Two Braceros Harvest Potatoes

The majority of braceros who came to the United States performed the most difficult types of agricultural labor: planting, tending, and harvesting crops. This type of work was called "stoop work" because it required laborers to spend all day bent over. Even during the worst years of the Great Depression, growers had a hard time finding people willing to do stoop work. The two men in this photo wear distinctive specialized clothing for their task: wide-brimmed hats to protect from the sun, heavy leather gloves, durable jeans, and picking belts for collecting harvested produce.

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