Bracero definition
Bracero literally means selling the labor of one’s arms. The Bracero program was developed through a treaty between the United States and Mexico in 1942 to meet agricultural labor demand shortages throughout the country during World War II (WWII). This program provided temporary guest worker visas to more than four million Mexican nationals between 1942 and 1964 (Bracero History Archive, 2016; Mercier, 2014). The program had a number of
Bracero means “day-laborer” in Spanish. George C. Kiser & Martha Woody Kiser, Introduction to MEXICAN WORKERS IN THE UNITED STATES: HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL PERSPECTIVES 1, 4 (George C. Kiser & Martha Woody Kiser eds., 1979). It comes from “brazos,” the Spanish word for arms, and conveys the idea of hiring men who use their arms in performing physical labor. Jorge A. Vargas, U.S. Border Patrol Abuses, Undocumented Mexican Workers, and International Human Rights, 2 SAN DIEGO INT’L L.J 1, 13 n.33 (2001).