Rural Farmworkers
During WWII, migrant workers from Mexico began coming to Wisconsin under the Bracero Program, which sought to fill the labor shortage caused by the war. These laborers filled positions in farms and factories across the state, and quickly became integral to the its signature agricultural industy.
After the Bracero Program ended, Wisconsin continued to depend on Latine migrant workers to work on farms and in canning factories. From Door County cherry harvests to the vegtable canning industry in Jackson and Janesville, migrant workers became essential labor to employers.
From 2012 to 2022, Wisconsin had lost nearly half of their dairy farms and was ranked first in farm bankruptcies, California even passed Wisconsin, the "Dairy State," in dairy production. Wisconsin was experiencing a farm crisis. A big factor being corporate farms who ultimately left generational farmers little economic opportunity.
Today, Latinx immigrant farmworkers make up the backbone of the billion dollar dairy industry in Wisconsin.
This collection of oral histories, conducted from 2020 to 2021, sought to understand the experiences of these essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. They are available on the Western WI COVID-19 Archive as well.
Due to the fact that this is a rapid response project and our top priority is to make these interviews public as soon as possible, some of the following transcripts are not available in English. We are currently working on getting English versions available.
