"Decades after working as a bracero, as thousands of Mexican guest farm workers were called in a program from 1942 to 1964, the Mexican government had recently agreed to a one-time payment, $3,500, of long overdue withheld wages."
Scholars believe that more than 2.5 million people were braceros, which is Spanish for “strong arms,” at a time when “guest worker program” did not set off as fierce a debate as today.
Most worked three to six months a year in agriculture, the bulk of them in California, with a smaller number in railroads. The program began because of farm labor shortages brought on by the war, and it continued afterward at the urging of growers until 1964.
The Mexican government took 10 percent of the wages paid to braceros, supposedly holding it until their eventual return to Mexico.
In 2001, a group of braceros from the World War II era filed a federal lawsuit against Mexico to recoup their money. Four years later, facing pressure from former braceros in Mexico and their advocates, the government announced a reparation program, but required braceros in the United States to travel to Mexico to register, a difficult journey for the elderly and infirm.
The settlement, which a federal judge will consider granting final approval in February, prodded Mexico to apply its program to braceros in both countries, eliminating the travel requirement.
