Dark Borders: Film Noir and American Citizenship-THE SHAME OF THE BRACERO PROGRAM

the braceros

http://filmsnoir.net/film_noir/dark-borders-film-noir-and-american-citizenship.html

I have never thought of the immigrant experience of the 40's as the stuff of noir material and as fit for the existential and horrible paradigm that it really was and is, but I can readily imagine(and that is what I can conceive of at this present) ,as short as that comes to be , of the noir experience. The"Red Scare " hearings assume an aura of unreality and noir archetypal atmosphere, to be sure, and the Bracero program (I am unfamiliar with but presently am researching) assumes a kindred atmosphere of nihilism and void as painted by Noir film and worldview. The Cinema Journal article posted below does present an anomaly of disenfranchisement and the oxymoron of noir citizenship in this reality of a dark noir world.

Jonathan Auerbach, Professor of English at the University of Maryland and regular presenter at film noir screenings, has just published his much anticipated book on film noir, Dark Borders: Film Noir and American Citizenship, a study which connects the sense of alienation conveyed by American film noir in the 40s and 50s with the anxieties about citizenship and national belonging in mid-20th century America, by providing in-depth interpretations of more than a dozen noir movies. Professor Auerbach shows how politics and aesthetics merge in these noirs, where the fear of subversive “un-American” foes is reflected in noirs such as Double Indemnity, Out of the Past, Border Incident, Pickup on South Street, Stranger on the Third Floor, The Chase, and Ride the Pink Horse. These anxieties surfaced during a series of wartime and post war emergency measures, beginning with the anti-sedition Smith Act (1940), the Mexican migrant worker Bracero Program (1942), the domestic internment of Americans of Japanese ancestry (1942), and the HUAC hearings in 1947. Professor Auerbach, in 2008 in an issue of the scholarly Cinema Journal (47, No. 4, Summer 2008) in an article anticipating his book and titled ‘Noir Citizenship: Anthony Mann’s Border Incident’, posits an ambitious thesis about national borders and the borders of film genres: “Looking closely at how images subvert words in Anthony Mann’s generic hybrid Border Incident (1949), this article develops the concept of noir citizenship, exploring how Mexican migrant workers smuggled into the United States experience dislocation and disenfranchisement in ways that help us appreciate film noir’s relation to questions of national belonging.” The article offered a rich analysis of Border Incident, and developed a fascinating study of the sometimes antagonistic dynamic between the police procedural plot imperatives of the screenplay, and the subversive visual imagery fashioned by cinematographer John Alton. The scene in Border Incident where the undercover agent Jack, is murdered by the furrowing blades of a tractor is one of the most horrific in film noir, and Professor Auerbach rightly observes that the agent “gets ground into American soil by the monstrous machinery of US agribusiness… [this is] a purely noir moment of recognition that reveals the terrifying underbelly of the American farm industry itself in its dependence on and ruthless exploitation of Mexican labor”. The paperback is available for only US$20.48 from Amazon. A great price for a book offering an original perspective that demands the attention of anyone interested in the origins of film noir.Read more: http://filmsnoir.net/film_noir/dark-borders-film-noir-and-american-citizenship.html#ixzz1HuxMQWXU Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

The Set-Up 1949US Robert Ryan is great as washed-up boxer in Robert Wise’ sharp expose of the fight game. Brooding and intense noir classic.Read more: http://filmsnoir.net/film_noir/the-greatest-film-noir.html#ixzz1HvE6cTAP Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

