Un Día Libre / A Free Day

Latin Americans are praised for their work ethic. Immigrants are a large source of the labor force in the United States, and we rely on them more than we think. People are more than the labor they provide, but that is not the lesson we learn growing up. As immigrants and children of immigrants, we begin to learn that hard work trumps any challenge one faces; this is what I’ve learned from my parents. My parents migrated to the United States, over thirty years ago. Whilst they value hard work, they also value family and relationships. For this print issue, I interviewed my parents, who shaped my view on work and success, to investigate how their experiences altered their outlook on work. I wondered how my parents navigated their years as young adults in a country that had a vastly different culture and dealt with a language they did not know.

 

Where are you from?

Dad: “Guatemala…well the state would be Huehuetenango.”

Mom: “I’m from Guatemala, in a city called San Pedro, Soloma.”

 

Where do you live now? 

Dad: “I lived in Riverside for like 15 years and then after that, came to live in Perris, CA.”

Mom: “Here in California.”

 

Like many others, my parents decided to take a leap of faith and move to the United States, labeled as  “the land of opportunity.” They came in hopes of a better life for themselves and their loved ones back home.

 

What is your job and what roles do you have?

Dad: “Well, I am a handyman. Yeah, I do different [things]. I go as a supervisor, a worker, employee, and employer. I do different kinds of work like trimming trees or doing additions to a house, or stucco, roofing, electricity, fencing, concrete. All types of different work, so that’s my job all year around.”

 

As for my mom, she worked as a live-in nanny, housekeeper, farm picker, and more. She even accompanied my dad to help out as much as she could, all while ensuring my siblings and I made it to and from school everyday. She recalled the brief time she spent working on a farm where she earned $5 an hour, working 11-hour shifts to make ends meet before I even came into the picture.

 

How would you describe your work ethic?

Dad: “You have to value [work] like the most important because if you don’t, then you don’t value the quality of work you do, so it’s like you don’t do it the proper way,”

Mom: “Work is part of life. I see work just as something you have to do in life.”

 

So, would you say that you prioritize your work?

Dad: “Oh of course, yeah.”

 

What was your first job? 

Dad: “Since I was a child, I knew how to do the harvest, how to put all the seeds in the ground for the crop, so seven years old on the farm.”

Mom: “My first job was babysitting here in Glendora.” 

 

How much would you earn?

Dad: “At that time it was a little bit, maybe 50 cents in Quetzals or 2 Quetzals [a day]. It was good money already.”

Mom: “She [my employer] said she would put my money in the bank, but she stopped paying me. At first, she was paying me for the months I was working, but then one day, it came out, “Your money will be in the bank until the day you decide to return to your country. I will pay you all your money,” That is when I said I didn’t believe what she was telling me was the truth.”

 

So you were working and going to school? 

Dad: “Yeah. After school, I have to work.”

 

Do you think your experiences as a child are the reason why you prioritize your work?

Dad: “Yeah I think so. I’m not scared to work…if you give me any job I know I gotta do it, I can finish it, I can make it happen. Yeah but my first job in the USA is gardening.”

 

In Guatemala, it is a common sight to see children selling candy or gum. This is because every member of the family must contribute to make ends meet. This was true for my father and it only further motivated him to excel in his studies.

 

Did you like your job?
Dad: “Yes, I do.”

Mom: “My first job, no, because I was locked in the house, they would barely let me leave for mass.”

 

Did you like your next job?

Mom: “The second job, yes because they spoke Spanish and could speak with me unlike the others, who were [Arabic]. At my second job as a babysitter, the second family spoke Spanish and were Mexican so they could tell me what they wanted, and I could tell them what I wanted.” 

 

Are there any parts of the job you don’t like? 

