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 image shows a group of Braceros who came to Skagit County to harvest peas and hay. They are operating machines to shell and box peas.

Caption information source: “Mexicans Saving Hay, Pea Crops in State,” by RB Bermann, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 11, 1943, pages 17 and 22.