63 greats of all time

The greatest films noir of all time. Ambitious and perhaps presumptuous. But without apology or regrets. I have an aversion to rankings, so my list comprises 63 films noir that I rate 5-stars listed by year of production. That’s all folks. La Nuit de Carrefour 1931France Aka ‘Night at the Crossroads’. Early Jean Renoir poetics. Magically delicious femme-noir and a brilliant car chase at night. Moody and bizarrre! You Only Live Once 1937US Fritz Lang and Hollywood kick-start poetic realism! Henry Fonda and Sylvia Sidney are the doomed lovers on the run. Hotel du Nord 1938France Poetic realist melodrama of lives at provincial French hotel. As moody as noir with a darkly absurd resolution. Port of Shadows 1938France Aka Le Quai des brumes. Fate a dank existential fog ensnares doomed lovers Jean Gabin and Michèle Morgan after one night of happiness. I Wake Up Screaming 1941US Early crooked cop psycho-noir. Redolent noir motifs, dark shadows, off-kilter framing and expressionist imagery. The Maltese Falcon 1941US Bogart as Sam Spade the quintessential noir protagonist. A loner on the edge of polite society, sorely tempted to transgress but declines and is neither saved nor redeemed. Journey Into Fear 1943US Moody Orson Welles’ noir. Exotic locales, sexy dames, weird villains, politics, wisdom, philosophy, and a wry humor. The Seventh Victim 1943US “Despair behind, and death before doth cast”. The terror of an empty existence. Brilliant Lewton gothic melodrama. Double Indemnity 1944US All the elements of the archetypal film noir are distilled into a gothic LA tale of greed, sex, and betrayal. Laura 1944US Gene Tierney is an exquisite iridescent angel and Dana Andrews a stolid cop who nails the killer after falling for a dead dame. Murder My Sweet 1944US Most noir fun you will ever have. Raymond Chandler’s prose crackles with moody noir direction from Edward Dmytryk. Mildred Pierce 1945US Joan Crawford in classy melodrama by Michael Curtiz lensed by Ernest Haller. Self-made woman escapes morass of greed. The Lost Weekend 1945US ‘Most men lead lives of quiet desperation. I can’t take quiet desperation.’ Ray Milland against type on a bender. Ride the Pink Horse 1946US Disillusioned WW2 vet arrives in a New Mexico town to blackmail a war racketeer. Imbued with a rare humanity. Scarlet Street 1946US Classic noir from Fritz Lang. Unremitting in its pessimism. A dark mood and pervading doom of devastating intensity. The Big Sleep 1946US Love’s Vengeance Lost. Darker than Dmytryk’s Murder, My Sweet. Bogart is tougher, more driven, and morally suspect. The Killers 1946US Siodmak’s classic noir. Burt Lancaster’s masterful debut performance in a tragedy of a decent man destroyed by fate. The Postman Always Rings Twice 1946US Fate ensures adulterous lovers who murder the woman’s husband, suffer definite and final retribution. Body and Soul 1947US A masterwork. Melodramatic expose of the fight game and a savage indictment of money capitalism. Garfield’s picture. Brighton Rock 1947UK Greatest British noir is dark and chilling. A cinematic tour-de-force: from the direction and cinematography to top cast and editing. Nightmare Alley 1947US Predatory femme-fatale uses greed not sex to trap her prey in a hell of hangmen at the bottom of an empty gin bottle. Nora Prentiss 1947US Doctor is plunged into a dark pool of noir angst in a turbo-charged melodrama of tortured loyalty and thwarted passion. Out of the Past 1947US Quintessential film noir. Inspired direction, exquisite expressionist cinematography, and legendary Mitchum and Greer. The Gangster 1947US Hell of a b-movie. Very dark noir ‘opera’ brutally critiques the ‘entrepreneurial spirit’. Bravado Dalton Trumbo script. The Lady From Shanghai 1947US Orson Welles’ brilliant jigsaw noir with a femme-fatale to die for and a script so sharp you relish every scene. T-Men 1947US Mann and Alton offer a visionary descent into a noir realm of dark tenements, nightclubs, mobsters, and hellish steam baths. Act of Violence 1948US Long-shot and deep focus climax filmed night-for-night on a railway platform: the stuff noirs are made of. Drunken Angel 1948Japan Aka ‘Yoidore tenshi’. Kurosawa noir. A loser doctor with soul takes on the fetid moral swamp of Yakuza degradation. Force of Evil 1948US Polonsky transcends noir in a tragic allegory on greed and family. Garfield adds signature honesty and gritty complexity . Hollow Triumph 1948US Baroque journey to perdition traversing a noir topography redolent with noir archetypes. Audacious and enthralling. Raw Deal 1948US Sublime noir from Anthony Mann and John Alton. Knockout cast in a strong story stunningly rendered as expressionist art. They Live by Night 1948US Nicholas Ray’s first feature. A tragedy of Shakespearean dimensions which transcends film noir. Too Late For Tears 1948US Preposterous chance event launches wild descent into dark avarice and eroticised violence as relentless as fate. Border Incident 1949US Subversive expressionist noir from Dir Anthony Mann DP John Alton and writer John C Higgin indicts US agribusiness. NOTE BOOK REVIEW ABOVE Criss-Cross 1949US Accomplished noir. Siodmak’s aerial opening shot into parking lot onto a passing car exposing the doomed lovers to the spotlight. Stray Dog 1949Japan Aka ‘Nora inu’. Kurosawa’s ying and yang take on reality informs this 5-star noir: the pursuer could as easily have been the pursued. The Reckless Moment 1949US Max Ophuls takes a blackmail story and infuses it with a complexity and subtlety rarely matched in film noir. The Set-Up 1949US Robert Ryan is great as washed-up boxer in Robert Wise’ sharp expose of the fight game. Brooding and intense noir classic. The Third Man 1949UK Sublime. An engaging cavalcade of characters in a human comedy of love, friendship, and the imperatives of conscience. Thieves’ Highway 1949US Moody Richard Conte hauling fruit to Frisco. Rich socio-realist melodrama from Jules Dassin and A.I. Bezzerides. AAA. Une Si Jolie Petite Plage 1949France Aka ‘Riptide’. Iron in the soul: savage irony, withering subversion, and desolation mark the rain-sodden angst of a young man’s end. White Heat 1949US Fission Noir. Taut electric thriller straps you in an emotional strait-jacket released only in the final explosive frames. Breaking Point 1950US Great John Garfield vehicle with strong social subtext. Much stronger than from the same source To Have and Have Not. Caged 1950US Eleanor Parker leads a great female cast in a dark women’s prison picture with a savage climax and a gutsy downbeat ending D.O.A. 1950US Gritty on-the-street in-your-face melodrama of innocent act a decent man’s un-doing. Edmund O’Brien is intense. The goons rock! In A Lonely Place 1950US Nick Ray deftly explores effect of isolation, frustration, and anxiety on the creative psyche as noir entrapment. Night And the City 1950US/UK Dassin’s stark existential journey played out in the dark dives of post-war London as a quintessential noir city. QUINTESSENTIAL NOIR CITY-NOTED Sunset Boulevard 1950US Wilder’s sympathetic story of four decent people each sadly complicit in the inevitable doom that will engulf them. The Asphalt Jungle 1950US Quintessential heist movie transcends melodrama and noir. A police siren wails: “Sounds like a soul in hell.” The Sound of Fury 1950US Great noir! Outdoes Lang’s Fury and brilliantly prefigures Wilder’s Ace in the Hole. Climactic mob scenes mesmerise. On Dangerous Ground 1951US City cop battling inner demons is sent to ‘Siberia’. A film of dark beauty and haunting characterisations. The Prowler 1951US Van Heflin is homme-fatale in Tumbo thriller. Director Losey is unforgiving. Each squalid act is suffocatingly framed. Ace in the Hole 1952US A savage critique of a corrupted and corrupting modern mass media. Billy Wilder’s best movie. Kirk Douglas owns it. saw it and love it as truthful Clash By Night 1952US Cheating wife Stanwyck faces the music. Fritz Lang puts sexual license and existential entitlement on trial and wins. The Big Heat 1953US Gloria Grahame as existential hero in Fritz Lang’s brooding socio-realist noir critique. Crime Wave 1954US Andre de Toth noir masterwork set on the streets of LA is so authentic it plays for real with each character deeply drawn. Kiss Me Deadly 1955US Anti-fascist Hollywood Dada. Aldrich’s surreal noir a totally weird yet compelling exploration of urban paranoia. Rififi 1955France Dassin’s classic heist thriller culminating in the terrific final scenes of a car desperately careening through Paris streets. HAVE SEEN THIS THRILLER AND IT IS AN EXCELLENT MICROCOSM OF THE AMORAL WORLD OF THE 50'S UNDERWORLD The Big Combo 1955US “I live in a maze… a strange blind backward maze’. Obsessed cop hunts down a psychotic crime boss in the best noir of 50s. Sweet Smell of Success 1957US DP James Wong Howe’s sharpest picture. As bracing as vinegar and cold as ice. Ambition stripped of all pretense. Touch of Evil 1958US Welles’ masterwork is a disconnected emotionally remote study of moral dissipation. Crisp b&w lensing by Russell Metty. Underworld USA 1961US Fast and furious pulp from Sam Fuller. Revenge finds redemption in death up a back alley the genesis of dark vengeance. A Colt is My Passport 1967Japan Aka ‘Koruto wa ore no pasupoto’. Hip acid Nikkatsu noir with surreal spaghetti-western score.Read more: http://filmsnoir.net/film_noir/the-greatest-film-noir.html#ixzz1HvEYoS6d Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

