CA: Payment for their days' toil

Sac Bee ^ | 12/30/02 | Emily Bazar

[NormsRevenge]

Matiana Perez de Valencia, 51, and her son Jesus, 14, live in Yuba City. Her late husband worked as a bracero in the 1940s and 1950s and told her he never received all the money he earned. The bracero program was instituted during World War II because of a labor shortage.

[Kadric]

Well I can see their point. Was the money deposited as it was to be? If so then their suit has no merit, they should be going after the banks it was deposited in. If not then they are owed the money.

[Restorer]

Either the money is still sitting somewhere in an account, or somebody embezzled it. In either case, they have a right to it if they really earned it.

OTOH, some of this may be legends passed down thru the families. Others may have little or not proof, in which case they're SOL.

[Kadric]

If they were in the US as laborers and the Federal government had the money held from their pay to be deposited as part of the agreement there should be records.

The story says that some of them attempted to collect the money owed earlier but does not state who they tried to get the money from. If it was deposited they may have tried getting it from the wrong source. In any case there should be a trail of the money somewhere.

[Kadric]

I agree that if they can not prove that the money is owed they are SOL.

[I_Love_My_Husband]

If it was the bracero program, then they were SUPPOSED to go back home!

Why are they Californians if they were to return home????

Plus now the STATE is in a financial pickle! We're going to give their families MORE money?!

You've GOT TO BE KIDDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[dalereed]

What right have they got to demand money from our government when it's mexican banks that owe them if at all.

It's probably a bunch of illegals suing anyway, round them up and deport them.

[tubebender]

I grew up on the west side of Fresno county in the 30s 40 and early 50s. My dad leased some land and grew cotton in about 1946. He paid cash to the choppers and pickers. My mother and I had to drive to the bank in Kerman to get the cash. I rode shotgun with my dads 16 gage. I was 13. LOL You had to watch the pickers...some put dirt clods in the sack and some put green boles in. It added to the weight.

This article isn't really clear about who has the money but it almost sounds like it is in Mexacian Banks

[CurlyDave]

Plus now the STATE is in a financial pickle! We're going to give their families MORE money?!

1. The state being in a financial pickle does not excuse theft of these workers' money, no matter how long ago it was.

2. It is perfectly possible for someone to have worked in bracero program 40 years ago and subsequently become a legitimate US citizen.

[I_Love_My_Husband]

Give me a break Dave!

50 years ago all of a sudden, based on RUMORS we OWE THEM money?

What planet do you live on?

Are you even a conservative????

[I_Love_My_Husband]

Also if you READ the article, she's claiming this, she's 51 and her late husband worked in the 40's and 50's.

When she was 10?

PULEEZE!

Was she married at 2 perhaps?

[Lancey Howard]

Though the impact of the law depends partly on the outcome of a class-action lawsuit

Just another scumbag lawyer jackpot scheme. (Yawn.)