Dad: “Maybe when I get into a discussion with someone that doesn’t like something, probably that’s when I don’t like it, but mostly people like what I do…Most of the people pay, maybe once [they don’t], I mean I say thanks to God, I don’t have any problem with people. I do my job and they pay me and there’s people that give you good food because they like you and sometimes they are drinking water in front of you and they don’t give no water when it’s super hot and you’re thirsty and (chuckles) they don’t care if you’re thirsty. There’s different people, different personalities and attitudes. You meet good people and people that ignore you. They think we are not human. We need something, like “Hey, do you want some water?’” 

 

The “land of opportunity” is a difficult place to succeed in. Some people try to skip out on the bill once they learn workers are immigrants and hold ICE over their heads if they try to confront them about pay. This is the harsh reality of our people.

 

What does an average day of work look like for you?

Dad: “I would say maybe 9 [hours]…maybe more because sometimes if you want to keep it up that you get enough money you got to finish up one thing…to keep your client happy.” 

 

Professionalism is defined as “the competence or skill expected of a professional.” I would say I learned about professionalism from my parents. I saw the long working hours my dad put in to satisfy his customers. I discovered that learning never ends, it just comes in different forms such as the way my parents adapted and learned about their new environment. 

 

If you had a day without any work or worries, how would you spend it?

When asked about his day off, my dad said “I’d rather rest,” and recounted a story when he realized his value. A man had tried to hire my dad for a hundred dollars to fix a garage and my dad declined saying it was not worth it and said, “I’m not going to give myself too cheap. It’s too cheap. Now, I’m a professional, I know I can do it.”

Mom: “Take your break or go out for a stroll for a bit or go to the movies…have fun for a while.”

 

I recall very few times my dad called off of work. He was up every day before sunrise and I would wake up to the noise of him loading his tools onto his truck. Every evening, I would hear the same sound. In high school, though, I remember my dad choosing to take us to school instead. Now, it was quieter and the smell of breakfast would roam the house. To see him asleep while the sun was beaming outside was a sign of success.

 

Do you think your children have similar values when it comes to work? 

Dad: “I would like them to be better than me, yeah. I want my family, my child, my whoever, I want them to be better than what I do. I don’t want them to be like me, making a few dollars. I want them to be successful. I want them to be better than what I did, better than what I do…”

Mom: “Yes, well work is part of life, the way they will maintain themselves. I wish that my children have a job where they succeed, where they have a better life, and that they don’t have to worry about money.”

 

My parents, like many other immigrant parents, are my biggest inspiration and my biggest supporters.

 

Do you think you are successful?

Dad: “Yes, I think I am [more] successful by doing this job than by going to a warehouse. Comparing the minimum wage, I get successfully enough to survive. 

Mom: “Yes, the United States has helped me, provided me food, a house…successful I’m not sure (laughs).”

 

How would you describe success?

Dad: “Success, I mean that I don’t really suffer like before like I was struggling doing payments. Right now, I sometimes struggle but it’s not like before, like I had to count whatever they give me, like if they give $600 a week or $300 a week, I have to make sure that the money has to be stretched out. Sometimes you cannot buy anything that you need like a human being.”

Mom: “Being successful I believe means having a great job, good money, for me that’s being successful.” 

 

My mom went on to highlight that she believes moving to the US was the right decision for her. When asked about why she believes she’s not successful, she responded that all of the jobs she’s had did not pay well. However, I had to counter her and let her know that I believe she has reached success as she was to build a foundation for herself and her family after venturing to another country at such a young age. 

 

I hope to be as courageous as my parents. Now that I am going to enter the workforce soon, I’ve realized that I’m not so different from them: a young twenty-one-year-old looking for opportunities to succeed and provide for myself and my family. Like most immigrants, my parents have been accustomed to thinking success stems from your job title because that is how most survive in the U.S. Although, I will continue to remind them and myself of our successes that may not be work-related. I will remind them to take a day off because as they’ve told me, their ideal day off is to relax. This interview has only fueled my desire to fight for others and to work towards an environment that sees beyond the labor people can provide. Un día libre is a form of resistance against the capitalistic society that we face in the US, take a day to yourself and inspire others to do the same.