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http://www.unco.edu/cohmlp/pdfs/Bracero_Program_PowerPoint.pdf WHERE ARE THE FUNDS SAVED FOR THE BRACEROS Original Bracero Agreement Mexico and U.S. August 1943 The Bracero program was an agreement between the U.S. and Mexican governments that permitted Mexican citizens to take temporary agricultural work in the United States. Scope of Program The managed migration, an unprecedented and radical solution to America’s labor needs, was prompted by the enormous manpower shortage created by World War II. Over the program's 22-year lifespan, more than 4.5 million Mexican citizens were legally hired for work in the United States, primarily in Texas and California. Mexico Declares War On June 1, 1942, Mexico declared war on the Axis powers and immediately after the U.S. Department of State was asked to approach Mexico officially on the question of the importation of foreign labor. In providing the necessary laborers to the U.S., Mexico believed they could contribute to the Allied war effort and could benefit economically as a country. Bracero Agreement On July 1942 the Bracero Program was established by executive order. It was enacted into Public Law 78 in 1951. The agreement was expected to be a temporary effort, lasting presumably for the duration of the war. The Bracero program was not terminated until December 1, 1964-more than nineteen years after the end of World War II. Braceros worked on farms and on railroads, making it possible for the U.S. economy to meet the challenges imposed by the war effort. Mexico’s Concerns Mexico doubted that a legitimate labor scarcity existed and viewed the Bracero program as a way for the U.S. to obtain cheap labor. Mexican officials were concerned about the deportation and repatriation of Mexicans which occurred in the 1930’s and were anxious to prevent another such episode. Mexico did not want to permit their workers to be sent to discrimination prone states in the U.S. Mexico felt that there might be a danger to Mexico's economic development if many thousands of their workers left for the U.S. The Official Bracero Agreement The final version of the agreement was released on April 26, 1943. The original agreement was signed by representatives from both countries. From Mexico, Ernesto Hidalgo, representative of Foreign Affairs Ministry and Abraham J. Navas, representative of the Ministry of Labor. From the United States, Joseph F. McGurk, Counsel of the American Embassy in Mexico, John Walker, Deputy Administrator of Farm Security Administration, United States Department of Agriculture, And David Mecker, Deputy Director of War Farming Operations General Provisions (in short) Mexicans contracting in the U.S. shall not be engaged in any military service. Mexican workers shall not suffer discriminatory acts of any kind. Transportation and living expenses from the place of origin to destination, and return, as well as expenses incurred in the fulfillment of any requirements of a migratory nature shall be met by the employer. Mexican workers will be furnished without cost to them with hygienic lodgings and the medical and sanitary services enjoyed without cost to them will be identical with those furnished to the other agricultural workers in regions where they may lend their services.

