Bob Porter

Title

Bob Porter

Description

Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: Bob Porter was born in Roscoe, Texas, in 1929; a year later, his family moved to the Las Cruces, New Mexico area, and later they moved again to Hatch, New Mexico, which is where he grew up; in 1954, upon finishing a tour of duty in the military, he began working for the Doña Ana County Farm Bureau; while there, he administered the bracero program for two years; he later took a position with the New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau, spending his last fifteen years there as director and CEO.


Summary of Interview: Mr. Porter briefly recalls his childhood; in 1954, he began working for the Doña Ana County Farm Bureau as an assistant director, and he then moved up to director; while there, he administered the bracero program for two years; the Doña Ana program was the largest one with 6,000 braceros during the cotton season; at that time, about 500 braceros were transported daily between Rio Vista, a processing center in Socorro, Texas, and Las Cruces, New Mexico; while at the reception center, the braceros were medically examined and given time to clean up and rest from their trips; the centers operated year round with some of the braceros working on ranches and in vegetable production; he recalls a trip he took to México, for a special crossing of braceros, in which a few hundred workers were requested by local farmers, but thousands showed up waiting to be hired; there were meetings and negotiations between the Department of Labor and area farmers; he also mentions labor strikes in the area, and he recalls one instance in which Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta came through town; in his opinion, the Department of Labor’s stringent and increasing demands led farmers to purchae mechanization, which ultimately ended the bracero program.

Creator

Morgan, Beth
Porter, Bob

Date

2003-03-06

Subject

New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau

Rights

Institute of Oral History, The University of Texas at El Paso

Language

eng

title (Spanish)

Bob Porter

creator (Spanish)

Porter, Bob

Rights Holder

Institute of Oral History, The University of Texas at El Paso

Online Submission

No

Original Format

Digital, WAV, MP3

Duration

1:27:57

Interviewer

Morgan, Beth

Interviewee

Porter, Bob

Location

Las Cruces, New Mexico

File Name Identifier

Porter_ELP039

Citation

Morgan, Beth and Porter, Bob, “Bob Porter,” Bracero History Archive, accessed March 29, 2024, https://braceroarchive.org/es/items/show/36.