Thread: For one bracero, settlement would've been bittersweet

For one bracero, settlement would've been bittersweet

Thousands of farmworkers have waited more than 60 years to recoup money deducted from their paychecks.

Yvette Cabrera, Columnist
The Orange County Register
ycabrera@ocregister.com

It was his hope of rectifying an injustice that fueled Jose Ezequiel Acevedo, even at the end.

No distance was too far for him to travel in his effort to help aging farm workers, known as braceros. They – he – sought money earned generations ago as part of a World War II-era program that recruited thousands of Mexicans to harvest U.S. crops and work on our country's railroads. Hundreds of braceros worked in Orange County as part of the program, which lasted until the mid-1960s.

Part of the bracero program called for 10 percent of each paycheck to be deducted and funneled into savings accounts in Mexican banks. That was supposed to encourage workers to return home. But many braceros, including those who went home, never saw the money they'd earned. And a lawsuit filed in recent years in U.S. federal court against the Mexican government has been the hope, for many, of recouping those lost wages.

Throughout the last decade, Ezequiel, a former bracero, and his wife, Belen, paid their own way and drove hundreds of miles to help other braceros in their home state of Zacatecas Mexico. They also helped aging braceros now in Orange County submit documents to the Mexican government in an effort to recoup their unpaid earnings.

He organized community meetings in local parks to raise awareness. He met with activists and politicians. And he opened his Anaheim home to these former farm workers. The task seemed impossible, but Ezequiel always gave his fellow workers the hope that one day justice would be served.

That day may be at hand – though it's come too late for Ezequiel.

Last month, a federal court judge granted preliminary approval to a class action settlement that will require the Mexican government to pay approximately $3,500 each to those workers (or their surviving family members living in the United States) who can prove with original documents that they were braceros between from 1942 through 1946.

They have until January 5, 2009 to submit original documents, such as pay stubs or contracts, to their local Mexican consulates or the Mexican embassy in Washington D.C.

But Ezequiel didn't live to see the day. Early this year, while in his back yard, he fell and hit his head. He died, April 1, due to complications from that injury.

This week, I returned to the Acevedo's modest tract home near Disneyland, and sat down to talk to Belen.

News of the settlement was bittersweet for Belen. She believes her husband would have said it was long overdue, but would have criticized it as well for failing to include those braceros who were contracted after 1946.

"He would have said this isn't fair, that if they're going to return the savings, they should return it to everyone," Belen, 67, told me in Spanish. Ezequiel was contracted as a bracero five times, from 1957 to 1959, including a stint harvesting oranges in Anaheim

Lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit said their research found evidence that the savings deductions were made only until 1946, but some activists and scholars say they lasted longer, possibly until 1950 or beyond.

"Those who worked from 1947 to 1964; what will happen to them? That's what we're arguing," Baldomero Capiz, president of the Bi-national Union of Organizations of Ex-Bracero Laborers 1942-1967, said in Spanish.

Capiz, who this week organized protests at the Mexican consulates in Santa Ana and Los Angeles, says many braceros mistrust the Mexican government, which for years disputed the braceros' claims.

The braceros, many now in their 80s and 90s, are also frustrated with the bureaucratic process.

"The community is exhausted. These braceros want action," said Capiz. "There is an urgency given their advanced age and the poverty they face…That's why we want justice now."

When I interviewed him in 2005, Ezequiel described himself as a man of faith, someone who liked to finish what he started. Today, as we await the final approval hearing on February 6 for this settlement, I can't help but question whether Ezequiel's dream will finally be realized.

The settlement of $3500 doesn't come close to compensating these braceros for the failure to return what was rightfully theirs, nor for the trials they've overcome to recoup this money. But, symbolically at least, it rights a wrong.

"Not many people know the vital role that the braceros played in maintaining the (U.S.) economy and agricultural production during war," said attorney Daniel M. Hutchinson, of the law firm Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann &Bernstein in San Francisco, one of several firms representing the plaintiffs.

"We hope that this settlement will finally bring to light those efforts and struggles over the years."

Contact the writer: For more information go to www.casobracero.com or call 1-877-436-9359. Contact the writer at ycabrera@ocregister.com or 714-796-3649.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/brac ... settlement

I really dislike it when people rewrite history.

"Not many people know the vital role that the braceros played in maintaining the (U.S.) economy and agricultural production during war,"

Rosie the Riviter(women in factories) had more to do with propping up the economy in America during the war era than braceros, since her paycheck was spent in America and not in Mexico.

My family farms didn't have braceros on them before, during or after the war and the crops were still harvested.

You know, necessity is the mother of invention and by bringing in braceros, instead of tapping American ingenuity, it actually set America back and left us using cheep farm labor instead of inventing equipment or effective harvesting methods.

Dixie

Part of the bracero program called for 10 percent of each paycheck to be deducted and funneled into savings accounts in Mexican banks. That was supposed to encourage workers to return home

Then those braceros who did not return to mexico should not be entitled to this money. Neither should their relatives living in the US. It belongs to those who returned to mexico and needs to be paid by the mexican banks who got that money.

Originally Posted by miguelina

Part of the bracero program called for 10 percent of each paycheck to be deducted and funneled into savings accounts in Mexican banks. That was supposed to encourage workers to return home

Then those braceros who did not return to mexico should not be entitled to this money. Neither should their relatives living in the US. It belongs to those who returned to mexico and needs to be paid by the mexican banks who got that money.

It's being paid by the Mexican government because years ago the Mexican government took the money from the Mexican banks to distribute it to the workers, but failed to do so.