General Provisions Continued The worker shall be paid in full the salary agreed upon, from which no deduction shall be made. Mexicans entering the U.S. shall not be employed to displace other workers, or for the purpose of reducing rates of pay previously established. Contracts must be written in Spanish. Wages paid to the worker shall be the same as those paid for similar work to other agricultural laborers under the same conditions within the same area. The worker shall be exclusively employed as an agricultural laborer. Work of minors under 14 years shall be strictly prohibit. General Provisions Continued For such time as they are unemployed under a period equal to 75% of the period for which the workers have been contracted they shall receive a subsistence allowance at the rate of $3.00 per day. The respective agencies of the Government of the U.S. shall be responsible of the safekeeping of the sums contributed by the Mexican workers toward the formation of their Rural Savings Fund. The Mexican government will take care of the security of the savings of the workers.

Guarantees for Mexicans Under the Agreement The agreement between the Mexican and U.S. governments guaranteed certain benefits and protections for Mexican workers, including free sanitary housing, medical treatment, bathing facilities, transportation, wages equal to those of American farm workers, and a contract written in Spanish.

Recruitment Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua, across from El Paso, Texas, became historic recruitment sites. The recruitment centers themselves became crowded with thousands of Mexicans who were unemployed and who wanted to go to the U.S. Because of the overwhelming numbers of applicants, it became very difficult to obtain permits to enter the program. In many instances a bribery system was set up. Often those who learned the ropes and who could bribe the officials were selected as braceros.

Illegal Workers Many Mexican workers who were not able to obtain permits chose to enter the U.S. illegally. The number of illegal's who entered the U.S. during the tenure of the Bracero program was equal to or surpassed the number of braceros.

Mexican Migration to the United StatesYear:Braceros:1942 4,203 1947 19,632 1952 197,100 1956 445,197 1961 291,420 1967 7,703

