The sight of four gray whales off the California coast Saturday
morning was the perfect sign for 26-year-old Irwin Sanchez, a
day-labor landscaper from New Jersey.
“It was like the four elements of nature that gave us the
blessing to go forward,” he said through a translator.
This weekend, Sanchez began an odyssey he never thought was
possible a year ago: a 3,000-mile, two-month long run through 20
states to the other side of the country.
And nature had just given him its blessing.
Irwin and 11 other runners are taking part in the Day Laborer
Run for Peace and Dignity to bring attention to immigration reform
and the contributions day laborers make, while strengthening the
network of day-laborer organizations nationwide.
Sanchez, like the other runners, was able to raise the money to
allow him to take two months off of work by gathering donations
from his friends and co-workers in New Jersey.
Saturday morning marked the start of the relay-style
cross-country run with a 25-mile run from Santa Monica beach to the
federal building in downtown Los Angeles.
Over 40 runners and supporters turned out for the
morning’s kickoff rally at Palisades Park in Santa Monica,
which involved an indigenous American spiritual ceremony to begin
the run.
Abel Valenzuela, a UCLA professor of urban planning and
Chicana/o studies, who was present for the morning rally in Santa
Monica, said it is important for events such as this one to bring
national attention to the issues faced by day laborers.
Valenzuela recently led a national study on day labor, the first
of its kind, with the UCLA Center for the Study of Urban Poverty,
called “On the Corner: Day Labor in the United
States.”
The study surveyed 2,660 workers in 139 cities and found that
rates of worker abuse are high, with one in two workers citing an
incident of wage stuffing ““ either nonpayment or underpayment
““ in the last two months.
Other major abuses cited in the study include lack of water and
meal breaks, frequent on-the-job injuries, and being abandoned at
work sites at the end of the workday.
“Day labor is national in its scope. Not only do you find
them in Los Angeles and New York, you find them everywhere in
between,” Valenzuela said.
The nature of the day-labor market creates an unpredictable
environment in which no worker is guaranteed constant employment,
and according to the study, the average income can range from $500
to $1,400 per month.
The run made stops at five different day-labor sites, where
able-bodied men wait for work, typically involving manual labor and
under-the-table payment.
Victor Narro, a project director at the UCLA Downtown Labor
Center who regularly runs marathons, was responsible for guiding
the group of runners through the streets of Los Angeles, joining
the runners for the first leg of their country-wide journey.
At the run’s first stop, the corner of Colorado Avenue and
11th Street in Santa Monica, dozens of day laborers waited
anxiously along the streets, watching the passing cars with the
hope of a day’s work.
Occasionally, cars pull up looking for workers to do landscaping
or construction.
Their attention was broken for a moment at the sight of the
runners carrying colorful Bastons, ceremonial wooden staffs,
through the streets and chanting phrases such as “Si, se
puede,” which roughly translates to “Yes, we
can.”
After the brief stop, the runners moved on, the excitement died
down, and the men returned to their waiting. It was still 10 a.m.
and there was still hope for work that day.
Narro said he was pleased that there was a strong showing of day
laborers even by that afternoon at the downtown day-labor sites
like Wilshire and Union.
“Normally by 11 or 12 o’clock most day-laborer sites
and corners are empty because workers who haven’t found a job
go home for the day. But they were there waiting for us,”
Narro said.
While the Day Laborer Run for Peace and Dignity is the first of
its type to focus on day-laborer issues, it is modeled after three
previous runs from Alaska to Argentina, which have focused on
celebrating indigenous American culture while bringing attention to
the issues they face.
This will be the fourth run utilizing the Bastons, which are
wooden staffs decorated with feathers and are a symbol of
indigenous American identity.
Alejandra Ponce De Leon, a fifth-year international development
studies student and coordinator of Project Day Laborers, was busy
conducting an English class at the West Los Angeles job center when
the runners passed by.
Ponce De Leon said she admired the people who were running and
thinks such programs are important to organize the many different
groups that work with day-laborer and immigrant issues.
“This is an important initiative to bring together
organizations and people to support (the runners),” Ponce De
Leon said.
Narro also said he sees the run as a means to help bring
together many labor groups across the country and said he saw
Saturday’s success as a positive sign for the rest of the
run.
“It was a challenge to be able to implement it effectively
with the traffic on Wilshire Boulevard. If we were able to do it in
Los Angeles traffic, then we can do it throughout the
country,” Narro said.
Runners will not actually be running the entire distance across
the country, but there will be a sort of relay involved so that
each runner will have to complete approximately five to seven miles
per day.
The cross-country trip will be a cumulative effort of all 12
runners.
Saturday’s run ended in downtown Los Angeles in front of
the federal building on Los Angeles Street, with a rally and a
closing spiritual ceremony.
Well over 50 people were in attendance as many spoke about the
hardships faced by day laborers and immigrants, as well as the
challenge the runners will face.
Many people spoke passionately about immigration reform and
proposed legislation that would impact the ways in which people
enter and are able to work in the United States.
The 12 runners completed the 30-mile trip from downtown Los
Angeles to Pomona on Sunday.
Monday will take them to Rancho Cucamonga and Tuesday’s
leg will finish at the Morongo Indian Reservation.
After the closing events at the federal building, the 12 runners
congregated for their own private ceremony in El Pueblo Plaza.
During the ceremony, a hawk circled overhead. Sanchez saw it as
a sign that the spirits would be with them.
After a year of training, he said he feels motivated and ready
for the challenge ahead.
“I see it as a message of peace and dignity to take
throughout the country, and I feel honored to do it,” he
said.