Anacleto Morales Franco

Title

Anacleto Morales Franco

Description

Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: Anacleto Morales was born on July 13, 1934, in Durango, Durango, México; he grew up in Morcillo, Durango, México; he was the oldest of four brothers; at the age of eight, he started working in the fields to help his family; when he was seventeen years old, he loaded trucks during the construction of a dam; he worked as a bracero from 1955 to 1964 in California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas; his jobs included gathering cantaloupes, cotton, cucumbers, grapefruits, lettuce, onions, oranges, and tomatoes.


Summary of Interview: Mr. Morales worked as a bracero from 1955 to 1964 in California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas; he recalls how he got his first bracero contract in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, México, and what the hiring process was like; furthermore, he states how much braceros had to pay to get a good spot in line outside of the contracting center, what it was like to go through the center, and the medical tests he was given; he describes his trip via cargo train to the border and his time at Rio Vista, a processing center in Socorro, Texas; additionally, he discusses the different jobs he performed, the wages of those jobs, and how braceros were treated by foremen; he details the varying lengths of his contracts, his pay, and how he sent money to México; moreover, he remembers the places where they lived, the food they cooked, and what they did in the weekends; he also recounts a time when he got sick and was hospitalized in El Paso, Texas for twelve days; towards the end of the interview, he expresses his pride in having been a bracero and his opinion that the bracero program should be established again.

Creator

Martínez, Laureano
Morales Franco, Anacleto

Date

2003-03-18

Subject

Bracero

Rights

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

Language

spa

title (Spanish)

Anacleto Morales Franco

creator (Spanish)

Martínez, Laureano

Rights Holder

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

Online Submission

No

Original Format

Mini Disc

Duration

1:32:26

Bit Rate/Frequency

24 bit
96 k

Interviewer

Martínez Laureano

Interviewee

Morales Franco, Anacleto

Location

Durango, Durango, México

File Name Identifier

Morales_Franco_DGO024

Citation

Martínez, Laureano and Morales Franco, Anacleto, “Anacleto Morales Franco,” Bracero History Archive, accessed November 1, 2024, https://braceroarchive.org/es/items/show/190.