DEFINITION OF A BRACERO What is a Bracero? "Generally speaking, the Latin-American migratory worker going into west Texas is regarded as a necessary evil, nothing more nor less than an unavoidable adjunct to the harvest season. Judging by the treatment that has been accorded him in that section of the state, one might assume that he is not a human being at all, but a species of farm implement that comes mysteriously and spontaneously into being coincident with the maturing of cotton, that requires no upkeep or special consideration during the period of its usefulness, needs no protection from the elements, and when the crop has been harvested, vanishes into the limbo of forgotten things-until the next harvest season rolls around. He has no past, no future, only a brief and anonymous present." From Latin Americans in Texas, by Pauline R. Kibbe, The University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1948. Who were the Braceros? The majority of the braceros were experienced farm laborers. They stopped working their land and growing food for their families with the illusion that they would be able to earn a vast amount of money on the other side of the border. The braceros converted the agricultural fields of America into the most productive in the planet Push/Pull Factors for Braceros􀂆Push:􀂄Two million peasants lost their lives in the Mexican Revolution of 1910. By the late 1930’s, when the crops in Mexico began yielding insufficient harvest and employment became scarce, Mexican workers were forced to look for other means of survival.􀂄The occurrence of this grave situation in Mexico coincided with the emergence of a demand in manual labor in U.S. brought about by WW II. A PICTURE THAT I CANNOT SAVE IS IN THE FOREGROUND OF THIS SLIDE "This is one of the two rooms for a family of nine people living in San Mateo-about 20 miles south of Mexico City. The other room serves as a kitchen, work room, and storeroom. When work is available in the village, a Mexican laborer may earn about 10 pesos per day. Because of this, the wage earner of the family here wants to go to the US as a farm laborer where he may earn much more anywhere from 4 weeks to 6 months." Push/Pull Factors􀂆Pull:􀂄The Mexican government hoped the braceros would learn new agricultural skills which would benefit the development of Mexico’s own agricultural programs.􀂄The Mexican government foresaw the possibility that the braceros would earn good wages in the U.S., bring the money back to Mexico and stimulate the Mexican economy. Benefits for U.S. of Employing Mexican Nationals American workers often worked as families. This meant growers had to supply housing for the family. Mexican workers were all men and came in groups. For growers, it was easier to provide transportation and supply barracks or rooms for single men. It was also easier to transport Mexican nationals from farm to farm without any difficulty. Wages for Mexican nationals were set by growers, not in a supply and demand situation and not in collective bargaining. A PICTURE THAT I CANNOT SAVE IS IN THE FOREGROUND OF THIS SLIDE This is housing provided by a Texan farmer for 200 braceros in this long building, with the beds made out of stretched canvas, upper and lower. Such close living conditions make for high incidences of respiratory illnesses among the braceros. Short Handle Hoe During the Bracero program the short handle hoe was widely used. A regular long-handled hoe could have been used, but it was considered harmful to the plants. The short handle hoe required the user to work in a bent over position and crawl along the dusty rows of plants for ten to twelve hours a day. At the end of the shift, it was nearly impossible to stand up straight. The use of this tool in now illegal in most states, although you will still find farm workers using it specially in South Texas and in New Mexico. Discrimination in Texas Although the Bracero agreement contained stipulations with regard to health, housing, food, wages, and working hours, most were disregarded by both U.S. government and the growers. The requirement that Mexican nationals not be discriminated against was also disregarded. In the state of Texas alone, Mexicans were discriminated against to such an extent that the Mexican government forbade the use of its nationals in the fields in Texas. Racism Against the Braceros The braceros suffered all types of abuses not only from racist extremists but by the average American. Some restaurants had signs to prohibit the entrance of Mexicans. If restaurants did allow the entrance of Mexicans, they were forced to eat in the back of the kitchen. Segregation was noticeable in the theaters where Mexicans were only allowed in the upper sections designated for African Americans. American Resentment When American farm workers walked off a job to protest poor wages or working conditions, farm owners would import braceros to harvest crops, destroying the bargaining power of the American farm workers (although this use of braceros was expressly prohibited in the Bracero Program) "Wetbacks" The Mexican illegal alien has been popularly called a "wetback." The term originated from the fact that the Rio Grande forms much of the long border between the U.S. and Mexico, and many Mexican illegal aliens have crossed into the U.S. by swimming of wading the river. Many growers hired "wetbacks" rather than braceros because wetbacks were more manageable and because as illegal aliens they had absolutely no rights. The photograph shows braceros working the fields, where they would stay from sunrise to sunset. Thousands of braceros were brought in to perform stoop labor, a task that causes back injuries resulting from the constant strain of bending over all day. Medical clinics reported backache as the most common ailment among the braceros. Since no machine has been able to replace stoop labor, it continues today. End of the Program By the 60’s, an excess of "illegal" agricultural workers along with the introduction of the mechanical cotton harvester, destroyed the practicality and attractiveness of the bracero program. The braceros returned home. Unable to survive in their communities in Mexico, many continued to cross the border to work farms and ranches in the U.S. Today you will still find braceros. They continue to be one of the most exploited labor groups in the U.S. Abuses of the Program As part of their contract, braceros agreed to have ten