Year five of the post-Katrina reconstruction of New Orleans is upon us, and the dirtiest little secret of the recovery is that our rapid progress owes a tremendous debt to the Latino immigrants who have labored hard to rebuild the Big Easy. While the BP oil spill disaster is our latest reminder that we are a new millennium epicenter for man made and natural tragedies, the many setbacks that this recovering mini-metropolis has experienced include a nationally high murder rate and a corrupt police department under federal investigation.
Nonetheless, the city and its resilient people continue forward, and most people I speak to recognize that the Latino work force has been vital in transforming New Orleans into a livable city and a functioning tourist destination, still open for business even with the toxic oil that looms in our Mississippi waterways and the Gulf. However, the story of Latino immigrants and the reconstruction remains conspicuously absent when the post-storm narratives are accounted in the local and national press.
It’s as if the immigrants are living in a parallel universe as invisible inhabitants, laboring in the shadows of a science fiction reality. For years, los invisibles have been physically visible everywhere on rooftops and numerous construction sites, but they are ubiquitous and nowhere at the same time. The undocumented status of many has transformed them into a transparent people that are not recognized as fully human. This condition makes their suffering an obscure painful story that most prefer to ignore because foreigners are classified as aliens in this country, extraterrestrials from the Planet Other with a marginalized existence.
I recently interviewed three young day laborers, and each man shared stories of being cheated by ruthless contractors and local businesses. One worker with a wife and three children had put in two weeks at a major hotel in the French Quarter, but when the promised payday arrived, he and the dozen men in his maintenance crew were told to leave the premises by the gringo manager who threatened to call immigration authorities. He was left with no money to pay for his rent or buy food for his family. Crushed and defeated, he turned to Catholic Charities for some food support.
The second gentleman was a victim of wage theft a number of times, and with tears swelling his eyes, he spoke of great despair and loss of dignity as a man when he could not provide for his family. Even more crushing was that a contractor of Latino descent had robbed him as well, mocking the work crew that they should be paid in rice and beans. Abuse of power over the most vulnerable workers should come as no surprise, and while the three men reported that most contractors who had cheated them were Caucasian, legal Latinos have joined the exploitation party. Also, many immigrants here have been crime victims of young black men who know that workers carry cash on them. The word on the street is that immigrants are human ATM machines to violate and withdraw cash from, dehumanizing them further.
The youngest of the group was nineteen when he arrived two weeks after Katrina hit. He worked twelve-hour days while sleeping fourteen to a trailer meant to house one person. Nine months later, a huge metal dumpster fell on his left hand. The white contractor who hired him refused to call an ambulance. Fortunately, his working partner had a cell phone, but by the time he arrived at the hospital, half his hand was practically sliced off. While most doctors recommended severing his entire arm to protect from a major infection, the lone African American surgeon, who had a son the same age, intervened and performed five miraculous surgeries to reattach his hand. During his convalescence, this injured worker had a major epiphany that led him to become an activist.
Living in a shadow society, most immigrants are left to silently absorb many social blows because of their station, but all three of these men have joined the Congress of Day Laborers to fight for the rights of immigrant workers who have contributed their blood and sweat to rebuilding a city that has turned a blind eye to their struggles. The Southern Poverty Law Center has reported that 80% of the immigrant labor force that reconstructed New Orleans was basically robbed of their rightful wages. The insidious tactic of employers calling immigration instead of paying rightfully earned salaries is commonplace in the slave labor fiesta still taking place here. Fears of deportation have kept thousands mute, but these men have undergoing a mythic transformation from silent martyrs to vocal activists.
With the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice and other committed immigrant rights’ advocates, they are fighting to have an ordinance passed that will criminalize wage theft. Theirs is an epic battle to humanize immigrants who have been rendered invisible by a city and a people that have benefited greatly from their noble labor. If we dared to count the dollar losses over five-years, we are talking millions, maybe billions, that have been stolen from men and women who have repaired a once very broken city. New Orleans, its citizens, and the new mayor need to bring the immigrants out of the shadows. Give them the visibility they deserve in the Crescent City.
José Torres-Tama
ArteFuturo Productions
2426 Saint Claude Avenue
New Orleans, LA 70117
504.232.2968
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