ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS

December 27, 2005

Pay for braceros buried in red tape

Farmworkers seek wages earned from 1940s through '60s

By Rosa Ramirez, Rocky Mountain News

After waiting for more than 60 years, thousands of Mexican migrant farmworkers who toiled in the U.S. as part of the Bracero Program may have a glimmer of hope at reclaiming lost wages.

At least 2 million Mexican nationals worked throughout the U.S. in agricultural fields and along the country's railroad corridors between 1942 and 1964. They initially helped fill manual labor demands during World War II.

Estimates differ on how many braceros, or manual laborers, are still waiting to receive some of the money they earned. Earlier this month, the Mexican government offered to pay back workers who are able to prove they worked for the four years between 1942 and 1946.

Mexican officials estimate the number of those workers at nearly 9,000, but migrant farmworker advocates say the number may swell to as many as 40,000. Earlier this year, Mexico officials said that 100,000 braceros registered to receive money, but many have failed to provide the necessary documents, and others did not work in the U.S. during those four years.

To many of those waiting to collect unpaid wages from the Mexican government, the issue is as much about pride as it is about money.

"It's not that much money anymore, but I just want him to be able to get what he put in nearly 60 years ago, (or) his efforts will be in someone else's hand," said Gabriel Orozco, of Denver, who hopes to help his father collect money that he earned while picking oranges in California.

"I'm not going to let that happen to my father."

Like many braceros, Orozco's father, Valentin Gutierrez, had 10 percent of his wages deducted by his U.S. employer for a retirement pension-type fund.

The deducted money was to be kept in a U.S. bank and transferred to a Mexican bank. But the Mexican bank has said it doesn't have any record of that money.

Orozco and his father vocalized what many braceros have said in the past: They believe a corrupt Mexican government pocketed the money.

Pat Medige, of the Colorado Legal Service Migrant Worker Division, has received many calls from braceros and their families who want to know how to collect.

"There are a whole lot of hoops. Farmworkers are getting short- changed," Medige said.

In late October, the Mexican Congress announced that former braceros born before 1925 had until the end of November to submit original documents, such as individual contract or paycheck stubs, to show that they had worked under the program, to receive a one-time payment of $3,500.

They must have been previously registered with the Secretaria de Gobernacion, the Mexican secretariat.

For some braceros, the deadline to submit their paperwork has already passed. Others have until March.

Spouses and children of braceros who have died are eligible to collect the money.

Gutierrez said he is in the habit of saving all documents, receipts and paperwork and has been able to find his paychecks back to 1942.

But he wonders what will happen to "all the people who didn't save their pay stubs."

Many of the braceros said they went above and beyond the requirements of the job to help this country.

"I was contracted by the U.S. government to pick up the crops," Gutierrez said in Spanish during a phone interview. "I worked eight hours a day at 90 cents an hour. When there was a lot of work, I'd work overtime."

He picked peas, oranges, tomatoes and lemons in Santa Barbara, Calif., and sometimes helped to pack the produce.

"I'd do whatever they asked me to do," Gutierrez said.

After completing his contract in 1948, he returned to his native Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, where he opened a small barbershop.

His son, Orozco, is not optimistic that the Mexican government will deliver on its promise, but he is determined to try to make the most of the system.

"Everybody should be awarded the money that rightly belongs to them," he said.