percent of their wages withheld and placed in a fund controlled by the Mexican government. An overwhelming majority of the workers never received compensation and the whereabouts of the funds remain unknown. Many former braceros now live in dire poverty, abandoned by both governments. Effects of Program Today The Bracero program has had lasting effects on both the United States and Mexico. It helped establish in what has become a common migration pattern: Mexican citizens entering the U.S. for work, going home to Mexico for some time, and returning again to the U.S. to earn more money. Bracero Project: Recovering the History of Migrant Farm Workers The history of the braceros has long been ignored by both Mexico and the United States. Once they were no longer needed in the U.S., the Mexicans who participated in the Bracero Program had to return to their homelands without ever receiving, to this day, recognition for their valuable contributions to the U.S Bracero Project: Recovering the History of Migrant Farm Workers Once the history is recovered, then we can contribute to the recognition of the efforts made by the Mexican farm laborers in the United States. If this recognition is achieved, then the old braceros (and the future braceros) will receive dignity and maybe, compensation for their efforts. REFERENCES Works Cited: http://sunsite3.berkeley.edu/calheritage/latinos/braceros.html http://www.jsri.msu.edu/museum/pubs/MexAmHist/chapter15.html http://www.farmworkers.org/benglish.html http://www.counterpunch.org/bracero.html http://www.pacificnews.org/jinn/stories/5.16/990804-bracero.html . Insult to Injury-- Abuses of the Bracero Program Continue 35 Years Later By Jesus Martinez Date: 08-04-99 Between 1942 and 1965, the U.S. government issued some 4.5 million contracts to Mexican workers ("braceros") willing to come to the U.S. for brief periods. The program, widely criticized for failing to protect workers from abuse, seems to have added insult to injury by "losing" money that rightfully belongs to the workers. PNS commentator Jesus Martinez is an immigrant researcher and activist who was formerly a member of the Political Science Department at Santa Clara University. A new immigrant-based social movement has emerged on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border that seeks redress from both governments. The roots of the grievance stretch back more than 50 years, to 1942, when the U.S. government began the "bracero" program to fill labor shortages caused by World War II. Under this program, the government issued contracts to Mexicans willing to cross the border for temporary employment. Braceros, working on farms and on railroads, made it possible for the U.S. economy to meet the challenges imposed by the war effort. Government and employers found the program so appealing that it was extended, through various acts, until 1965, when it was terminated unilaterally, after much pressure from unions and activists concerned with the systematic exploitation of the workers. During its existence, some four and a half million contracts were issued. As part of their contract, braceros agreed to have ten percent of their wages withheld and placed in a fund controlled by the Mexican government. When they returned to Mexico, individual migrants could request that the money be returned to them. According to Ventura Gutierrez, who heads the bracero redress movement in southern California, the overwhelming majority of the workers never received compensation. Moreover, the whereabouts of the funds remain unknown. To resolve the matter, Gutierrez and other activists based in the United States and Mexico have initiated a campaign to have the Mexican government make payments to the braceros or surviving family members. Despite their contributions to the U.S. and Mexican economies, claims Gutierrez, many former braceros now live in dire poverty, abandoned by the both governments, and without even the means to claim Social Security, which was supposed to be a benefit of the program. The campaign, which started only a few months ago in Michoacan, Guanajuato, and other major bracero sending regions, has rapidly gained momentum. It has identified and enrolled tens of thousands of braceros, who have initiated individual claims for benefits promised by both governments. The movement has emerged just as the Mexican government has established a temporary labor program with the Canadian government which, like the Bracero program, does not permit the workers the right to unionize to improve wages and conditions. The movement has also arrived at a time when many in the United States are engaged in an intense campaign to create a new Bracero program. As in the past, they argue that there is a need for foreign, particularly Mexican, labor. Also as in the past, the proponents seek to create conditions of employment that will make the migrants exploitable and easy to control. Securing justice for the braceros, their children and widows, is a necessary step in the process of reconciling the histories of these two countries. It will affect many people on both sides of the border, as most contemporary Mexican immigrants are direct descendants of the braceros. Several of my uncles, my paternal grandfather, dozens of other relatives, and scores of neighbors from my hometown in Michoacan contributed with their labor to the U.S. World War II efforts. During the life of the Bracero Program, the workers were exploited by employers and often the targets of political attacks -- as we have seen in recent years. Resentment against Mexican immigration is deep, and all too often this social sector becomes the scapegoat for the structural problems caused by government and the private sector. At the very least, the Mexican government should investigate the whereabouts of the bracero fund and initiate payment to the migrants and their surviving relatives. One Mexican senator, Hector Sanchez of the opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), has agreed to introduce the issue as a bill to the Mexican Congress. In turn, the very least the U.S. government can do is to honor the promises made to the braceros. In addition to economic benefits due to the braceros or their widows, it would be appropriate for the U.S. government to recognize and celebrate the braceros' contributions. After 57 years, it is time to acknowledge the role of all social sectors in making this nation great.

