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| The very popular propaganda poster used during WWII to encourage women to join the workforce. |
I recently
selected my topic for a Junior Theme, a research project addressing current
social issues within American society. I chose to research on illegal
immigration and how it affects the American agricultural industry. My research
was based off of the book, "Inside the
State: The Bracero Program, Immigration, and the I.N.S. (After the Law)"
by Kitty Calavita. This book explored interesting theories on why the use of
Mexican illegal immigrants in the food industry began.
“The following
year, with the attack on Pearl Harbor and the entry of the United States into
World War II, the official attitude towards Mexican contract labor changed
abruptly” (19)
One of these theories that Calavita provided was that Bracero Program,
an agricultural guest worker program for Mexican citizens, was created to fill
the labor gap that was left from WWII. I found this very interesting and it
reminded me of the Geraldine Doyle "We can do it!" posters. It was
interesting that both events helped fill the labor gap and that both events
drastically changed the face of the American work force, however only one is
heavily publicized and taught in schools.
Before beginning this research
project I didn't have the slightest the idea about what the Bracero Program was
and I barely knew anything about the ongoing illegal immigration debate in our
country. I knew plenty about the women that filled the labor gap during WWII.
The information that the textbook and our society likes to include says a lot
about our ideas about different topics. For example, by barely acknowledging
the role Mexican immigration has had on our food industry we are trying to hide
that ugly picture and still credit American farmers for work that is mainly
done by Mexican immigrants. It is rather ironic that many Americans feel so opposed to illegal immigrants and Mexican immigration as a whole when most do not know of the impact that they have on our food industry and our everyday lives.
Why do you think that the topic of Mexican immigration and the Bracero Program is so rarely taught or talked about in schools?
Could it be because public schools are trying to blanket over the information that they feed to students, so they give enough to teach them the bare minimum but not too much so that any become offended? Imagine if a second grade teacher begun talking to his/her class about illegal immigration and one of the students announced that their family is illegally living in the United States. What would they do then? Is it easier to just avoid the topic in schools altogether?
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