Photos: The Men Who Live in the Canyon

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/6719/1/328/

By David Bacon


click here for related stories: Labor movement
4-08-08, 10:05 am

SAN DIEGO, CA - 31MARCH08 - Isaias, Alvino and Porfirio, three Mixtec men from Etla, a town in Oaxaca, Mexico, live in the Los Peñasquitos canyon on the north edge of San Diego. They work as day laborers and farm workers -- wherever they can find work. Isaias stands next to the place where he sleeps. Some of the men have bicycles for transportation, and ride them in and out of the canyon.

The trail up into Los Peñasquitos canyon begins under a city street. The settlements where the men sleep is in the trees and bushes below houses in a new suburban development. They have to hide their clothes and possessions, and leave them behind when they go looking for work every day.

One worker looks over the food on a lunch truck, where men living in the canyon buy food. Juan, a Mixtec immigrant, works as a day laborer. "There is no work in Oaxaca, where I come from," he says. The other Mixtec men from Etla wait for work early each morning at the side of the road.



Several photos at link.

--For more articles and images on immigration, see http://dbacon.igc.org/Imgrants/imgrants.htm

See also the photodocumentary on indigenous migration to the US, Communities Without Borders (Cornell University/ILR Press, 2006)

See also The Children of NAFTA, Labor Wars on the U.S./Mexico Border (University of California, 2004)

Coming in September, 2008, from Beacon Press:
Illegal Workers -- How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants

[Saturday]

1. As a union member are you pro illegal immigration? nt

[Omaha Steve]

2. Me myself?

Close the damn border. The only reason it isn't closed is so large corporations can have cheap labor. Now if they made a law that said membership in a union would would cancel deporting people to their home country, they would shut the border in one damn hurry.

I do understand some families might be separated from loved ones back home. That was by choice. That isn't anything that hasn't happened since Columbus rediscovered (Vikings were here second, natives knew about the US long before that) America. We don't have the means or $ to send everyone home. It isn't that simple. We are all equal, or so I learned in school. Very complicated.

[Saturday]

3. That was my thought too.

But your article seemed to be sympathetic to illegals. I know union leadership is pro illegals but I was wondering about the rank and file. To me as an outsider it seems union wages have gone down because of illegals which is not good. The meat packing plants are what I'm thinking of.

[izquierdista]

4. Lot of good that will do

That just puts one more small bit of a paperwork hurdle for the corporation to do. If the border is "closed", they will find a way, like with the H1-B program to import people who will take the wages that are offered and not rock the boat.

If there were fines for employers, instead of the 95% drop in enforcements that Dubya has presided over, they would not be finding jobs here.

Be careful what you wish for. When the border "closes", you may not like which side you are on, especially with the way the economy is going.

[frylock]

5. i used to live in PQ and would drive past los trabajadores inmigrantes every day..

there were always a lot and they were not at all welcome by the neighboring communities. a tragic story to be sure.