19 hours
July 17, 2016 8:20 AM Subscribe
Gaspar Marcos stepped off the 720 bus into early-morning darkness in MacArthur Park after the end of an eight-hour shift of scrubbing dishes in a Westwood restaurant. He walked toward his apartment, past laundromats fortified with iron bars and scrawled with graffiti, shuttered stores that sold knockoffs and a cook staffing a taco cart in eerie desolation. Around 3 a.m., he collapsed into a twin bed in a room he rents from a family. Five hours later, he slid into his desk at Belmont High School, just before the bell rang. The 18-year-old sophomore rubbed his eyes and fixed his gaze on an algebra equation.
That is a level of dedication and work that I have never been forced to attain. I hope he succeeds.
posted by Dip Flash at 8:44 AM on July 17, 2016 [7 favorites]
posted by Dip Flash at 8:44 AM on July 17, 2016 [7 favorites]
$600 a month for a room in a house is disgusting profiteering, just taking advantage of this boy as much as everyone else has since he left Guatemala. Except Belmont High. Good for them.
posted by ambrosen at 8:46 AM on July 17, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by ambrosen at 8:46 AM on July 17, 2016 [5 favorites]
It's only by the grace of God or just luck, when we are born into a stable, relatively prosperous area of the world. We seem to think that we deserve it or that it's some kind of virtue, but really, we just got lucky. And Syria has shown us how fleeting that can be for an entire country. I hope that in my lifetime, I see people embrace the idea that war and economic disparity and children going hungry is just unacceptable.
posted by gt2 at 8:49 AM on July 17, 2016 [42 favorites]
posted by gt2 at 8:49 AM on July 17, 2016 [42 favorites]
To be fair, $600/room is a fair price in LA depending on location.
Kudos to these children.
posted by samthemander at 9:00 AM on July 17, 2016 [2 favorites]
Kudos to these children.
posted by samthemander at 9:00 AM on July 17, 2016 [2 favorites]
samthemander: To be fair, $600/room is a fair price in LA depending on location.
"Normal price" might be more accurate than "fair price".
posted by clawsoon at 9:04 AM on July 17, 2016 [15 favorites]
"Normal price" might be more accurate than "fair price".
posted by clawsoon at 9:04 AM on July 17, 2016 [15 favorites]
With in-demand rental housing in the absence of rent controls, the rent you pay is what it takes to keep the next guy from taking the lease.
In the top 5 cities, 3/5 to 2/3 of the population is renting.
In our quasi-capitalistic system, "fair" is always what the market will bear.
This is the central economic asymmetry -- the wealth flow from the working to the parasitical who rent out housing.
LA actually has a mild rent control (3 - 5% rise cap), and if I had stayed in my West LA apartment 1B that was $700/mo in 1991 rent would be $1500/mo now, while the market rent is around $3000 I guess.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=5CY6 shows the # of gross labor wages to pay for our housing costs has doubled since the 1950s, from 5 hrs/week to 10/hrs week on average.
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 9:20 AM on July 17, 2016 [4 favorites]
In the top 5 cities, 3/5 to 2/3 of the population is renting.
In our quasi-capitalistic system, "fair" is always what the market will bear.
This is the central economic asymmetry -- the wealth flow from the working to the parasitical who rent out housing.
LA actually has a mild rent control (3 - 5% rise cap), and if I had stayed in my West LA apartment 1B that was $700/mo in 1991 rent would be $1500/mo now, while the market rent is around $3000 I guess.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=5CY6 shows the # of gross labor wages to pay for our housing costs has doubled since the 1950s, from 5 hrs/week to 10/hrs week on average.
