Abandoning Their Beloved Land offers an essential new history of the Bracero Program, a bilateral initiative that allowed Mexican men to work in the United States as seasonal contract farmworkers from 1942 to 1964. Using national and local archives in Mexico, historian Alberto Garcia uncovers previously unexamined political factors that shaped the direction of the program, including how officials administered the bracero selection process and what motivated campesinos from central states to migrate. Notably, Garcia's book reveals how and why the Mexican government's delegation of Bracero Program-related responsibilities, the powerful influence of conservative Catholic opposition groups in central Mexico, and the failures of the revolution's agrarian reform all profoundly influenced the program's administration and individuals' decisions to migrate as braceros.

About the Author
Alberto Garcia is Assistant Professor of History at San Jose State University.

Reviews
"Abandoning Their Beloved Land adds a much-needed Mexican perspective on a program that encompassed thousands of lives in different political spheres and localities for over two decades." * H-Migration *
"A major contribution to the literature on Chicana/o and ethnic studies, this volume will be invaluable for future research and scholarship on this critical subject." * CHOICE *
"Meticulously researched, Abandoning Their Beloved Land provides an engaging narrative that makes this book accessible to non-academics, undergraduates, and graduate students alike." * Journal of Arizona History *
"Garcia's research adds an important new dimension to an already rich historiography of Mexican state formation and its relationship to popular peasant politics at the local level." * American Historical Review *



Book Information
ISBN 9780520390225
Author Alberto Garcia
Format Hardback
Page Count 260
Imprint University of California Press
Publisher University of California Press
Weight(grams) 454g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 20mm