"Sugar Beets Not So Sweet" : Mexican and Puerto Rican Migration to Michigan, Racialization, and Labor Rights; 1942-1951

This presentation will aim to historically demonstrate the ways in which Mexican and Puerto Rican migrant agricultural laborers were intertwined in complex and layered processes of racialization in Michigan's sugar beet... [ view full abstract ]

This presentation will aim to historically demonstrate the ways in which Mexican and Puerto Rican migrant agricultural laborers were intertwined in complex and layered processes of racialization in Michigan's sugar beet fields. Between 1942-1964 the United States engaged in state sanctioned guest worker programs with Mexico and Puerto Rico, the Bracero Program and Operation Bootstrap, respectively. The majority of Mexican laborers were sent to Texas' and California’s agricultural fields, while Puerto Rican migrant workers were predominantly sent to New York and other urban areas along the East Coast. In a few select places within the Midwest, significant numbers of Mexican and Puerto Rican workers crossed paths with each other. While this convergence is typically interpreted as a uniquely urban occurrence, specifically in Chicago, Michigan’s agricultural fields was another one of these locations. This project will examine agricultural workers in Michigan from 1942-1951. This location and time period offers a unique opportunity to relationally analyze the ways in which the experiences of Mexicans and Puerto Ricans converged in the Michigan fields. This presentation will argue that in these fields, Mexican and Puerto Rican migrant laborers were racialized by growers as a single homogenous group of exploitable low-wage laborers, regardless of their varying citizenship statuses. Moreover, while Mexican and Puerto Rican workers certainly cultivated relationships with each other, this presentation will also attempt to rebuke any uncomplicated narrative of harmonious unity between Mexican and Puerto Rican agricultural workers. The limits that existed in these relationships became particularly exposed during their pursuits of improved labor conditions, where Mexican and Puerto Rican laborers had different avenues available to challenge their conditions in the fields, specifically Puerto Rican workers' ability to rhetorically utilize discourses of U.S. citizenship.