Mexican Labor and World War II: Braceros in the Pacific Northwest, 1942-1947

Although Mexican migrant workers have toiled in the fields of the Pacific Northwest since the turn of the century, and although they comprise the largest work force in the region s agriculture today, they have been virtually invisible in the region s written labor history. Erasmo Gamboa s study of the bracero program during World War II is an important beginning, describing and documenting the labor history of Mexican and Chicano workers in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho and contributing to our knowledge of farm labor. Oregon Historical Quarterly