http://http//www1.cuny.edu/portal_ur/content/immigrants_curriculum/7_8_pdfs/unit3_lesson2.pdf

A TEACHING UNIT ON THE BRACEROS AND THE SHAME THE UNITED STATES HAS TO BEAR

testimonial

_____________________________________________________________ My name is Jose Guadalupe Murguia. I came north to this country from my village in Zapotitlan, Jalisco in 1952. I came as a bracero after learning from my uncle, tio Raymundo, there were opportunities for earning money working in the fields. I signed my first contract as a bracero after being promised an hourly wage of 60 cents an hour and housing. My cousin also came with me on this first contract. We worked in Arizona and soon learned that the money we expected to earn disappeared in charges for food and housing. We were told we had to buy what we needed from a store at the bracero camp. Because there were times, all the money we earned went to pay for these things, I, along with others began to talk and our discontent led to a labor stoppage that involved all the braceros in the camp. The Mexican bracero representatives, Humberto Bernal, and Maria Maldonado met with us and we were able to negotiate on these issues. It resulted in the growers providing transportation for us to the local town to purchase things we needed, and our employment checks being based on what we actually earned from work. This was the only time in my life as a bracero that a labor action was taken that resulted in an improvement in our working conditions. After completing my contract, I returned to Mexico, using the money I had earned to build a small home for my mother in Zapotitlan and another on our ranch where my brother Ramon lived. I returned as a bracero to California in 1954. The first year I worked in the Salinas Valley for a lettuce company. In 1955 I worked in the lemon and orange groves in Ventura County and in the tomatoes in Yolo County. In the tomatoes we were averaging a dollar a day and when the braceros complained it was always the same. We were humiliated and told to go back to Mexico like “perros con la lengua de corvata”. I decided I could earn more money if I “jumped” my contract and worked on my own. In 1957, I did so and began working in the fields as an illegal. I went to the Mendota/Firebaugh area and began working in the cotton driving a tractor. I was being paid 85 cents an hour. http://chnm.gmu.edu/tools/surveys/914/responses/details/10095.html

