Graduation Date
1-2009
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department or Program
Graduate Humanities
First Reader
Martin Anderson, PhD
Second Reader
Christian Dean, PhD
Abstract
This thesis explores America’s treatment of the Mexican worker in the United States between 1942 and 1964, the years in which an international guest worker agreement between the United States and Mexico informally known as the Bracero Program was in place, and one in which heightened fears of illegal immigration resulted in Operation Wetback, one of the largest deportation programs in U.S. history. The Mexican worker’s experience during the bracero era brings to light core traits of American national identity, such as xenophobia and ethnocentrism, that today obstruct the United States’ ability to resolve its currently conflicted relationship with the Mexican worker.
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