Student Slideshows Arizona 2011: Luke Boelitz

La Vida de un Trabajador

Photos and text by Luke Boelitz

Those who journey North in search of economic opportunity most often have no way to support their families at home and thus embark on a difficult path to find work in the United States.

Eric, Gerardo and Rigoberto are three immigrants who recently embarked on this journey.  All three were from rural areas and decided to immigrate because they were not able to earn a living wage in their hometowns. All three were certain they would return to their home county in the future.

Eric and Rigoberto are from Honduras, thus their journey to the United States included extra hurdles, sneaking illegally over the borders into Guatemala and Mexico. Though neither had trouble crossing these borders, many travelers report that this can be a difficult crossing, specifically that the Mexican officers who patrol the border can be more violent than their U.S. counterparts.

Gerardo’s family lives in Chiapas, in the very southwestern tip of Mexico. Travelling by bus up to the border crossing cities such as Agua Prieta, Nogales, Altair or Sonoita takes several days.

Though the majority of people attempting to cross the border hire coyotes, neither Eric, nor Rigoberto, nor Gerardo had done so. Each had travelled in small groups with close relatives or “paisanos,” which translates roughly as countrymen, who had experience crossing the border. Eschewing coyotes saves a massive expense, potentially as much as $7,000, and also avoids travelling in a large group, which is more likely to be apprehended by the US Border Patrol. However, this also means that they don’t have someone coming to pick them up on the American side of the border, or any sort of transportation once inside the United States.

On his first crossing, Gerardo walked out of the desert and made his way to a highway rest stop, where he managed to catch a ride into Tucson. He found an apartment through people he knew from home, and they recommended that he look for work at the Southside Presbyterian Workers Center.

 The Center, or Centro, operates six days a week, though the church’s coordinator only works Monday through Thursday. Anywhere from twenty to thirty men assemble in the parking lot of the church, beginning around five thirty in the morning. At 6:30AM they gather around, put their center-issued photo ID’s in a plastic jug and shake it, drawing cards out at random and writing down the order on “the list.” This list determines the order in which the men will go out and work. When someone arrives at the center and asks to hire a worker, he is given the first worker on the list qualified to do the job he needs. Though the system can be frustrating at times, all the men voted to make it the system of the Worker’s Center.

Sometimes the Centro seems more like a social club than a place of business. On the first day I visited, not a single worker was hired but everyone put money into the jug and the men bought meat and grilled carne asada tacos for lunch.

With men working only two or three days a week, it’s hard to understand how anyone is making money. However, all the workers I talked to live with several roommates. Local soup kitchens provide full, healthy meals on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. All the men were happy to be working even if that work was irregular. One day of day labor in the United States at $60 can be more than a week’s pay from a Maquiladora on the border. For those who have lived through the economic depression in southern Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala, it is worthwhile pay.

Rigoberto, who works most regularly, says that he manages to send $500 to $800 home to his family every several months via Western Union. Gerardo also supports a family with his earnings. He has three children and a wife at home in Chiapas. Eric, the youngest, has yet to send money home. He has only been in the states for three months, but now that he has a better place to live and is getting settled, he hopes to begin sending his mother and father money soon.

The two older men have been in the US for a longer time. Gerardo’s most recent crossing last year into the United States was his third. He had returned to Mexico twice of his own will when he could no longer wait to see his family. He says that, in the past, he has been relatively impulsive about his decision to return, sometimes making the decision only days before departing on the long bus trip. Leaving the US is something many immigrants are reluctant to do under any circumstances because of the danger and expense of re-entering the country. However Gerardo never crosses with a coyote and has always avoided La Migra (US immigration officials).

Rigoberto, who at 43 is almost a decade older than Gerardo, made plans far in advance to return to Honduras for good. In September of this year, he plans to cross the border into Mexico and travel by bus home to his village outside Tegucigalpa. He plans to buy twenty new cows to add to his existing twelve. He hopes the infusion of money from his time in the United States will help his family live comfortably in Honduras for years to come.

Return to the 2011 Workshop page: Immigration on the US-Mexico Border