NOT FOR SALE
( 2011 - present )
The Bracero Program ran from 1942 to 1964, bringing farm and railroad workers into the United States from Mexico. The first braceros came in September of 1942 for the sugar beet harvest. For most of the program, an average of 200,000 people came per year.
Workers lived in squalid conditions and dealt with rampant discrimination, leading to the founding of the National Farm Workers Association.
“The Bracero Program must also be considered through a human lens that transcends national borders. There is no doubt that it was devastating for the families of those who departed to work in the United States.”
Elisabeth W. Mandeel, The Bracero Program 1942-1964, in the American International Journal of Contemporary Research.
"La tierra ha dado su cosecha; Dios, nuestro Dios, nos bendice. Dios nos bendecirá, y todos los confines de la tierra lo temerán."
Psalms 67: 6-7
Given the accelerating erosion of rights in the US, I have had to make some difficult decisions about what is safe to share. Out of an abundance of caution, I have redacted identifying information (like last names and specific towns) from social media, here on my website, and any other public-facing platform. I look forward to a future where we needn’t worry about sharing stories. The generosity, and consent, of the family I’ve introduced is what makes sharing this possible now.
I enter the picture in 2011 as a graduate student. I started my masters studying journalism, but left because the program wouldn’t budge on their stance that objectivity prohibited reciprocity.
The title of the work comes from a question posed by my journalism professor. I ran into him sometime after I left the program. Expecting that the story was simple and one-dimensional, he asked if I’d “sold” the family yet. Knowing that their story is not mine to tell, I told him, they are “not for sale.”