Bracero Workers

Thesis: The United States oppressed Latino immigrants by exploiting Bracero Workers and by sterilizing Latina women.
BODY 1
TS1: The Bracero Program exploited Latino workers by mistreating them and unfairly paying them.
EV1: Octavio Camarena, a college student from Mexico, wanted to go to the US to continue his studies in Architectural Engineering. The Bracero Program helped Camarena raise money to go to school, but on difficult terms. For example, Camarena and his co workers worked long hours under hard conditions. In an article where Camarena explained his usual work day he stated that, “...men pulled railroad ties from the ground, under 110-115 degree weather in Arizona deserts. Each rail tie weighed 300 pounds…work days stretched for 10

hours everyday”(Bracero). Camarena’s working conditions are a good example of exploitation since the contractor obligates the laborer's ability to work rather than their health by pushing them to work in extreme environments.
AP1: In 1942, Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Bracero Program after arguing that WW2 would bring labor shortages to agricultural jobs. The Bracero Program allowed millions of Latino immigrants to work in the US under a temporary contract. Many Latino immigrants were desperate for work and were willing to take low paid difficult jobs. Camarena was one of the millions of Latinos desperate for a job.
AP2: Camarena and his co workers were exploited by their contractors because their ability to work was more important than their health. Working 10 hours a day in hot weather and carrying 300 pound rail ties is difficult work. The contractors thought that their workers were able to withstand strenuous tasks under dangerous weather conditions.
EV2: Not only did Camarena and his co workers struggle with their working conditions, but they also weren’t paid for what the job was worth. When Camarena moved to Stockton in 1945 to work in the fields, he was making less than what he was making before. In an article explaining Camarena’s story it said that he was making “... 7 cents an hour”(Bracero). 7 cents is way less that 1945’s minimum wage, 40 cents.
AP1: In 1940-1950 the Braceros did not have full rights in the American Society and resulted in farmer wages dropping very low.
AP2: Receiving a very small pay for being an immigrant worker is unfair. Camarena and his co workers were cheated and exploited by the Bracero Program because they paid them very small and unfair amounts of money.
CS1: In conclusion, the Bracero Program obligated the workers ability to work and payed them a small amount of money in return.
BODY 2
TS2: The US used sterilization to marginalize men/women, to control who lived in society, and overall is rooted in Eugenics.

EV1: A poor white woman named Carrie Buck was sterilized in 1927 because her mother was “feebleminded”. A Youtube video titled “Fixed To Fail: Buck vs. Bell / Forced Sterilization Eugenics” it explains that, “Carrie was assumed to have inherited these traits, and was sterilized after giving birth”. The sterilization of Buck shows that scientists thought that intelligence could be passed down and marginalizes people who are “unintelligent”
AP1: Most sterilizations are used to protect societies from certain genes. An illustration of a tree from 1921 by the American Philosophical Society is labeled “Eugenics” and shows the terms Statistics, Genetics, Biology, Education, Economics, and more all connecting and rooting from the tree. The illustration displays how people from the early 1900’s saw how society worked.
AP2: In a Eugenicist’s perspective, to keep the White Race pure and clean, the ones who will harm the race have to be eliminated. Carrie Buck is an example of who can harm the White Race because since she is seen as unintelligent, her offspring can also be unintelligent and later the gene could spread therefore harming the White Race. This Eugenic ideology shows that any inferior trait such as unintelligent is unhealthy for the White

Race.
EV2: