Bracero History Archive

The Bracero History Archive represents an innovative approach to a traditional problem: facilitating collaborative work between institutions thousands of miles apart. The Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, Brown University's Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, The Institute of Oral History at the University of Texas El Paso, and the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History have teamed up to capture and archive the stories and artifacts that document the experiences of thousands of Mexican Braceros in America. The archive represents rigorous a partnership between scholarly research techniques-oral history, cultural history, political history, and social history-and innovative archival and presentation formats. The histories, documents, photographs, and artifacts are available online for researchers and the public; the site features teaching materials and a plug-in to allow users to create their own virtual archive. Finally, the site allows visitors to contribute their own stories, photos, or artifacts to add to the growing collection.