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 9:20 AM on July 17, 2016 [4 favorites]
Even in Westlake, $600 for a room is at worst market rate. I'm a couple miles up Alvarado from him (in Echo Park), and I'm paying $2350 for a 2Br/1Ba.
posted by sideshow at 9:26 AM on July 17, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by sideshow at 9:26 AM on July 17, 2016 [1 favorite]
This is one of the things that kind of baffles me about anti-immigrant rhetoric in the United States--the perception that immigrants are [more so than native-born Americans] lazy, criminals, freeloaders...like, have the people espousing these ideas every actually met immigrants? (answer, "possibly not," or else in contexts that some how get drown out by media emphasis on "bad" immigrants). It's cliché to say that immigrants are generally the hardest-working people I know, but there it is. I've been blessed to live in immigrant-dense areas over the past 15 years or so, and it's just amazing the stories of what people have overcome and the efforts they've put in to achieve some stability in the U.S.
posted by drlith at 9:37 AM on July 17, 2016 [15 favorites]
posted by drlith at 9:37 AM on July 17, 2016 [15 favorites]
The irony I see with the students without papers paying the rent to stay and study is that in my town many families are *paid* by exchange programs to cover the costs of hosting exchange students and house them for a school year. My son's high school has about 100 exchange students from around the world living in such situations.
The difference between these children is social class (the parents pay for the exchange). In the exchange scenario in my town it has become a means for school districts facing budget cuts to supplement their budget.
posted by chapps at 9:42 AM on July 17, 2016
The difference between these children is social class (the parents pay for the exchange). In the exchange scenario in my town it has become a means for school districts facing budget cuts to supplement their budget.
posted by chapps at 9:42 AM on July 17, 2016
Not to nitpick, chapps, but while it's true that the school district does get to count the student toward their attendance for funding purposes and that sending parents pay a goodly sum of money to send their kids on exchange, in the U.S. at least none of that money goes directly the host family. In fact, this is actually part of U.S. immigration regulations for accredited student exchange programs, who are prohibited from paying host families.
posted by drlith at 9:54 AM on July 17, 2016
posted by drlith at 9:54 AM on July 17, 2016
Do not read the comments.
Don't forget to vote: in your local elections.
posted by mule98J at 9:59 AM on July 17, 2016 [4 favorites]
Don't forget to vote: in your local elections.
posted by mule98J at 9:59 AM on July 17, 2016 [4 favorites]
It's cliché to say that immigrants are generally the hardest-working people I know, but there it is.
That's what a lot of Native White Males are most afraid of ... they don't want to compete with those who work hard.
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:06 AM on July 17, 2016 [9 favorites]
That's what a lot of Native White Males are most afraid of ... they don't want to compete with those who work hard.
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:06 AM on July 17, 2016 [9 favorites]
This is one of the things that kind of baffles me about anti-immigrant rhetoric in the United States--the perception that immigrants are [more so than native-born Americans] lazy, criminals, freeloaders...like, have the people espousing these ideas every actually met immigrants?
Of course they have, while picking up day laborers at Home Depot and while hiring nannies. (Not ironic -- almost every racist asshole I know can put aside their dislike of a race to use them as near-slave labor)
posted by benzenedream at 10:26 AM on July 17, 2016 [8 favorites]
Of course they have, while picking up day laborers at Home Depot and while hiring nannies. (Not ironic -- almost every racist asshole I know can put aside their dislike of a race to use them as near-slave labor)
posted by benzenedream at 10:26 AM on July 17, 2016 [8 favorites]
The comments are entirely unsurprising. I've heard OC suburbanites piss and moan about "illegals" while their kids are watched by a nanny, a crew is doing the landscape, and a service is detailing their SUVs in the driveway. SoCal people are happy with the huge pool of cheap labor, but racist enough to wish it wasn't brown people doing the work. I've never seen such blatant racism and I've been Deep South and lived in Britain!
posted by Lighthammer at 11:25 AM on July 17, 2016 [9 favorites]
posted by Lighthammer at 11:25 AM on July 17, 2016 [9 favorites]
I have watched these struggling young people get victimized in school, by gung ho guys, and sniffy, judgemental teachers, who absolutely can not connect with anyone outside their personal culture. It is horrible to watch and also horrible when the school or system expects you to follow their lead on treatment of at risk students.
posted by Oyéah at 12:02 PM on July 17, 2016
posted by Oyéah at 12:02 PM on July 17, 2016
That's what a lot of Native White Males are most afraid of ... they don't want to compete with those who work hard.
