1347
Interview in Spanish.
Summary of Interview
Mr. Hernández talks about his family and how much he suffered growing up; he initially learned about the bracero program through the radio; in 1950, he and a friend went to Chihuahua, México to earn money picking cotton; from there they went to the contracting center in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, México, which was situated in an abandoned racetrack; among the thousands waiting, they found some friends that were already on a list of workers; two men from the list were missing and they easily took their place; Alejandro describes crossing into El Paso, Texas, where he was stripped, examined and deloused; from there he was transported in trailers used for animals to Las Cruces, New Mexico; as a bracero, he labored in the alfalfa and cotton fields of Las Cruces, cleaning, pruning, watering and picking for ten years; he goes on to detail housing, accommodations, living conditions, duties, routines, payments, deductions, remittances, treatment, contract lengths and renewals, friendships, working relationships and recreational activities, including trips into town; in addition, he recounts several anecdotes about his experiences; moreover, he talks about the woman he met in El Paso, Texas and visited every week until they finally married in 1954; they had three boys while he was a bracero, and later they had two more boys and three girls, eight children in total.