Los Braceros
Mexico: Secretaria del Trabajo y Prevision Social, 1946. 120pp. Quarto. Illustrated. Original cream printed wrappers. Light wear, heavier to extremities. Text toned. Very good. Item #6505
One of the first official studies on the subject of braceros. The study was carried out by Luis Fernández del Campo, Director of Social Security for the Mexican Ministry of Labor. Fernández del Campo focuses on the characteristics that typify the Mexican migrant laborers who have emigrated to the North, exploring the reasons that have prompted them to emigrate and the changes that the foreign environment in the United States has had on them. The introduction points put that "The southern region of the United States, especially Texas, has been, for many years, a market for Mexican labor, cheap labor subject to multiple arbitrariness and even used to depress the salaries of North American workers and to displace them from their occupations.... Cotton picking in the State of Texas was the activity that attracted the largest number of Mexican emigrant workers." The text also points out the disparities in wages for these workers depending on the region in which they work. The work contains chapters on international arrangements for migrant workers, a statistical analysis of survey data gathered from braceros (including their salaries), and the mental disorders suffered by some migrant workers. Interspersed throughout the work are numerous photographs featuring groups of migrant workers in the application process and in the fields. A detailed, informative, and scarce work that is absolutely essential for the study of migrant labor in the southwestern United States.
Price: $950.00