Thom E. Beasley

Thom E. Beasley

Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: Thom E. Beasley was born in 1949, in East Central Arkansas, between Hughes and Forrest City, Arkansas; his grandfather, father and uncle owned a farming partnership by the name of CJ Beasley and Sons; they had roughly five thousand acres of land, one thousand five hundred of which were dedicated to cotton alone; they hired workers throughout the duration of the bracero program.

Summary of Interview: Mr. Beasley talks about his family as well as the farming partnership owned by his grandfather, father and uncle, by the name of CJ Beasley and Sons; although the bracero program began before Thom was born, he remembers braceros being around as he was growing up, until the program ended in 1964; the braceros came to the farm headquarters, and from there they were taken to tenant houses in school buses; they slept in bunk beds and were supplied with mattresses, blankets, cooking and heating stoves and propane; although there was no indoor plumbing, they did have outhouses; moreover, they stayed in the same places the year-round employees did; oftentimes, the same braceros were hired; Thom recalls that one of their biggest complaints was about the water, because it gave them gas due to the high levels of calcium and iron; if they were ever sick, they were taken to the doctor in town; the braceros’ daily routine consisted of making and eating breakfast very early, and then picking in the fields until 11:00 AM, at which point they made lunch and took a siesta until about 2:30 PM, before returning to pick until dark; there were never any problems with their siesta, because they prepared their food from scratch and still managed to out produce everyone else; braceros often picked an average of five hundred pounds of cotton per day; some picked up to seven hundred pounds; Thom repeatedly mentions how amazed and impressed they all were at the braceros’ work ethic; he also mentions a curious incident in which a few years after the program ended, he found a field of marijuana growing behind the tenant houses where the braceros had lived.

Melaney Bowman

2008-09-26

Farmer

Institute of Oral History, University of Texas at El Paso

English

Thom E. Beasley

Melany Bowman

Institute of Oral History, University of Texas at El Paso

No

Thom E. Beasley

Melaney Bowman

2008-09-28

Institute of Oral History, University of Texas at El Paso

English

Digital, WAV, MP3

1:00:44

24 k/ 96 bit

Melany Bowman

Thom E. Beasley

Jonesboro, Arkansas

Beasley_ARK04