In the 1940s, the Bracero program was an agreement between the United States and Mexico that brought millions of migrant workers the United States. Many families settled in Central and Eastern Washington during this time, working in fields while U.S. servicemen were drafted abroad. Raul Sanchez's father was one of those workers, and the influence of American culture, tangled with Sanchez's Mexican roots, is a point of inspiration for his poetry.

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