Students will compose original corridos (Mexican American folk songs) telling the stories of bracero workers during World War II
Students will demonstrate their comprehension of the themes and formulas of corridos by using them to compose new corridos
Students will describe the experiences of Mexican braceros immigrating to and working in the United StatesÂ
This activity supports the following Common Core Literacy Standards in History/Social Studies:
RHSS.6-8.2. Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary soure; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct form prior knowledge or opinions.
WHSS.6-8.2. Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events.
From 1940 onward, there was a major increase in demand for the United States' agricultural products, as the US became the "breadbasket" to the Allied Powers during World War II. The increased demand was a welcome change to growers after the lean years of the Great Depression. However, even before the US entered World War II, there was a chronic labor shortage in agriculture, especially in the backbreaking "stoop work" of planting, tending, and harvesting vegetables. This work was sometimes dangerous and was the lowest paid; although the New Deal had been generally good for labor, agricultural workers were denied such benefits. After the US declared war in 1941, growers announced a "crisis" shortage of agricultural workers. This was in part because Anglo and African-American workers left the fields to join the armed forces or for higher paying (and less difficult) industrial war production jobs.Â
To alleviate the crisis, growers looked to Mexican and Mexican-American workers, who were already known as a hard-working and cheap source of labor. Despite quota laws, agricultural producers had continued to hire Mexican workers in the 1920s and 1930s; immigration enforcement tended to the look the other way when it came to undocumented Mexican workers because cheap labor was so important to overall agricultural output. In some ways, then, the bracero program was a formalization of an ongoing labor practice and migration pattern.Â
In 1942 the United States and Mexico signed an agreement that would allow Mexicans to come to the US to work as "braceros" (helping hands). Within two months of the agreement, the first workers arrived in the U.S. The quick turn around indicates the desperate need growers had for workers in time for the 1942 harvest. Thousands of Mexicans who saw the potential economic opportunities and adventure joined. The program lasted until 1964. Throughout its span, the bracero program was an exception to the U.S.'s otherwise strict immigration policy of restricting immigrants from Mexico.
Step 1: Pass out or display the "Americans All" poster (without its description). (Optional: ask students who the intended audience for the poster is, what its message is, and why it might have been created.) Ask students to share what they know about Mexican and Mexican Americans in the United States war effort during World War II. After showing the poster, give the background of the bracero program.
Step 2: Tell students that two important sources for understanding the experiences of braceros is through corridos (Mexican folk songs) and oral histories of braceros. Â Pass out the "Themes and Formulas of Corridos" handout and go over it with students. Â
Step 3: Pass out the lyrics to "Corrido of the Uprooted Ones." Â Ask students to analyze the corrido by finding the themes and formulas described in the previous handout. Â
Step 4: Now tell students that they are going to write an original corrido based on the oral history of a bracero. Â They will be evaluated for how well they incorporate the themes and formulas of corridos, as well as how they communicate the individual's story they are reading. Students can write corridos individually, in pairs, or in small groups. To each person (or group) pass out one of the six bracero oral histories. (Optional: pass out various other bracero primary sources to help inspire their corridos). Â
Step 5: Display criteria for writing corridos. Have students compose corridos.
Using the "Themes and Formulas" sheet, work (with your group) to write an original corrido that tells the events described in the oral history.
Use at least 4 of the 7 corrido formulas.
Extra credit for writing the corrido in more than one language.
Use background information or information from other bracero primary sources for inspiration.
Prepare to share the corrido with the entire group.
Step 6: Allow students to read (or sing) the corridos they have composed. Â Â
Mr. Hernández: And one day, another guy and I, his name is Francisco Uribe, finally decided to go over and come to work here in the United States. It was the time of the Second World War, that is, in 1943. And we arrived at the bridge of those days, a simple bridge, up to the booth where the Immigration man was and I asked him where were the trucks that took men from that area to pick cotton and he answered me... There were some trucks waiting for people to take them to pick cotton. And it was our turn to go with a gentleman named Faustino Loya from Mesquite, New Mexico. He took us and there we stayed, there we picked cotton for what was all of November, December, January and even part of February, that year. And I returned to my town and after that first time feeling great earning money in dollars, which lasted long enough, the following year I returned again, that is, in 1944 I crossed the border again. On this occasion...I returned to work, from the cleaning of cotton which happens around May, June and worked all of that year with him, until we brought out the harvest in 1945, in January of 1945.
Interviewer: And tell me how did you become contracted as a bracero, where would you go? What documents would they ask for?
Mr. Hernández: Well, well on that occasion the contracting took place in the city of Chihuahua, in the old train station. Back then, they called it the Trocadero. I don’t know why, that is how it was named. And then it was published in a newspaper that was sold in Chihuahua, it was named, the Heraldo, and I believe it has the same name. And the year [19]46 which was the first year, we approached and they contracted us, the association name was The United States Agricultural Association, I think.
And from there they would take us on bus to Ciudad Juarez and there we would cross the bridge on foot and they would meet us in a place that was in the same location as Immigration by the bridge. Once there they would do a medical exam, the Immigration, and they tossed some powder on our heads and all of our bodies, because they would undress us to see if we carried any sickness that could be contagious to other people.
The powder on our heads was for the lice, to see if we had lice (laughing) I think during this time my hair began to fall out. And from there sometimes they would take us in pick-ups, in cars. The time I went to Pecos, they took us in a trailer, in a trailer we were going, they took us to Pecos, an open trailer like those for cattle, but very clean, very clean...
Interviewer: And there in Chihuahua, how was The Trocadero?, was it like Government offices, or was it a covered area and nothing more, or was it a few tents?
Mr. Hernández: I don’t remember much about them, but I do remember the office was very organized and there were also people from here from the United States choosing people, they would check all of our hands to see if they were calloused.
Interviewer: This would mean that you were...?
Mr. Hernández: That we were laborers, that we were agricultural workers. It was one of the exams that I remember we had to place our hands out like this and they would grab the calluses. And I remember that, yes they would reject a few that were, office workers I think or something like that, those that did not have that mark. And I was never rejected, all of the times I was contracted I departed able to work. And there was disorder but outside, because there were plenty of people there, there they slept; they slept on, well on what they could and yes I was a bit uncomfortable and sometimes they waited four or five days waiting for their turn, but all else was fine. The disorder consisted in that some of the youth there, youth at that time, I believe they drank their bottle of, their drinks of sotol or tequila, but not that this created major unrest, fights, no!, no, there were none, at least I saw none during my time.
Interviewer: And, How much time did you wait from the moment in which you arrived at the exams and until you where contracted for you to come?, many days?
Mr. Hernández: No, in my case, the three times I was contracted was, well five days. Once we stayed two days here en El Paso in a place called Buena Vista, I believe...[No, it was] Río Vista! There we stayed a day and half. We had already been examined, ready for nothing more than for the bosses to come for us there, but it wasn’t a long wait, they were in much need of workers here and they themselves hurried to put us to work.
Interviewer: And, would they give any vaccines there?
Mr. Hernández: One day only, one day only they vaccinated us in the shoulder and, but only once! For sure it did nothing; it had no effect on me. You see sometimes it swells or something, it had no effect on me and it was for the better, go figure they fumigated us fully clothed and all of this, when we crossed, yes.