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  • <p>U.S. attitudes pertaining to foreign contract workers have changed several times over the history of the country. During colonial times and the early days of the Republic indentures (a contract to work for a specific time in exchange for transportation expenses) were fairly common. By 1800 indentured servitude had declined significantly in the U.S. By mid 19th century contract labor increased in popularity as the demand for workers in mining, canal and railroad construction increased.</p> <p>In 1884 the United States Congress moved to prohibit the importation of foreign contract labor. In this report from the House of Representatives Committee on Labor, Congressman Foran lays out the reason that the committee recommended the passage of the prohibition, including the idea that foreign contract laborers had no stake in American institutions and that they would accept wages far below the prevailing rate for American workers. The final prohibition was signed into law in 1885. The Bracero Program, which began in 1942, marked a return to contract labor, because it arranged for Mexican workers to temporarily enter the U.S. for work.</p>

    Report Recommending the passage of a bill to Prohibit the Importation of Foreign Contract Labor

  • Around 1970 the United Farm Workers' Union theater group, El Teatro Campesino, recorded a song about the short-handled hoe called "Corrido del Cortito," which translates literally as "song of the short one." It was also known as the Ballad of the Short-handled Hoe. The song tells of a laborer who worked in the beet and lettuce fields and eventually had debilitating back pain.

    El Corrido del Cortito, or "The Ballad of the Short-Handled Hoe"

  • <p>This bell was used to call workers to lunch and dinner at a bracero labor camp. by keeping a large supply of guestworkers on hand growers were able to depress wages and suppress labor activity among U.S. workers.</p> <p>While Braceros had many contractual guarantees, they often found actual conditions deplorable. Many workers complained about meals. Workers cited poor nutrition, limited portion sizes, rancid food, overpopulation at the camps, and exceptionally long-lines for food-access.</p>

    Bracero Life: Dinner Bell

  • This hat, worn by Savas Castro in the 1940s, is typical of those worn by agricultural workers in the fields of the southwest. Its wide brim protects workers from the intensity of the sun during their long hours in the fields.

    Farm Laborer's Hat

  • This specialized knife was used by Filipino agricultural workers to harvest asparagus near Stockton, California. The long blade allowed workers to get through the earth mounds in which the asparagus are grown.

    Agricultural tool: asparagus knife

  • This knife was used to harvest lettuce, cabbage, and cauliflower by agricultural worker Marcos Ruiz. Called stoop labor, the work resulted in debilitating injuries for many agricultural laborers. Another farm worker, Mena Guadalupe, described stoop labor: "Here in California, They did not let us straighten up at all during the day... they did not let us straighten up. I tell you, it's like [we were] slaves."

    Agricultural tool: lettuce knife

  • Agricultural worker Isaias Sanchez used this long, hooked knife with a leather hand guard in the date palm orchards of Indio, California.

    Agricultural tool: knife

  • This hatchet was used around 1963 by agricultural worker Isaias Sanchez to trim date palms in Indio, California.

    Agricultural tool: hatchet

  • <p>Workers cultivate a field using short-handled hoes near Salinas, California. The short-handled hoe was used for a wide-range of different crops, including bell peppers, lettuce, squash, strawberries, sugar beets, and others. Many growers believed short-handled hoes made workers more careful and kept crops from being damaged. The bosses also liked the short-handled hoe because they could tell at a glance whether the farm laborers were working or resting.</p> <p>Workers despised the short-handled hoe because it forced them to bend over to work. One bracero, or Mexican guestworker, called the hoe an "instrument of horror . . . designed by the devil." The use of the short-handled hoe was mostly found in California. In 1972 the California Rural Legal Assistance organization waged a battle to ban the hoe.</p>

    Stoop Labor in Salinas, California

  • Can you describe what it would have been like to be in the field, holding the short-handled hoe in your hand?

  • Farm labor is dirty back breaking work. Mostly in California, farm labor was made even tougher by growers insistence that workers us a short handled-hoe rather than the typical hoe with a four to five foot long handle. Using the short-handled hoe meant that workers had to stoop over all day long.

    Farmworker with a short-handled hoe

  • What is the significance of the short-handled hoe and how did people use it?

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