"Fifty-eight workers had been riding in the back of a flatbed truck, where their labor contractor had bolted down two parallel benches for them to sit on as they rode to and from the fields. The truck's driver, Francisco Espinosa, couldn't see a train coming at 67 miles an hour, as he inched slowly across a railroad track on Thomas Ranch Road in Chualar. When the lead engine hit the truck, almost all were thrown into the air, many crushed beneath the steel wheels, and 32 died."
"Because they were braceros, they were only identified by a number that corresponded to their work contract. It took weeks to know their true names. More than 9,000 people came to their funeral in Salinas."
"The terrible crash, the anonymity of the workers, and the disgraceful conditions in which they worked and died, led to a huge outcry. Ernesto Galarza, the longtime opponent of the bracero program, wrote a damning report to Congress, to assign responsibility. That helped end the program two years later."
In 1963, a train traveling at 67 miles per hour struck a flatbed truck carrying 58 bracero workers near Chualar, California, killing 32 of them. The workers, identified only by contract numbers rather than names, were thrown from the vehicle and crushed beneath the wheels. The truck driver was acquitted of manslaughter charges, while the grower and labor contractor faced no charges, though companies involved settled for $1.5 million. The tragedy, combined with the workers' anonymity and poor working conditions, generated massive public outcry. Ernesto Galarza documented the incident in a congressional report assigning responsibility, contributing to the bracero program's termination two years later. Two crosses at the crash site commemorate the victims.
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