The year was 1942, the United States of America and Mexico had finally came to an agreement of the Emergency Labor program, which became known as the Bracero Program. (Acuña, 2011, p. 253) The Bracero Program was a reference to the mighty arms , which were also known as “brazos”, of the Mexican men who worked in the labor fields throughout the west and southwest of the United States. This program has allowed U.S. industries, mostly agricultural, to temporarily employ hundreds of thousands of Mexican Workers during wartime labor shortages. (Hendrickson, 2016,p.192) During the Years of this program, the bracero works had made 12 to 28% of the Californian seasonal hired labor force. (Hendrickson, 2016, p. 201) According to Acuña the contract
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192) This statement was said years before the bracero program had started, showing that the catholic religion should not agree to treating men as just a workhorse but as humans with families. Many Mexican and Mexican American Catholics in the United States have said what many leaders in the church have called the “Mexican problem”. Most had said that this problem was by religious illiteracy of Mexican-origin catholics and by the feat that a lack of catholic priests, religious instruction and regular mass would cause them to lose them to protestant proselytism.(Hendrickson, 2016, p. 196) The catholic church had started to shift their focus onto the Bracero Program. Robert E. Lucey who was a young priest from California was the head of the Catholic Charities Bureau , had became an important interpreter of the catholic social teaching. Robert Lucey had also became a huge contributor to the social justice for migrants and spanish speaking catholics. Robert Lucey had insisted that not only were these workers in need of religious needs but also he had found that these workers and their families had not been getting the correct income, the mortality rate increased, inclusion in labor unions and their access to health care …show more content…
The catholic church had its main focus to keep their religious teachings going was to improve conditions for the workers, to do this they put an emphasis on forming unions. After attending a conference in 1948 sponsored by Bishops’ Committee for the Spanish- Speaking , otherwise known as BCSS, four young priest dedicated their time to serving spanish speaking catholic farmworkers. This group of young priests were called “The Mission Band”, they organised community centers, celebrated masses, led catholic education for workers families and were more than any other Catholic organization advocating for unionization. The Mission Band had came into contact with the organizers of a union called “National Farm Labor Union. This union worked closely with the priests of the Mission Band, especially when they were well versed in the catholic teaching that concerned the rights of the workers.(Hendrickson, 2016, p. 202) This band had certain criteria that they demanded of any workers organization before the priests would help. They required that the organization base its program on human dignity before anything else, recognizing the right to private property, and to have an emphasis on cooperation between management and
192) This statement was said years before the bracero program had started, showing that the catholic religion should not agree to treating men as just a workhorse but as humans with families. Many Mexican and Mexican American Catholics in the United States have said what many leaders in the church have called the “Mexican problem”. Most had said that this problem was by religious illiteracy of Mexican-origin catholics and by the feat that a lack of catholic priests, religious instruction and regular mass would cause them to lose them to protestant proselytism.(Hendrickson, 2016, p. 196) The catholic church had started to shift their focus onto the Bracero Program. Robert E. Lucey who was a young priest from California was the head of the Catholic Charities Bureau , had became an important interpreter of the catholic social teaching. Robert Lucey had also became a huge contributor to the social justice for migrants and spanish speaking catholics. Robert Lucey had insisted that not only were these workers in need of religious needs but also he had found that these workers and their families had not been getting the correct income, the mortality rate increased, inclusion in labor unions and their access to health care …show more content…
The catholic church had its main focus to keep their religious teachings going was to improve conditions for the workers, to do this they put an emphasis on forming unions. After attending a conference in 1948 sponsored by Bishops’ Committee for the Spanish- Speaking , otherwise known as BCSS, four young priest dedicated their time to serving spanish speaking catholic farmworkers. This group of young priests were called “The Mission Band”, they organised community centers, celebrated masses, led catholic education for workers families and were more than any other Catholic organization advocating for unionization. The Mission Band had came into contact with the organizers of a union called “National Farm Labor Union. This union worked closely with the priests of the Mission Band, especially when they were well versed in the catholic teaching that concerned the rights of the workers.(Hendrickson, 2016, p. 202) This band had certain criteria that they demanded of any workers organization before the priests would help. They required that the organization base its program on human dignity before anything else, recognizing the right to private property, and to have an emphasis on cooperation between management and