10 Milestones in the Immigration of Latin Americans

The U.S. government's Bracero Program allows more than 4.5 million Mexican nationals to work in the United States from 1942 to 1964. — Leonard Nadel/Courtesy Smithsonian Institution, NMAH, History of Technology Collections

1942-1964

The U.S. government's Bracero Program (named for the Spanish term for "manual laborer") allows more than 4.5 million Mexican nationals to come to the United States for temporary agricultural work, setting the stage for economic dependency and a pattern of repetitive migration.

See also: The Graying of Hispanic Americans.

The program begins with the importation of a thousand experienced Mexican agricultural laborers to grow and harvest sugar at mills in and around Stockton, Calif, and later expands to other parts of the United States.

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