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MLK event chronicles infamous migrant program
Newtown Florist Club hosts presentation on Bracero era
0114MIGRANTS
The Rev. Rose Johnson and the Newtown Florist Club in Gainesville revisited Friday the inhumane treatment of millions of Mexican migrant workers under a guest worker agreement called the Bracero Program. Started in 1942, the program ended at the height of the civil rights movement in 1964 amid charges of slave-like treatment of Mexican workers.
Jose Cruz, a local mechanic, attended a special program Friday at the Newtown Florist Club that chronicled an infamous migrant guest worker program called Bracero. The Rev. Frank Medina, pastor of Restoration Community Church, a bilingual congregation at 942 Myrtle St. in Gainesville, invited Cruz to the event as his guest after learning that Cruz’s father worked as a bracero in the early 1960s. Medina introduced and translated for Cruz, who speaks little English.