So I can already guess how execrable the anti-immigration comments on the article are without the warnings posted here, but I literally don't know a single economically struggling "native [sic] white male" currently whipped up into hysteria about the immigration boogeyman who "doesn't want to compete with those who work hard."
Maybe as progressives trying to educate on and promote humane and economically sane immigration reforms we could back off of the "poor whites are lazy losers" argument that alienates the working poor so thoroughly...."We have transparent, snickering contempt for you, but vote for us for your own economic good if you're not too stupid to do so" isn't going to ever work for progressives and the bottom is rapidly dropping out on that for the Republican party as well.
Don't tell a guy who has been left humiliated and frightened for himself and his family because he can't find work, or enough work, that he just "doesn't want to compete with those who work hard" and expect him to pay attention to another goddamn fact or figure you have to offer demonstrating how it isn't actually "the Mexicans" who have "stolen" his job. This isn't how you win Democratic votes in a critical election year, either, and I'm angry and frightened myself at how we've gotten ourselves into a place where an actual right-wing populist fascist has a shot of the presidency in part because of how both major parties have aggressively ignored growing income inequality and structural violence as more and more jobs (that used to sustain entire families) simply no longer exist due to technological innovations, cheaper labor internationally, etc.
We all ought to hate ignorance and racism, but contempt for individuals will never win you the hearts and minds you need--like it or not--in a democracy.
posted by blue suede stockings at 12:38 PM on July 17, 2016 [24 favorites]
So I can already guess how execrable the anti-immigration comments on the article are without the warnings posted here, but I literally don't know a single economically struggling "native [sic] white male" currently whipped up into hysteria about the immigration boogeyman who "doesn't want to compete with those who work hard."
Maybe as progressives trying to educate on and promote humane and economically sane immigration reforms we could back off of the "poor whites are lazy losers" argument that alienates the working poor so thoroughly...."We have transparent, snickering contempt for you, but vote for us for your own economic good if you're not too stupid to do so" isn't going to ever work for progressives and the bottom is rapidly dropping out on that for the Republican party as well.
Don't tell a guy who has been left humiliated and frightened for himself and his family because he can't find work, or enough work, that he just "doesn't want to compete with those who work hard" and expect him to pay attention to another goddamn fact or figure you have to offer demonstrating how it isn't actually "the Mexicans" who have "stolen" his job. This isn't how you win Democratic votes in a critical election year, either, and I'm angry and frightened myself at how we've gotten ourselves into a place where an actual right-wing populist fascist has a shot of the presidency in part because of how both major parties have aggressively ignored growing income inequality and structural violence as more and more jobs (that used to sustain entire families) simply no longer exist due to technological innovations, cheaper labor internationally, etc.
We all ought to hate ignorance and racism, but contempt for individuals will never win you the hearts and minds you need--like it or not--in a democracy.
posted by blue suede stockings at 12:38 PM on July 17, 2016 [24 favorites]
[Also, I really hate threads that, instead of engaging on the content of the actual article, turn into "LOOK AT THE FLAMING DUMPSTER FIRE OF ALL THE WORST OF HUMANITY IN THE COMMENTS THREAD, LOOK AT IT" like these baying attention trolls are some kind of interesting, remarkable surprise at this point on any article having to do with Muslims, immigration, LGBTQ issues, feminism, people of color, etc.]
posted by blue suede stockings at 12:57 PM on July 17, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by blue suede stockings at 12:57 PM on July 17, 2016 [5 favorites]
how about no one should have to work that hard cause those conditions are sub-human
posted by The Whelk at 1:01 PM on July 17, 2016 [15 favorites]
posted by The Whelk at 1:01 PM on July 17, 2016 [15 favorites]
“If you don’t have education, nobody will respect you,” he said. “If you don’t educate yourself, you don’t have employment. I want to be a good person and have an education … have a good, stable job. I want to have a home, the sort of home I never had.”
Pretty much the definition of the kind of people we WANT!
