Browse Items (366 total)

Alien Laborers Identification Card, back, for railroad track laborer Aaron Castañeda Gamez, identifying the Pennsylvania Railroad, as the contractor, 1944.

Pay stub for Aaron Castañeda Gamez, from the Southern Pacific Railroad, 1945.

Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: Faustina Flores was born on February 16, 1932, in Tapalpa, Jalisco, México; she had ten siblings; when she was nineteen, she married a man named Timoteo Flores; they had eleven children; in 1957, her husband…

Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: Gil Villagran was born in 1948, in Mexico City, México; he is the son of an ex-bracero; his father joined the bracero program in 1943; at age five, his parents migrated to the United States; he is a retired…

Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: Luis Zamudio Villagómez was born on November 4, 1938, in Moroleón, Guanajuato, México; he is one of seventeen children, though nine died at a young age; he had formal schooling until the sixth grade; at age…

Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: Matilde Gallegos was born on March 30, 1930, in Benito Juárez, Chihuahua, México; he was one of six children; at the age of twelve, he started working with his father and bother in agriculture; he received…

Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: Jesús Hernández was born on August 28, 1920, in San Felipe, Guanajuato, México; he had eight siblings, and together they grew up with their parents on a farm; at a very young age, he began helping his father…

Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: Alberto Magallón was born on April 23, 1927, in Jalisco, México; when he was five years old, he began working by helping his father on the farm; he went to school through the third grade; sometime later, while…

Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: José Ramírez Delgado was born in Sierra Mojada, Coahuila, México, but he grew up in Gómez Palacio, Durango, México; he had five sisters and four brothers; as a child, he helped his father work in the fields;…

Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: Hipólito Burrola Ruíz was born on November 25, 1936, on a ranch in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, México; he is one of fourteen children; as a child, he would help his uncles in the fields; when he was twelve years old,…

Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: Ramón Flores González was born in Juquillo, Jaliso México, on July 10, 1935; he grew up in an agricultural family with four brothers and two sisters; from age five he worked in agriculture; he joined the bracero…

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…

Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: José Ponce López was born on July 15, 1933, on ranch in the municipality of Villanueva, Zacatecas, México; he had thirteen siblings, but two died when they were only a few months old and two others died as…

Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: Ignacio Serna Gallardo was born on July 31, 1928, in La Higuera, in the municipality of Huanusco, Zacatecas, México; his father’s name was Gumaro Serna, and his mother’s name was Adelaida Gallardo; both worked…

Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: Apolonio Venegas was born on April 10, 1930, in San Román, Jalisco, México; his father’s name was Santiago Venegas, and he worked in agriculture in addition to selling goods in town to earn money; his mother’s…

Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: Cuauhtémoc Z. Madrid was born December 11, 1929, in Sonora México; he had eleven siblings; his mother was a housewife, and his father worked in copper, silver and gold mines; by the time Cuauhtémoc was eight…

Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: Elías Bonilla was born on April 1, 1934, in Tornillo, Texas; his father was originally from Chihuahua, México, and his mother was originally from Coahuila, México; he was the eldest of five children; his father…

Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: Inez Rios was born in El Paso, Texas, on April 20, 1936; she grew up on a farm near Ysleta, Texas, with her eight brothers and sisters; her father was the head foreman on the farm where they lived; braceros were…

Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: Ray Reaves was born in Missouri, but due to difficulties with his mother’s health, his family moved to Alpine, Texas, when he was an infant; his mother died when he was only four years old, and he was raised by…

Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: Raymundo Villa was born in Ysleta, Texas, on December 24, 1939; he had eight brothers and sisters; his father was the foreman on a farm near Ysleta; he initially became involved with the bracero program as an…

Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: Sam Sanchez was born on April 5, 1936, in San Elizario, Texas; he had twelve siblings, and his father was a farmer; upon graduating from high school, he joined the Marine Corps; when he finished his tour of duty…

Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: Guadalupe Mena Arizmendi was born on a ranch near Buenavista, Guerrero, México, on December 26, 1928; his family worked in agriculture, and he had little formal schooling; he married at age eighteen, and when he…

Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: Sabas Luna was born in 1939, in Tlaltenango [de Sánchez Román], Zacatecas, México; his parents were campesinos whose main crop was corn, and he was the fourth of nine children; he was formally educated through…

Biographical Synopsis of Interviewee: Benito Fierro was born on March 20, 1932, in Julimes, Chihuahua, México; he was the third of nine brothers to be born, and they all learned the agricultural trade from their father; in 1953, he became a bracero;…