The title was chosen because they wanted America to pay attention, not because they disliked people from Mexico who came here illegally. The following is long, much longer than most things that I publish. It is in a PDF form for the web. Here is a link to the document. The following is what the document was telling America, written as a reporter might have.
Last night I posted a new article based on the 1953 pamphlet What Price Wetbacks?, which is available free online.
The pamphlet is important, but hard to read today — small print, old language, and fragmented arguments. So I used it as the basis for a more readable companion piece.
What surprised me was personal. It helped me understand the Bracero Program, migrant labor, and why my mother once said my father’s family “had money.” My father’s family was Mexican-American/Tejano, but they were not migrant workers. That distinction matters.
The article is about labor, landowners, politicians, Mexican workers, Mexican-American families, and the language people used to explain cheap labor while still depending on it.
For me, it opened a door into family history and South Texas history at the same time.