http://www.bighousefilm.com/reviews/border_incident.htm

The epitomizing of a noir era in this film Roger Westcombe's review

BORDER INCIDENT (1949) Starring Ricardo Montalban, Howard da Silva, George Murphy; dir; Anthony Mann An extremely tough, powerful thriller, Border Incident is also an interesting milepost in the careers of its makers. Director Anthony Mann came of age in the late 1940s with a series of grimly violent, embattled urban crime thrillers, the best of which – Raw Deal and T-Men – cemented a timeless filmmaking partnership with cinematographer John Alton, who also shot this film. When MGM bought Border Incident mid-production, Alton followed Mann across to finish it and then stayed with the studio, going on to become Vincente Minnelli’s Director of Photography for whom he won an Oscar in 1951 with An American In Paris. Border Incident was also Mann’s last film noir before the series of Westerns he made for MGM, mostly starring Jimmy Stewart. Interestingly, the opening action scenes and Border Incident’s climactic sequence are pure Western (and bring the narrative full circle as they use the same dramatic location – the Valley of the Vultures) – with hapless individuals, dwarfed by an imposing, ancient landscape, being led into a life or death confrontation of elemental purity – good and evil, knuckles and brawn, shotguns and cunning. These framing scenes’ particular qualities are clearly delineated by the ensuing shifts of setting and action: from hand to hand, Western-style in the Valley of the Vultures, to a more coordinated, cogs-in-a-complex-machine (multi-national law enforcement) arrangement in the film's central contemporary thriller-style scenes, where modern industrial society forms the backdrop. Yet far from a typical Western’s sense of freedom, Border Incident shares with T-Men that film’s inky, submerged visual quality. These are ‘wide’ but not ‘open’ spaces, as Alton’s beautifully registered grey-toned but grim visuals make the distant horizons as closed as the American border. The constant presence of vulnerable, innocent peasants adds a piquancy to Border Incident, raising the stakes from the destiny of a mere two police agents to that of an entire underclass. The linkage to T-Men is further reinforced by some characteristic Mann/Alton camera set-ups (an over-the-shoulder, day-for-night shot looking down over a broad empty space in Border Incident is echoed in T-Men; Mrs Amboy foregrounded in half profile late in Border Incident recalls similar framing of Claire Trevor in Raw Deal). As in T-Men, likewise topped and tailed by a Federal Government, 1950s-style voice-of-authority narration (evidently shot on the same boardroom set!), long stretches of Border Incident take place indoors in incongruously luxurious settings; in T-Men these were used to portray gangland as a corporate battlefield. But Border Incident is no Tijuana T-Men. Its central scenes around the lavish ranch house conform more to standard Hollywood visions of ‘Mexico – land of extremes’ than any likely reality; certainly they are consistent with no indigenous Mexican filmmaking I’ve ever seen. (However documentary value does come through in Border Incident in unintended ways; through how little has changed [economic disparity fueling the desperation of minimum-wage workers] - and how much [unguarded chicken-wire fencing representing the 1940s U.S.-Mexico border]; by 1980’s The Border, starring Jack Nicholson, this barrier had morphed tragically into awesome concrete emplacements more reminiscent of France’s Maginot Line – and just as militaristic.) According to Alberto Dominguez’s 2000 documentary on Latin Americans’ portrayal by Hollywood, The Bronze Screen, the production of Border Incident expressed ‘subversive’ leanings by adopting a non-racist, even-handed approach to its portrayal of the two nationalities. This reflected the status of much of its crew being, so the story goes, victims of the McCarthyist black list. Yet there is an evident symbolic distinction in Border Incident between day (good/white) and night (illicit/Mex), a dualism reinforced by the prominence of New World (American) technology contrasted with the stone-age primitivism of the Old World. We see the U.S. police fleet, guided by radio, roar out in formation in bright sunshine, while south of the border swarthy peasants huddle clandestinely at night exchanging secret codes via their lapel buttons; Mexican cops arrive (ineffectually) in the dead of night in the back of a truck, etc. Driving this home, there’s no shortage of eyeball-popping ‘stupido’ Mexican caricatures among the villains. Reconciling these conflicting views of the allied nationalities is the camera. Its tendency to adopt a subjective point of view has the audience looking down ‘over’ the peasants – the Uncle Sam paternalistic viewpoint towards the needy which fit the liberalism of the time just as snugly as its anti-McCarthyism. It all makes an interesting comparison with Touch of Evil (1958): the action in both similarly hovering around the border ‘aperture’, that porous, fluid, grey area where identities blur, inhibitions (if you’re white) melt away in tantalizing marketplaces of forbidden sin, while unattainable opportunities for prosperity (if you’re Latino) seem just a step away. While Border Incident, particularly through its framing Federal government propaganda messages, ostensibly toes the line of postwar conservative prosperity, Touch of Evil, through its overt cynicism revisits these contrasts with a polar opposite agenda, underlining perhaps how much attitudes had changed in the intervening decade. There’s even a mimicking structure of bilateral ‘cooperation’ that falls short, suggesting neither era believed in Pax Americana (Welles’ American police honcho futilely sets up elite Mexican crimefighter Heston for a fall, while Montalban’s Mexican Fed watches inertly as George Murphy’s G-Man goes down quite savagely.) This latter event, a scene of immense violence – physical and psychological – is the most memorable thing about Border Incident and seers its image into viewers’ memories for decades. In his noir films Mann repeatedly staged scenes of barbaric cruelty (thankfully shot in somewhat oblique fashion), most notably Raw Deal’s flaming liquid to the face and T-Men’s suffocating steamroom murder. But numerous postwar ‘B’ films noir (Max Nosseck’s Dillinger [1945] with Lawrence Tierney's broken glass to the face; Fritz Lang’s The Big Heat [1953] in which Lee Marvin’s boiling coffee scarred Gloria Grahame’s face for life; Joseph H.Lewis’s The Big Combo [1955] where a hearing aid became an aural drill) took sadism in ‘imaginative’ new directions. What’s striking about the grouping of such scenes is their quotidian quality (echoing their precursor, Cagney’s assault-by-grapefruit in 1931’s Public Enemy). This ability to transform mundane objects into cruel torture devices suggests profound unease with everyday life; the timing of these scenes’ emergence and disappearance suggests the possible after-effects of wartime desensitization. Honorable mention must go to the highly effective music in Border Incident by Andr� Previn and the villainous turn of Howard da Silva, who is very believable as the ruthlessly exploitative ranch owner. Also excellent is the adaptable Ricardo Montalban – ‘dashing’ is not too strong a description for the young star (seen to equally sharp effect as a detective in the Detour-like Mystery Street [1950 – also shot by Alton]), who, like Dick Powell, transformed himself from a smooth dancer to an urban tough guy – notwithstanding his soft hands! *