Mexican Labor and World War II

Erasmo Gamboa is associate professor of American Ethnic Studies at the University of Washington and author of Mexican Labor and World War II: Braceros in the Pacific Northwest, 1942-1947 (University of Washington Press, 2000). Kevin Leonard is dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He was previously professor and chair in the departments of history at Middle Tennessee State University and Western Washington University. He is the author of The Battle for Los Angeles: Racial Ideology and World War II (University of New Mexico Press, 2006).

"Although Mexican migrant workers have toiled in the fields of the Pacific Northwest since the turn of the century, and although they comprise the largest work force in the region’s agriculture today, they have been virtually invisible in the region’s written labor history. Erasmo Gamboa’s study of the bracero program during World War II is an important beginning, describing and documenting the labor history of Mexican and Chicano workers in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho and contributing to our knowledge of farm labor."

• Foreword by Kevin Allen LeonardPreface to the 2000 Paperback EditionAcknowledgmentsIntroductionAgribusiness and Mexican MigrationWorld War II and the Farm Labor CrisisThe Bracero WorkerHuelgas: Bracero StrikesBracero Social LifeFrom braceros to Chicano Farm Migrant WorkersConclusionNotesBibliographyIndex