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This chapter uses bracero family oral life histories and photographs to historicize the urgency with which Mexican women and men documented their romantic love for each other as a way of not becoming completely lost to each other across the U.S.-Mexico border. These women's and men's commitment to each other and the longevity of their romantic relationships motivated them to be cautious in their love for each other, so that they reassured each other of their feelings for each other without jeopardizing their Bracero Program contract or public reputation. Their refusal to draw unwanted attention to their love made being in love and documenting their love a most demanding undertaking and feeling.

Using a combination of bracero family oral life histories and songs of love, this chapter traces the romantic love, loss, and longing that inspired Mexican women and men to be most resourceful in their pursuit of personally satisfying romantic relationships in Mexico and the United States. These women’s and men’s dedication to acting out of love—but with their family integrity and reputation intact—moved them to become most resilient when celebrating and mourning their love for each other when alone and in public. In capturing the emotional rigors of the Bracero Program, this historical examination of the expansiveness of the program’s reach is a most humanizing move toward unearthing an almost forgotten history of love and longing.