(didn't read the comments, can we consider a referendum on deporting some of those? )
posted by sammyo at 1:14 PM on July 17, 2016
Pretty much the definition of the kind of people we WANT!
(didn't read the comments, can we consider a referendum on deporting some of those? )
posted by sammyo at 1:14 PM on July 17, 2016
Until he aged out at 18, Gaspar Marcos was charitably housed in a magnificent Gothic Revival mansion built by John Parkinson. If the fate of these kids touches you, help Casa Libre out.
posted by Scram at 1:33 PM on July 17, 2016 [8 favorites]
posted by Scram at 1:33 PM on July 17, 2016 [8 favorites]
With in-demand rental housing in the absence of rent controls, the rent you pay is what it takes to keep the next guy from taking the lease.
With in-demand rental housing in the presence of rent controls, you won't have that option because the next guy will already have taken the lease.
Either way the only solution is to allow enough housing that both guys can have it, but that doesn't seem to be happening.
posted by alexei at 2:29 PM on July 17, 2016 [1 favorite]
With in-demand rental housing in the presence of rent controls, you won't have that option because the next guy will already have taken the lease.
Either way the only solution is to allow enough housing that both guys can have it, but that doesn't seem to be happening.
posted by alexei at 2:29 PM on July 17, 2016 [1 favorite]
I mean, $600 a month seems like a lot for a room in a house to me, too, but my hunch is that it's not as big a problem for him as the $10,000 debt that he owes to human traffickers. This is a story about a lot of things, but high LA rents doesn't seem to me to be the most significant one!
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 2:45 PM on July 17, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 2:45 PM on July 17, 2016 [3 favorites]
I came to an interesting (to me) conclusion after examining what I thought about "illegals" and other abused workers. I've had the automatic pragmatic reaction that this group of workers were an unfortunate leg of the current economy. If it was removed, the economy would tumble over.
However, I tried to think sympathetically from the point of view of the racists. "Illegals" work a lot harder and in more unpleasant environments. This is a legitimate threat to the racists; instead of raising the bar, it really is more of lowering one across the board from the worker's point of view.
So instead of getting rid of "illegals," why not enforce worker safety and compensation laws more stringently? Bring back unions. Solidarity. Unionize everywhere - only workers with legitimate papers can join, and thus work. Hurray!
posted by porpoise at 2:59 PM on July 17, 2016 [1 favorite]
However, I tried to think sympathetically from the point of view of the racists. "Illegals" work a lot harder and in more unpleasant environments. This is a legitimate threat to the racists; instead of raising the bar, it really is more of lowering one across the board from the worker's point of view.
So instead of getting rid of "illegals," why not enforce worker safety and compensation laws more stringently? Bring back unions. Solidarity. Unionize everywhere - only workers with legitimate papers can join, and thus work. Hurray!
posted by porpoise at 2:59 PM on July 17, 2016 [1 favorite]
Thanks delighted, I was looking at this programme for exchange student hosts LA which provides a stipend to cover costs. This would be a more accurate way to represent what is done here in Canada.
posted by chapps at 3:36 PM on July 17, 2016
posted by chapps at 3:36 PM on July 17, 2016
In Canada the student fees also pay the school for the equivalent of the provincial budget so it's kind of like the students attention the public school as if it were a private school...
In any case my point was really that international students can come through these programme if they have the money, which is not particularly insightful... 😄
posted by chapps at 3:42 PM on July 17, 2016
In any case my point was really that international students can come through these programme if they have the money, which is not particularly insightful... 😄
posted by chapps at 3:42 PM on July 17, 2016
only workers with legitimate papers can join, and thus work. Hurray!
