bracero

[bruh-sair-oh, brah-, brah-se-raw]

noun

plural

braceros 

1. a Mexican laborer admitted legally into the U.S. for a short period to perform seasonal, usually agricultural, labor.

Word History and Origins

Origin of bracero¹

First recorded in 1915–20; from Spanish: “laborer,” literally, “one who swings his arms,” equivalent to brazo “arm” + -ero; brace, -ary

Example Sentences

Her father, a butcher by trade, emigrated and found work as a bracero picking crops in fields up and down the West Coast.

From Los Angeles Times

Not long after, the U.S. implemented the bracero program in 1942 in which the U.S. allowed millions of Mexican citizens to work in the country to address labor shortages during World War II.

From Los Angeles Times

The country was facing a dire farmworker shortage because the bracero program, which provided cheap legal labor from Mexico for decades, had ended the year before.

From Los Angeles Times

These are not akin to the crude barracks used to house the Mexican guest workers known as braceros decades ago, nor are they the broken-down trailers associated with abuses of the H-2A program.

From Los Angeles Times

His father, Leonardo, came to the U.S. in the 1960s from La Noria, Durango, along with four brothers to work as braceros and dishwashers before opening a chain of nightclubs that bear Leonardo’s name.

From Los Angeles Times