Ernesto Galarza’s Merchants of Labor: The Mexican Bracero Story is a genealogical study of the Mexican migrant farmworker experience in California under the Bracero Program. His study was a direct response to the deaths of thirty-two migrant workers in the Chualar bus crash of 1963. Galarza traces the political-economic origin “story” of this labor force and its role within a historical moment defined by rapid increases in modernization. Of considerable importance are his insights regarding the central characteristics of an emerging neoliberal paradigm, which are brilliantly grounded in his analysis of how Mexican braceros were transformed into a disembodied “labor pool” for US agribusiness. The chapter examines Galarza’s critique of the Bracero Program and his analysis of early farmworker struggles against exploitative labor practices, particularly the manner in which “labor pools” were used to transform the concrete existentiality of the bracero into a commodity abstraction, thus establishing a blueprint for the systemic exploitation of racially marginalized peoples. The chapter concludes by addressing how Chicana/o activists affiliated themselves with the farmworker struggle after the Chualar tragedy, thus bridging the rural–urban divide while calling attention to the movement’s anti-war protests and demands for political reform.

Debates about Latinx literary representations of war tend to emphasize either how Latinx literature offers a means of repair for war’s ravages or, alternatively, that violence is constitutive of latinidad itself. This chapter charts a middle course through both positions by arguing that US Latinx literature highlights both irresolute, unreconciled wars and, what Jesse Alemán describes as Latinx “micro-wars” within major conflicts; such micro-wars, furthermore, often involve clashes and negotiations around the racialized boundaries of Latinx communities. Here we survey a range of Latinx representations of the Civil War, World War II, the Korean War, and wars of revolution and counterinsurgency in Viet Nam and Central America. Rather than waging war on an irredeemable enemy, we conclude, Latinxs lay siege to the imperial relationship championed by the US in most of these conflicts.

During the US War in Vietnam, diverse activists and organizations advanced a range arguments against US intervention in Vietnam. These organizations did not form a singular or united antiwar movement, however, and many histories have overlooked the contributions of activists who did not focus their efforts solely on ending the US war. Indeed, many activists challenged injustices on multiple fronts and created unique antiwar discourses as part of their social justice advocacy. They often linked their advocacy and constituents within the United States with US treatment of Vietnam and the Vietnamese. This chapter describes the diversity of antiwar rhetoric and activism in the 1960s and 1970s with the help of North Vietnam’s government, which fostered a people’s diplomacy with American citizens. In doing so, this chapter illustrates that many participants in antiwar advocacy saw their protests against US intervention in Vietnam as part of their larger fight to create a more just American society.