‘Boots for my Sancho’: structural vulnerability among Latin American day labourers in Berkeley, California

Abstract

This paper addresses the structural vulnerability of Latin American undocumented day labourers in Northern California, as it is expressed in conversations on street corners where they wait for work. The intimate aspects of migrant experience become exemplified in jokes about the Sancho – a hypothetical character who has moved in on a day labourer's family and who enjoys the money he sends home. Joking turns to more serious topics of nostalgia and tensions with family far away, elements that come together with the fears and threats of labour on the corner and affect the way day labourers see themselves. Sexuality is rearticulated in the absence of women and masculinity becomes enmeshed in the contingencies of unregulated work and long-term separation from the people the men support. Together, these elements result in the articulation of threat to the immigrant body itself, which is exemplified by anxieties over homosexual propositions on the corner.

Cet article aborde la vulnérabilité structurelle des travailleurs journaliers latino-américains sans papiers dans le Nord de la Californie, telle qu'ils l'expriment dans leurs conversations en attendant du travail aux coins des rues. Les aspects intimes de l'expérience de la migration sont exemplifiés à travers des blagues sur le Sancho – un personnage hypothétique qui, au pays natal, s'est installé dans la famille d'un journalier pour profiter de l'argent qu'elle reçoit de ce dernier. Les blagues deviennent alors des sujets de conversation plus sérieux, sur un fond de nostalgie et de tensions qui résulte de l'éloignement vis-à-vis de la famille – des éléments qui accompagnent les peurs et les menaces liées aux embauches des coins de rue et ont un impact sur la manière dont les journaliers se perçoivent. La sexualité est articulée par rapport à l'absence des femmes et la virilité s'empêtre dans les contingences du travail illégal et de la séparation sur le long terme d'avec les êtres que ces hommes soutiennent financièrement. Ensemble, tous ces éléments ont pour résultat une articulation de la menace vis-à-vis du corps de l'immigré lui-même, qui est exemplifiée par les angoisses dues aux propositions d'homosexuels aux coins des rues.

En este artículo se analiza la vulnerabilidad estructural de los jornaleros indocumentados latinoamericanos en el norte de California, tal como se expresa en las conversaciones en las calles donde los jornaleros esperan el trabajo. Los aspectos íntimos de las experiencias migratorias quedan ilustrados en los chistes sobre Sancho, un personaje ficticio que vive con la familia de un jornalero y que disfruta del dinero que éste envía a casa. Los chistes giran en torno a temas más serios cuando se refieren a la nostalgia y las tensiones con la familia que vive lejos, elementos que se combinan con los temores y las amenazas del trabajo en la calle y que afectan al modo en que los jornaleros se ven a sí mismos. La sexualidad se articula en ausencia de las mujeres y la masculinidad queda enmarcada en las contingencias del trabajo no regulado y la separación a largo plazo de las personas a las que los hombres apoyan. Todos estos elementos combinados llevan a la articulación de la amenaza al cuerpo de los mismos inmigrantes, que queda ilustrada por las ansiedades en torno a las proposiciones de homosexuales en la calle.

Keywords:

• undocumented immigrants
• masculinity
• social vulnerability
• Latin America
• USA

Acknowledgements

An early version of this paper was presented under the title “¡Ay mi compadrito!” The Sancho and anxiety about home among Latin American day laborers in the Bay Area at the 2008 AAA annual meeting in San Jose, California. I am grateful to Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Philippe Bourgois, Beatriz Manz and Loïc Wacquant for their help and mentorship during my graduate studies and research at the University of California, Berkeley. I would like to acknowledge the valuable comments made on the final manuscript by my colleges Diana Bocarejo, María José Alvarez, Catalina Muñoz, Anne Gincel, Nadia Rodriguez and Bastien Bosa at the Universidad del Rosario in Bogotá. I am also greatly indebted Claudia L. Ordóñez and to the anonymous reviewers at CHS, for pushing me to clarify and think through the problem. Finally, none of my research would have been possible without the friendship and good – albeit sometimes cruel – humour of the jornaleros in Berkeley, who shared their life with me for two years.

Notes

^1. I use the term ‘wife’ to refer to each man's partner, as they do, even though in many cases the union has not been formalised by a religious or civil ceremony.

^2. Viajeros, literally ‘travelers’, are people who travel back and forth between the USA and Latin America and who make a living as curriers of a variety of things immigrants and family members send each other.

^3. Gutmann (2006) identified degendering transformations in Mexico, whereby traditionally male and female activities become reconfigured and their gender specificity de-emphasised. Here women and men drink together or men play more intimate roles in child-rearing and household chores. A jornalero's life is not de-gendered by the absence of women, but rather hyper-gendered in that he must undertake all activities necessary for his sustenance, irrespective of their imputed gender association.

^4. Although one could argue that the cases above entail potential relationships with women in a different structural position than jornaleros; that is, that desire is somehow scripted onto class and ethnic hierarchies – here embodied in white college students and employers – in truth, it is these types of women who they are more likely to have contact with.

^5. Immigrants call the enforcement branch of the US Department of Homeland Security – US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) – la migra.

^6. Because much of the work jornaleros do is in suburbs employers drive them to, leaving after an argument or being disoriented is common and many men have stories about sleeping near thoroughfares they reach, not knowing who to ask for directions. This also explains why Jaime would be both horrified and wait for the man to drive him back.

^7. Several authors have noted that almost every jornalero has suffered employer abuse (Esbenshade 2000; Theodore, Valenzuela, and Meléndez 2006; Valenzuela 2003).