Brazer

A brazer is a migrant worker, usually of Mexican origin, that is refusing to adjust to the new culture they live in.

They rarely speak the language spoken by the majority in the country they migrated to, usually the US.

You can picture them wearing jeans with leather boots and a sombrero, smoking a cigar and offering a tequila to the first person that calls them “amigo”.

They are usually very tan from working their hands-on outside job all day for minimum wage. A “brazer” can be both legal and illegal in the country he has migrated to.

The term originates from the Spanish word “bracero”, which further originates in the word “brazos”, meaning arms.

A “bracero” is a man working with both his arms, and later became a term for someone who works with bronze and copper such as a blacksmith.

It was adopted by Americans to define the infamous Mexican immigrants that take the hands-on job that no white American wants anyway.

White Americans will often use the term to degrade anyone of Latin-American origin that doesn’t strive to give up their heritage to fit into their own image of what a good American is.

The term was made famous by the 1984 novel The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros.

• Urban Dictionary – Brazer