The Bracero History Archive: Collaborative Documentation in the Digital Age

FAIN: PM-50062-07

George Mason University (Fairfax, VA 22030-4444)
Roy Rosenzweig (Project Director: July 2006 to October 2007)
Jack R. Censer (Project Director: October 2007 to October 2007)
Tom Scheinfeldt (Project Director: October 2007 to September 2010)

The development of a collaborative, bilingual, online archive documenting the Bracero Program, which brought Mexican guest workers to the United States between 1942 and 1964.

The Bracero Program, which brought millions of Mexican guest workers to the United States, ended more than four decades ago. Current debates about immigration policy - including discussions about a new guest worker program - have put the program back in the news and made it all the more important to understand this chapter of American history. Yet while top U.S. and Mexican officials re-examine the Bracero Program as a possible model, most Americans know very little about the program, the nation's largest guest worker scheme. Indeed, until very recently, this important story has been inadequately documented and studied, even by scholars. The goals of this project are: To create a collaborative, online standards-based clearinghouse for dispersed collections relating to the history of the Bracero Program that will include more than 4,200 items; and to tdevelop and disseminate a new model for collaborative documentation and access to dispersed subject-based collections.