The Origin of Migrant Farmworkers

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The Mexican Migrant Farm Workers’ community formed in Southern California in the 20th century because of two factors that came together: farming emphasized by migrations like the Okie farmers from the East and Mexicans “imported” to the U.S. because of the need for cheap labor as a replacement of Americans during World War II. The migrant labor group formed after an already similar group in the U.S had been established in California, the American farm workers from the East, known as the Okies. The Dust Bowl of the 1930s caused the movement of the Okies to the West and was followed by the transition from American dominant farm labor to Mexican migrant labor. The Okies reinforced farming in California through the skills they took with them, significant to the time period that Mexicans arrived to California in greater numbers. However, the community was heightened by World War II from 1939 to 1945, which brought in immigrants to replace Americans that left to fight in the battlefields. Robin A. Fanslow, archivist at the Library of Congress, argues that because of World War II, “those who were left behind took advantage of the job opportunities that had become available in [the] West Coast” (Fanslow). Although some Mexican migrants already lived in the U.S prior to this event, a vast majority arrived at the fields of California specifically to work as farmers through the Bracero Program, created because of the Second World War. Why the Second World War and not the First World War? WWII urgently demanded labor and Mexico was the United States’ closest resource. Although WWI also caused the U.S. to have a shortage of labor; at the time, other minorities dominated, like the Chinese and Japanese. The Dust Bowl contributed to one of the ... ... middle of paper ... ...ult Lines: The Historical Origins of White Supremacy in California. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1994. Bladerrama, Francisco E, Raymond Rodriguez. Decade of Betrayal: Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s. Alburquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1995. Galarza, Ernesto. Merchants of Labor: The Mexican Bracero Story. Charlotte and Santa Barbara: McNalley & Loftin, 1964. Watkins, T.H.. The Great Depression: America in the 1930s. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1993. National Advisory Committee on Farm Labor. Farm Labor Organizing, 1905-1967. New York : NACLD, 1967. Edid, Maralyn . Farm Labor Organizing: Trends and Prospects. Ithaca, NY: Industrial & Labor Relations Press Cornell University, 1994. Gregory, James N. American exodus: the Dust Bowl migration and Okie culture in California . New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.

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