Editing Bracero Program (section)

=== Women experiences in the Bracero Program ===
In ''La Pena Negra'', Mayra Lizette Avila centers the experiences of Mexican women who were deeply affected by the U.S.-Mexico Bracero Program (1942–1964), which brought millions of Mexican men to the U.S. for temporary labor. The study explores how these women managed the absence of male breadwinners, shouldering new roles in both the household and community. Avila draws from oral histories and archival sources to highlight individual stories. For example, some women became sole providers, working in agriculture, managing family finances, and raising children alone. This was a sudden shift in traditional gender roles. Others reported feelings of abandonment, especially when their husbands failed to return or sent little money home. Divorce and familial estrangement also became more common, particularly among women who challenged expectations of passive loyalty.  Yet, the work also emphasizes resilience and power for these women. Some women used extended kinship networks or created informal community support systems to survive economically and emotionally. Avila positions these experiences as crucial to understanding the broader impact of transnational labor migration, not just for those who migrated, but for those who stayed.

Due to the shortage of labor in northern Mexico caused by the Bracero Program, Avila Camacho, the former president of Mexico, was under pressure to fill those gaps. In 1944, Camacho endorsed a campaign for women to join the workforce to balance the shortage.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Castillo-Muñoz |first=Verónica |url=https://doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520291638.001.0001 |title=Other California |date=2016-11-15 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-29163-8}}</ref>