Book ID: CBB832836385

Bracero Railroaders : The Forgotten World War II Story of Mexican Workers in the U.S. West (2016)

unapi

Gamboa, Erasmo (Author)


University of Washington Press


Publication Date: 2016
Physical Details: xi, 236
Language: English

Desperate for laborers to keep the trains moving during World War II, the U.S. and Mexican governments created a now mostly forgotten bracero railroad program that sent a hundred thousand Mexican workers across the border to build and maintain railroad lines throughout the United States, particularly the West. Although both governments promised the workers adequate living arrangements and fair working conditions, most bracero railroaders lived in squalor, worked dangerous jobs, and were subject to harsh racial discrimination. Making matters worse, the governments held a percentage of the workers' earnings in a savings and retirement program that supposedly would await the men on their return to Mexico. However, rampant corruption within both the railroad companies and the Mexican banks meant that most workers were unable to collect what was rightfully theirs. Historian Erasmo Gamboa recounts the difficult conditions, systemic racism, and decades-long quest for justice these men faced. The result is a pathbreaking examination that deepens our understanding of Mexican American, immigration, and labor histories in the twentieth-century U.S. West. (Amazon)

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Reviewed By

Review Albert Churella (June 2018) Review of "Bracero Railroaders : The Forgotten World War II Story of Mexican Workers in the U.S. West". The Journal of Transport History (pp. 124-126). unapi

Review Bryant, Keith L. (Fall-Winter 2017) Review of "Bracero Railroaders : The Forgotten World War II Story of Mexican Workers in the U.S. West". Railroad History (pp. 103-104). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB832836385/

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Authors & Contributors
Kornweibel, Theodore, Jr.
Gruber, John E.
Trostel, Scott D.
Watson, J. Francis
Reevy, Tony
Lothes, Scott
Concepts
Land transportation
Railroads
Labor and Laborers, Railroad
World War II
Photography of railroads
Biographies
Time Periods
20th century
20th century, late
19th century
Places
United States
Horseshoe Curve (Pennsylvania)
Altoona, PA
Hawaii (U.S.)
Iowa (U.S.)
Oregon (U.S.)
Institutions
Pennsylvania Railroad
Office of War Information
Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad Company
Oahu Railway and Land Company
Wabash Railroad Company
Central Railroad of New Jersey
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