Braceros Movie Analysis

Families on the Frontier Transnational families consist of one parent living and working in a developed country with their children and other members of the family living in the country of origin. In the context of domestic work, such as housekeeping and acting as a nanny, the working parent is the mother. The father would more likely be employed as an agricultural laborer. Under the Bracero program, many men from Mexico were contracted by the United States government to produce food while American men were away fighting World War II. As described in the film Braceros, these men worked incredibly hard to ensure their livelihoods, even describing that the American farmer “were telling us that we had to take a break, but we didn’t want

This dynamic discourages families from immigrating with the mother as there was no guarantee that they could obtain or afford housing. In the movie, La Misma Luna, Rosario lives apart from her son, Carlitos, while she works in Los Angeles. Carlitos lives with his ill grandmother in a small Mexican village. Rosario, who Carlitos had not seen for four years, calls her son every Sunday. As the movie progresses, the anguish between the two characters over their separation is evident. Rosario, who had crossed the border between the United States and Mexico illegally works several house-cleaning jobs so that she can send money back to Mexico for Carlitos. This instance exemplifies the idea of transnational families who work across borders to support and provide financial security for one another (“La Misma

The economic situation demands that many women enter the workforce instead of becoming housewives and raising children. Therefore, these working women have less time to spend cleaning, doing laundry and other traditionally domestic tasks. This fact is compounded with the “underdeveloped nature of child care centers” and the economic inequality in the United States (Higginbotham). Women of some means who must work find themselves at somewhat of a loss when it comes to providing care and supervision for their children, so they would seek to hire someone who could complete this task for them at a relatively low