INLAND VALLEY (California) DAILY BULLETIN

March 2, 2008

Bracero laborers seeking wages

By Stephen Wall, Staff Writer

SAN BERNARDINO - Juan Rojas considers himself lucky.

The former Mexican migrant worker saw many of his fellow field hands crumble under 120- degree temperatures while toiling decades ago in the desert.

"They just fell over and didn't get up," said Rojas, recalling co-workers who collapsed during backbreaking labor in the fields of Imperial County.

Rojas, a 71-year-old San Bernardino resident, survived the searing heat and the frigid cold as a bracero worker in the late 1950s.

About 5 million Mexican braceros (from the Spanish word for "arm") were contracted under various labor agreements between the United States and Mexico from 1942 to 1964.

Braceros worked in farms and railroads starting in World War II to relieve labor shortages that occurred when U.S. soldiers were fighting overseas.

Rojas went back to Mexico after his contract expired, but later returned to the United States. He became a legal resident and obtained work in a plastics factory and as a welder.

Recently, Rojas found out he is among the thousands of former braceros who might be entitled to long-overdue financial redress from the Mexican government.

Without the workers knowing it, 10 percent was deducted from each paycheck and deposited in a U.S. bank account.

The U.S. bank transferred the money to a bank owned by the Mexican government. The funds were supposed to be made available to the workers when they returned to Mexico after their contracts expired.

But it never happened.

Several years ago, an effort was launched to help the braceros recover their lost earnings.

Last year, nearly 30,000 braceros living in Mexico each received a cash payment of about $3,700.

The money was not reimbursement for the 10 percent that was taken out of their checks, but rather an "assistance" payment worked out under an agreement between the Mexican Congress and former President Vicente Fox.

But only 28 braceros in the United States - including nine in San Bernardino and Riverside counties - got paid, said Ramon Vera, coordinator of an alliance to help former braceros in the region.

Vera works for Libreria Del Pueblo, a nonprofit immigrant- assistance organization in San Bernardino.

An estimated 400,000 former braceros in both countries were left out when the initial money was dispersed.

They did not qualify because they did not present the necessary documents to the Mexican government proving their participation in the bracero program.

Hundreds of braceros in San Bernardino and Riverside counties - including Rojas - are included in this group.

Vera and other bracero advocates are pressing Mexican officials to give the workers and their descendants another opportunity to put their names on a list to be compensated.

Vera said he hopes the Mexican government reopens the registration period sometime this month.

Braceros and their advocates also plan to send a letter to Mexican President Felipe Calderon, urging him to allow braceros to sign up to be compensated at consulates in the United States.

The workers previously have had to travel to Mexicali, a border city about 170 miles from San Bernardino, to register.

Carlos Giralt Cabrales, Mexico's consul for San Bernardino and Riverside counties, said he didn't have any new information on the situation and couldn't comment on the lawsuits.

Officials in Mexico's Ministry of the Interior have said the registration period is closed and is unlikely to reopen.

That's not good news for Socorro Gomez, whose late husband, Manuel Aceves, worked as a bracero in the late 1950s.

Gomez, who has diabetes, said she desperately needs the money to pay her medical bills.

"They worked so hard and suffered so much," Gomez, a 64-year-old Highland resident, said in Spanish. "We want justice."