bracero

noun

bra·​ce·​ro brä-ˈser-(ˌ)ō 

-ˈse-(ˌ)rō

plural braceros

: a Mexican laborer admitted to the U.S. especially for seasonal contract labor in agriculture

Examples of bracero in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

My paternal grandfather worked as a bracero during the 1950s in an orchard that was eventually cleared to become a factory where one set of cousins worked during the 1980s, then torn down for luxury condos where another set of cousins lived last decade. —Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 18 Dec. 2024

But, in reality, braceros often spent as much as 14 hours a day stooping to pick crops and lived in abysmal conditions. —Livia Gershon, JSTOR Daily, 30 Nov. 2024

Following the deportation sweeps of 1954, according to UCLA history professor Kelly Hernandez, border patrol officers pressed farmers, particularly in south Texas, to stop hiring undocumented workers and instead avail themselves of the bracero program. —Jessica Garrison, Los Angeles Times, 25 Nov. 2024

The American version emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, and got a boost from the bracero migrant worker program of the 1940s through the 1960s. —Morgan Haefner, Quartz, 15 Aug. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Spanish, laborer, from brazo arm, from Latin bracchium

First Known Use

1920, in the meaning defined above