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On Being a Super-hero

// May 5th, 2009 // Immigration

Late at night in some real estate offices of the Bay Area, one may sometimes spy a young adult in a three-piece suit, vacuuming the carpets and emptying the trash. It isn’t a costume–it is a reality.

I should get best-dressed janitor award.

Inspired by the biggest ‘illegal alien’ superhero (Superman), an Dulce Pinzon seeks to recast the often-demonized undocumented immigrants as superheroes:

The Mexican immigrant worker in New York is a perfect example of the hero who has gone unnoticed. It is common for a Mexican worker in New York to work extraordinary hours in extreme conditions for very low wages which are saved at great cost and sacrifice and sent to families and communities in Mexico who rely on them to survive.

The Mexican economy has quietly become dependent on the money sent from workers in the US. Conversely, the US economy has quietly become dependent on the labor of Mexican immigrants. Along with the depth of their sacrifice, it is the quietness of this dependence which makes Mexican immigrant workers a subject of interest.

The principal objective of this series is to pay homage to these brave and determined men and women that somehow manage, without the help of any supernatural power, to withstand extreme conditions of labor in order to help their families and communities survive and prosper.

My mom is a real hero. She keeps the house clean and several of her client’s offices too. Without her meticulous cleaning work, many would succumb to using dirty bathrooms, overloaded trash cans and breathing in unclean environments.

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