The Bracero Program

The group research project was more difficult than anticipated. The reason for that was because my group members and I had such different schedules that it was hard to find a time where we could all meet up. Though it was difficult I enjoyed it very much because of all the additional things that I learned about the Bracero Program and the new things that I learned about the Visa Program and specifically the H-2A program. There were many informative sites which made finding information on the topic less difficult, which was a benefit since we could not meet up as much and work together. When it came to problems the only thing that really came up for the group was just being together which was quickly resolved after a while. The first thing that was thought of when we were talking
about what to research was the Visa program. We wanted to talk about the whole Visa program compared to the Bracero Program. When looking into that we realized that the topic would be to wide and very vague because of the many Visa programs that there are. What we ended up doing is looking deeper into the Visa program and chose the H-2A. The reason for that was because it related to agriculture workers, the visa allowed workers to come work when there was a shortage of American workers that did not want to work in that certain area of job.
A reason that I personally liked the idea of talking about H-2A Visa compared to the others is because there are many people in the Yakima Valley that have it. Agriculture is big in Washington so speaking about this Visa would be nice because it would give the class an idea of the type of Visa that these workers use. When we found what this visa was we could tie it to the Bracero program because they were similar in a way. We thought of it as the bracero program with a different name. The group expected to learn a lot about these programs because we knew that there was an abundant of information that could be found online. I especially thought that I would learn a lot when it came to the H-2A program because I knew nothing specifically about it before. I had an idea that many of the people that had the H-2A came from Mexico but when I looked at the numbers it was crazy to see that it was over 90 percent of Mexican people. visa came from Mexico The Bracero program and the H-2A program had similar faults from what I learned. I would have thought that by now the people who come and work
for the agriculture business would get respect because most of these jobs are not easy, that is why there are not many U.S. workers. Learning things like this made me realize a lot, that companies take advantage of there workers because they do not have papers. I knew that things like this were happening however I did not know that they were still this bad. The information that we wanted to deliver to the class were the points that you and the class gave us the day we talked about what we we were going to present, and that helped shape a lot of our presentation. There were many great points that were recommended like public perception of the two, where the people from these program come, and why do we need programs like this. There were many strategies that my group and I employed. Even though it was hard for all of us to meet up we still managed to get a great amount of information individually and bring it together. There were many blogs, news articles, and government websites that had information on both of these programs. When I was looking at the steps that were needed to register for these programs it wasn’t as difficult, the reason for that was because the H-2A had its own website with all the information. Then there were the slides that I took notes on from class that helped with what was looked at to be accepted in the Bracero program. I know that Claire checked out a book of yours where there was information about where the people in the Bracero Program came from which we utilized. Then Izet interviewed talked to her mom because there were people in her family that were part of the Bracero Program, they talked about what they went through. The main resource that we utilized was the internet. There is so much information about these to programs online and story’s. The videos online also helped, hearing people’s stories about the Bracero program and what they went through gave us a lot of information. The amount of information that we found gave us a lot to put in our presentation. The thing that I would change about the presentation when it came to myself is inform the audience more about some of the smaller things that I had found. For example, the lawsuit that was filed against the company in Yakima. I felt like I could have elaborated more than I did. There was more information online on this case on other websites that I could have mentioned when I was up there. The only issue like I have mentioned before was that we had such different schedules that it was hard for us to meet up. We only got to meet up three times in person because either someone was working, had class, or had to study for an exam. The way that we resolved this problem was by video chatting. That helped us tremendously because we were able to structure the presentation and PowerPoint that way. With the guidance of the class on what should be shown in the presentation it helped direct us direct the presentation into what we believed wanted to be heard. I very much enjoyed doing this research project because of all the new things that I learned not only from my presentation but by the others that were given in class. I believe that everyone collaborated equally even though we were not together working on a lot of the project. We managed to split up the slides evenly, I believe that everyone did sufficient work. When it came to speaking in the presentation we decided that the slides that we each worked on were the ones that we would talk about in class. I learned a lot when it came to the presentation. There was much to learn about both of these programs. I am glad that my group and I decided to choose this research topic it made me realize a lot about how these workers are still being taken advantage of today and how the people were chosen for both of these programs. I am glad that our only problem was not being able to meet up as much instead of something bigger like miscommunication because we were able to surpass that easily by video chatting. The only thing I regret is not saying more on certain things that I mentioned in the presentation but other than that I was pleased with how we managed to make things work and put the presentation together.