Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: Pedro Carmona Vera was born on May 24, 1924, in Tepatitlán, Jalisco, México; he is the middle child of eight siblings, four boys and four girls; he began working at an early age, and, as a result, he did not…
Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: Marcelino Burciaga was born on September 24, 1938, in Canatlan, Durango, México; his father was a carpenter and a shoemaker; he is the youngest of three brothers; from 1961 to 1962, he worked as a bracero in…
Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: Efraín Benítez Santana was born on October 12, 1931, in Cutzamala de Pinzón, Guerrero, México; he has two siblings; in 1952, he entered the bracero program; he worked in Arkansas and Texas picking cotton.…
Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: Agustín Bautista was born in Jiquilpan, Michoacán, México; he is the youngest sibling in his family; in 1943, he joined the bracero program; as a bracero, he worked in Arizona, California, Oregon, and Texas on…
Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: Jesús Arriaga Sierra was born on December 14, 1941, in Buenavista Chinantla, Puebla, México; he is one of five brothers; at age 13, he began working in agriculture; he was a bracero from 1963 to 1965, and he…
Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: Agustín Álvarez was born on August 28, 1941, in Los Volcanes, Jalisco, México; he lived with his mother and grandparents; at an early age, he began working in agriculture and, later, as a vaquero; he completed…
Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: Juan Aguilar López was born on August 21, 1931, in Jiquilpan, Michoacán, México; he is the youngest of four siblings; at an early age, he began working in agriculture with his family; he never received formal…
Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: José María Aguilar García was born on March 19, 1933, in Casa Blanca, Michoacán, México; his parents were campesinos on a small ranch where he and his ten siblings were born; when he was roughly eight years old,…
Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: Jesús Aceves Gutiérrez was born on August 15, 1939, in Tototlán, Jalisco, México; he is the second oldest of eight brothers and five sisters; he received little formal schooling, but his mother taught him to…
José Marín Zepeda was born in Sinaloa, México, but he was raised in Mexicali, Baja California, México; his father served in the bracero program; José had two siblings; his formal education extended through the fifth grade; during the 1960s, he also…
Bríjido Zaragoza Solís was born October 8, 1925, in Hidalgo, México; his parents were field workers, and he had five siblings; although he was never formally educated, his father taught him how to work in the fields and care for animals; in 1955, he…
Ismael de Jesús Villalba Carrasco was born in Oacaca, México, on August 14, 1933; his mother’s name was María Cipriana Vega, and his father’s name was Camerina Villalba Reyes; Ismael had three brothers and two sisters; he married during his early…
Eulalio Verazas Mondragón was born February 13, 1921, in Cutzamala de Pinzón, Guerrero, México; his parents worked in agriculture, and he had nine siblings; he was never formally educated; by the time he married during the early 1940s, he had already…
Estela Vélez was born November 11, 1924, in Del Rey, California; when she was five years old, her family moved to Irapuato, Guanajuato, México, which was her mother’s hometown; her family was well-off, because her mother had businesses, and her…
Salvador Velasco Patiño was born November 8, 1919, in Atengo, Jalisco, México; in 1935, his family moved to Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico due to financial difficulties with the family business; he initially came to the United States, in 1947, without…
Arturo Vargas Ríos was born July 4, 1929, in Rodeo, Durango, México; his mother, Amelia Ríos, was a housewife, and his father, Primitivo Vargas, worked in the fields; Arturo had four siblings; as a young man, he came to work in the United States…
Vidal Tafoya was born April 28, 1948, on a ranch in Tarengo, [Jalisco] México; his parents were campesinos, and he had six siblings; he was formally educated through the third grade; by the time he was eleven years old, he was already working in the…