There was a story in Harper's years ago about how farm owners (et al) lobby against immigration restrictions because they depend on underpaid and underresourced illegal immigrants for their profit margins.
posted by rhizome at 3:46 PM on July 17, 2016 [4 favorites]
There was a story in Harper's years ago about how farm owners (et al) lobby against immigration restrictions because they depend on underpaid and underresourced illegal immigrants for their profit margins.
posted by rhizome at 3:46 PM on July 17, 2016 [4 favorites]
In today's NY Times, "We're helping deport kids to die."
posted by ChuraChura at 3:55 PM on July 17, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by ChuraChura at 3:55 PM on July 17, 2016 [2 favorites]
Companies and farm owners are the only ones who benefit from the current system. Both deportation and amnesty would hurt their bottom line. If you really wanted to fix the immigration problem, start fining businesses $10000 for every illegal immigrant caught working and step up enforcement, and its a hell of a lot easier to audit companies than individuals. Of course this will never happen since the current system gives them a caste of worker who cannot complain or sue them.
posted by benzenedream at 4:24 PM on July 17, 2016
posted by benzenedream at 4:24 PM on July 17, 2016
Clawsoon: you're right - $600/room is a normal price, not a fair price.
posted by samthemander at 4:54 PM on July 17, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by samthemander at 4:54 PM on July 17, 2016 [1 favorite]
Solidarity. Unionize everywhere - only workers with legitimate papers can join, and thus work. Hurray!
...
If you really wanted to fix the immigration problem, start fining businesses $10000 for every illegal immigrant caught working and step up enforcement, and its a hell of a lot easier to audit companies than individuals. Of course this will never happen since the current system gives them a caste of worker who cannot complain or sue them.
...yes? I believe this idea is called "self-deportation". It was not warmly received on Metafilter, for the obvious reason that it screws illegal immigrants hard. It has been tried, somewhat successfully (for certain definitions of success)...
posted by alexei at 10:36 PM on July 17, 2016
...
If you really wanted to fix the immigration problem, start fining businesses $10000 for every illegal immigrant caught working and step up enforcement, and its a hell of a lot easier to audit companies than individuals. Of course this will never happen since the current system gives them a caste of worker who cannot complain or sue them.
...yes? I believe this idea is called "self-deportation". It was not warmly received on Metafilter, for the obvious reason that it screws illegal immigrants hard. It has been tried, somewhat successfully (for certain definitions of success)...
posted by alexei at 10:36 PM on July 17, 2016
If we really wanted to fix the immigration problem our nation's corporate interests would need to stop exploiting and profiting off of instability, political corruption, military dictatorships, and slave labor in Latin America (and other countries). Instead of sending foreign aid in the form of weaponry, para-military training, neo-liberal economic policy diktats, privatization, and Coca-cola, we should be trying to create sustainable economies, and educated, involved citizens - or just stay the fuck out of their countries when the workers strike, or the people elect socialist governments.
posted by nikoniko at 12:41 AM on July 18, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by nikoniko at 12:41 AM on July 18, 2016 [2 favorites]
Here's a series of articles from Mother Jones on child migrants and refugees to the United States. Many of the children migrating alone to the US are not coming for the same economic reasons we tend to think of as driving undocumented immigration from Latin America. Poverty is at the root, but a lot of the kids are fleeing really excruciating gang violence. I don't think that unionizing workers, or enforcing better rent control in Los Angeles, are really going to solve the sorts of problems driving kids like Gaspar to the US, and conflating all of these different drivers of migration (and the consequences of deportation) is just muddying the political waters.
posted by ChuraChura at 6:48 AM on July 18, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by ChuraChura at 6:48 AM on July 18, 2016 [3 favorites]
Just as an aside, I emailed Belmont High School to see if there was a way to donate to help stock their food pantry, and received a nice note back that they're working on creating a fund for Gaspar. If anyone is interested in further updates on how to donate, you can email them through their website, or shoot me a message. I ride the same bus line often and I can't imagine handling that kind of schedule, let alone taking classes. No school should have to have a food pantry, but I'm grateful for Belmont for reaching out and helping their students in need.
posted by jetlagaddict at 11:03 PM on July 18, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by jetlagaddict at 11:03 PM on July 18, 2016 [2 favorites]
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never. read. the. comments.
("I've got mine, screw these guys" - "my tax dollars" - etc)
posted by lalochezia at 8:33 AM on July 17, 2016 [10 favorites]