that that happened."
Jose Maria Rubio Nunez, 70, of Salinas said he was a bracero starting in 1958 and kept working in the fields until five years ago, ensuring that lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, grapes, peaches and more made it to store shelves.
"In those times, I liked everything," he said through a translator. "The joy was to do the work."
There were drawbacks. Besides foremen who treated workers badly, Nunez said, there were no restrooms — and no breaks when workers could use them. He said he earned 90 cents an hour working seven days a week, from as early as March until November or December.
Alisal High School student Ashley Collins, 15, helped the younger pupils paint. Collins said her mother is devoted to finding justice for braceros who are still fighting to get part of their pay that was withheld from their checks.
The money was kept in Mexican banks as an incentive to lure the workers back, but the funds allegedly went "missing." A recent federal court settlement will allow about 6,100 braceros to collect $3,500 each — if they can document their participation.
Esperanza Zendejas, Alisal superintendent, said her father and two of her brothers were braceros from Michoacán who labored for citrus farmers and wineries.
"It opened many doors," Zendejas said. Her father "saw what could be. As a result of that, we all ended up in the United States."
Looking at the progress of the students’ painting so far, she said: "Look at that. What many hands do."
Next year, Zendejas said, she hopes to arrange a local stop for a Smithsonian Institution exhibit called "Bittersweet Harvest — The Bracero Program, 1942-1964." The traveling show opens in September in Washington, D.C. Its story gathering involved San Jose and Salinas residents.
Students and parents can help on the mural from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday at the office.
