Rio Grande wetbacks : Mexican migrant workers /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Norquest, Carrol, author.
Edition:	1st edition.
Imprint:	Albuquerque : University of New Mexico Press, [1972] ©1972
Description:	xiii, 159 pages ; 21 cm
Language:	English
Subject:	Migrant agricultural laborers -- Texas. Agricultural laborers -- Mexico. Agricultural laborers. Migrant agricultural laborers. Mexico. Texas.
Format:	Print Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/1992998

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	0826302203 9780826302205
Summary:	"These stories are about the Mexican wetbacks I've known and worked with over the years. The stories are true, as far as I was given the ability to write the truth," says Carrol Norquest in the preface to this book. Norquest was a farmer in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas for fifty years and saw the rise of wetback labor in the 1930s and 40s. Most of these stories come from that period, when he employed wetbacks regularly and knew their families, their hopes, and their heartbreaks. "In some cases, wetbacks were treated as trash. The people in these sketches are my friends, and it hurt me when I saw them taken advantage of. If I was ever guilty of mistreating them, I'm note aware of it." Norquest has no axe to grind. He writes with the immediacy of personal knowledge rather than from an academic or political point of view. He is not analyzing statistics, but telling us about his neighbors: "I present the people here without furbishing. They are human beings, with all the faults and good things of all peoples. They have the feelings, souls, ambitions, envies, kindnesses, and plain meannesses of all of us." Steinbeck and Saroyan would love the people Norquest introduces us to in this book. There is irony in the situation of a wetback who can be proud of his children's American citizenship and still be in constant danger of being picked up by la chota, the border patrol. There is poignant humor in the clash of customs : some of the Mexicans are unfamiliar with machines like can openers, radios, and cigarette lighters. One of the saddest tales is that of Simón, killed in a drunken accident the week he buys his own pick-up truck, the symbol of power and mobility that means he is an American at last. Norquest believes in the little man and respects anyone who works hard. "As has been true everywhere else, it is not the wealthy who will finally settle the valley. It is the poor, who furnish the sweat and muscle and kids, whose descendants will be its inhabitants. The big shots will disappear into anonymity - leave or peter out. The poor will inherit its space"--Jacket.
Other form:	Online version: Norquest, Carrol. Rio Grande wetbacks. [1st ed.]. Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press [1972]

Table of Contents:

The families. The errand boy
El tanque
I buy a cotton picker
Going home
Sweetening land
Wetbacks at home
Clementina
Cool water
The cultures. Susto
The withered tree
"Friends, Romans, and countrymen"
Curiosity
Wetback banking
A practical joker
Wild people
The queréteños
Can it talk Spanish?
Cigarette lighter
Embryonic chauffeur
Death on the railroads
The new car owner
Wetback women. Doña Luisa
Ramona
Rachel
Four caballeros
A family affair
Troubled woman
Si quiere diós. "I want the doctor"
Crying
Tetanus
Polo
Gabrielito
T.B.
Bandidos on both sides. Border thievery
Poker winnings
Voting
Changing fields
Haughty
Paid in full
A foreman
The drunkard
La chota. Perro
A raid
Rural drama
That dumb Mexican
Coffee ten cents
World traveler
Broomcorn
La chota has a baby
One border patrolman
Friendly back roads
Frozen fish
Legalized
Citizens and migrants. Shoe business
Serrucho
Businessman
Santiago
From wetbacks to migrants
Migrant factory
Citizen material
A credit
The Mayan
Little new girl citizens.

Rio Grande wetbacks : Mexican migrant workers /

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