24 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY JULY 3-9, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com A More Perfect Union Migration to the United States has been a practice for centuries. People have come in waves based on the opportunities and needs of the country. One of those waves happened during and after World War II in response to the labor shortages the country was facing. More than 4.5 million Mexicans came to the states to work, primarily in agriculture, under the Bracero Program from 1942 to 1964. One of those was Arnulfo Palomino Alvarado, 96, now a Watsonville resident, who worked in the Salinas and Pajaro valleys and other communities in Washington, Michigan and California. He was 22 when he first arrived and 24 when he first stepped in the Central Coast. He looks young and serious in the photo from his old Bracero record card. Palomino Alvarado grew up in rural central Mexico, in a town called Cuerámaro in the state of Guanajuato, and began working the land, cultivating corn, garbanzo and wheat with his father and brothers when he was 15 (the town is now a city of more than 20,000 inhabitants). Palomino Alvarado says the Bracero Program was widely advertised in his town. “I wanted to come and work here to help my dad. I was living with him, and already had my family,” he says, adding that the program helped him and his family to have a better life. Palomino Alvarado says workers had to fulfill their Bracero contract to keep their legal status, otherwise they became undocumented. He says he always kept up with his contracts. During his time as a farmworker, Palomino Alvarado slept in barracks with more than 100 men, and on the fields, used el cortito, a short-handled hoe that was banned in 1975 due to the back-breaking pain it caused workers. He also participated in United Farm Workers’ demonstrations in the area. Palomino Alvarado has received recognition for his work as a Bracero from the radio show Palabra Campesina and the County of Monterey in 2024 during the county’s first Bracero Workers History Recognition Week. “It’s a day to celebrate the future,” said then-supervisor Mary Adams. “Because there have been so many seeds that people sowed that now allow for the wonderful things that are happening in our community.” Through the Bracero Program, Palomino Alvarado came to the states several times; eventually, one of his bosses helped him and one of his brothers obtain their permanent residencies. “I think he liked me or I was doing a good job,” he says. Nearly 20 years later, after going back and forth across the U.S.-Mexico border, he brought his whole family with him—his wife and nine children. His life changed, he says, which made him happier and more relaxed. “I brought all my family; only one was born here. The youngest one,” he says. Palomino Alvarado says he was a little discouraged when he was completing the paperwork at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico to bring his family to Watsonville. One embassy worker told him he could only emigrate one relative at a time. “If it’s not possible, I won’t fix it for any of them. I won’t leave a part here and another one there [in Mexico],” he remembers saying, noting it would have taken a decade for his whole family to be together. Another worker helped him so that he could emigrate his entire family at the same time. “He took our information and resolved it. For all of us,” Palomino Alvarado says. He settled in Watsonville because he preferred to work in lettuce, strawberries and celery, along with irrigation. Initially, his children followed his footsteps working in the fields, but once they learned English and went through school, they branched out to other jobs. He retired in the late 1990s after working in the fields for more than 40 years. Palomino Alvarado now lives with his daughter Bertha Palomino. He likes to sit on his leather couch in a bright living room surrounded by family photos. For Palomino Alvarado, his family is vital. He is the core that keeps his family together—many of his children and grandchildren remain active locally. When he arrived as a young farmworker, he never thought he would settle here. “I never thought about it,” he says, adding that every time he made the journey to the U.S., his first thought was to be back home with his family. His wife, Maria Isabel Trujillo Palomino, whom he endearingly called “chavela,” passed away in 2016. She started a family tradition to gather every Friday. Four generations, with up to 30 people, still get together at his family home to share stories and a meal every week. Family Unity A farmworker who came to the U.S. for a job built a foundation for future generations to thrive. By Celia Jiménez Arnulfo Palomino Alvarado first arrived in the United States to help his father in the fields. That desire to support his family has carried him through his life. CELIA JIMÉNEZ
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