The entrance of the United States into World War II created a shortage of farm laborers, as American men left to serve in the war. In the Yakima Valley and western Washington, the labor shortage was exacerbated by the incarceration of Japanese-Americans, many of whom worked on farms. The Braceros program, a series of laws and diplomatic agreements between the United States and Mexico, imported temporary contract laborers from Mexico to the United States between 1942 and 1948. Many Braceros (Spanish for "manual laborers") chose to settle in the areas they worked.
This photo shows two men wearing aprons cooking in a kitchen at a migrant camp somewhere in Washington State.
Handwritten on image: Cooks for Mexican farmhands. Handwritten on sleeve: FARMS, Mexicans.
ID Number: 1986.5.2905.2
Date: 1944
Physical Description: 1 acetate negative : b&w ; 4 x 5 in.
