The Michoacan braceros migration experience through their cultural matrix

Abstract

By using life stories, this study aims to reconstruct the migration experience of a purépecha, a ranchero, and an ejidatario, from the state of Michoacán, during the course of the Bracero Program (1942-1964). We emphasize the relationship between the cultural matrix that defines their communities of origin and their migration to the United States. Each one of this cultural matrices entails a specific geographical location, and therefore a particular culture and labor affiliation, which in many ways determined the migration experience of the braceros, interviewed for this research.