Jon Lowenstein

THE HEART: Shadow Lives USA

Tomas, who has been working day labor jobs in the Albany Park neighborhood for more than 10 years, wanted his picture taken in the Juan Diego Worker’s Center his way. Braving the pouring rain, he stripped down to his underwear and went to the middle of the parking lot, where I took his photo. Tomas wanted a nude picture to show his connection to the center, for which the workers had struggled for more than three years. Ald. Margaret Laurino fought the workers the whole time. But, with the help of advocacy groups and a concerted community education campaign, the building opened in October, 2004. During the past decade, millions of Mexican and Central American migrants have left their homes and families, faced death on the journey to the United States and lived under the specter of criminality once in this country. Despite these obstacles, these resilient immigrants are transforming American culture and posing fundamental questions of justice, citizenship, and labor to the country.
   
  
     
  
   
  
Migrants slip into the Rio Grande on their way to the United States. This group made it through without being detained. Pedro Mendoza, lower right corner, lives in Reynosa and has worked as a low-level coyote. I connected with him through a man I met in Chicago at Juan Diego Democratic Worker Center. We went down to the border and met up with Pedro. Pedro had passed more than 20 people at one time and sometimes had to save people who were drowning in the river or the canals that the migrants must pass over in that stretch of the border. Before he would connect me with the migrants we sat down in his room and talked until dawn one night. He posed very challenging questions about my role in the experience. “What will you do when two people fall in and are drowning? Will you just take pictures or will you jump in and help me to save these people.” When he crossed people he received $100 per person. In 2003, when I crossed he was going over to the other side to work in construction in Edinburgh, Texas.
     
  
   
  
     
  
   
  
     
  
   
  
     
  
   
  
     
  
   
  
     
  
   
At the inauguration of the first Back of the Yards Worker Center, 4314 S. Hermitage Ave., the Latino Union of Chicago held a barbecue that cousins Rosa and Ruben Solis enjoyed. The Solis family lives in the front of the house, while the worker center is located at the back. The center was founded by the Latino Union to offer day laborers an alternative to the many temporary employment agencies that dot the city and offer their employees minimum wage and no benefits. The worker center has since closed, but the Latino Union still advocates for Latino immigrants on Chicago’s South Side.