Help! My papi needs a job
According to a recent AARP study, unemployment among older Hispanic men has tripled in the past couple of years. Commentator Gustavo Arellano's father is one those suffering from such unemployment. Do you have a job for him?
Commentator Gustavo Arellano (lataco.com)
More on Jobs, Commentaries
TEXT OF COMMENTARY
Kai Ryssdal: Tomorrow's unemployment numbers will give us the big picture. How many people who're looking for a job can't find one. Some people have to look longer and harder than others. Among older Hispanic men, for example, unemployment has tripled in the past couple of years. That's according to a study released by the AARP recently. We could give you more statistics to explain why. Or we can let commentator Gustavo Arellano tell us the story of one older Hispanic worker he knows very well.
GUSTAVO ARELLANO: Four months. Cuatro meses. That's how long my father hasn't worked. He was a truck driver for over 20 years, a short-hauler who took containers six days a week from the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles to warehouses across Southern California. One proud troquero, whose pre-dawn to post-sunset shifts gave his family a good, working-class life. Dad wasn't laid off so much as phased out. New air-quality regulations made his truck obsolete. Papi's 58 years old, so it makes no sense for him to buy another big rig. No trucking company will hire him, either. They can choose from thousands of other unemployed, younger troqueros. And his career options are limited. He dropped out of school in fourth grade in Mexico.
I've tried everything to find Papi a job: I tweeted about it, I asked my Facebook friends for leads. But, really, I can't do much. My work world is one of overeducated, white-collar professionals. They have no use for someone like my father, unless it's as a janitor, or a landscaper, someone to cook our drive-thru burritos. My dad says he'll do those jobs; he doesn't care. He wants to work. But me? I won't allow it.
Nothing against the fine people in the service sector, but my dad deserves better. He already danced the immigrant shuffle in the 1960s, when he cut carpets in a Hell's Kitchen-esque factory. And don't believe Smokey and the Bandit -- trucking ain't easy. Papi paid his dues toward the American Dream. I don't want to see or even think about dear old Dad, fighting people half his age for the right to make minimum wage.
Yeah, it's pride on my part. But I owe it to him, for everything he provided us. I'm dipping into my meager savings to keep him and mom afloat right now. But I'm still looking. Hey, since this commentary is about the job struggles of Pops: any of you overeducated listeners in Southern California want to hire a good Mexican? He's 58, but the hardest worker you'll ever meet.
E-mail me: themexican@askamexican.net.
Ryssdal: Gustavo Arellano's column in the Orange County Weekly is called "Ask a Mexican."
Comments
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From Evansville, IN, 11/07/2009
My crazy idea.
I would like to learn conversational Spanish. What about setting up a Skype webcam account with your dad. I would pay $8 per 30 minutes to learn basic conversation. Or maybe a block of 8 thirty minutes for $50?
From Roseville, CA, 11/07/2009
Many of us can relate to your situation. I say let Papi get and do the jobs that he can. The one thing you must let happen is for Papi to keep his dignity. This is not about you, it is about what type of man your father is. A proud Mexican that has obviously passed it on to you. Support who he is. Do not cripple him. Even through this he is trying to teach you something. Lastly, my father in law has a fourth grade Mexican education who after a 20 year career building the Cheney empire and nothing to show for it but a brass watch as he too was phased out, he then very proudly provided for his wife and himself as a janitor.He was able to provide medical benefits for him and his wife, he even eared retirement benefits.Good luck with your search and may God bless you and your family.
From Anaheim, CA, 11/06/2009
Emerson: Yes, yes, yes. He's more American than your pitiful, Know Nothing existence can ever hope to be. Teresa: No, no, no! I'm not trying to be disrespectful to the service sector. I'm just saying that the job I'd like for my father would pay as much as a troquero, and I'm not sure a job as a cook or janitor would match the salary he'd make (which was never much to begin with). I don't have much in savings, but we'll make do--hell, if need be, I'll get the service sector job! William: Gracias! Deborah: Great advice!
From Stafford, VA, 11/06/2009
Gustavo’s Papi after all was a good provider: so now Gustavo needs to sit back and let his father make yet another choice: not to remain idle— and even if that risks, “he'll do (menial, even stereotypical) jobs…”
For, as Gustavo also says, “he wants to work.” Or, if the nobility within us ennobles the work, as Dr. King once put forth— Gustavo’s father it appears embodies that notion. Gustavo could help his Papi then locate resources becoming available to older workers, to update or augment skills. Programs generated from economic stimulus moneys area community colleges and local agencies on aging, are good places to start. So for instance, as a troquero he could gain knowledge in truck- or engine-repair that are lucrative fields. Or he need not necessarily limit himself: to attain a GED and advance from that point. 58, is not all that old.
From Champlin, MN, 11/05/2009
Hey Gustavo, I was proud of you when I heard your report tonight. My father, too was a working man who provided for his family by working a railroad job for over forty years. You are right, your father deserves better than a minimum wage service job. Such jobs are good trainng for young Americans as they move up the ladder to better paying and better conditions on the job. I applaud you for helping your parents by using your savings in an effort to maintain their quality of life. If my father were alive today, I would do the same. You are a good son.
From Milwaukee, WI, 11/05/2009
I appologize for the racist comment from my fellow Wisconsinite. Not everyone here agrees with him. We feel it's honorable to help friends and family who have less than we.
From miami, FL, 11/05/2009
Mr. Arellano-I don't know why you thumb your nose at cooks, landscapers,or janitors. Those are proud and honest jobs that anyone in your fathers shoes should be lucky to find. He needs to support his family, right? Your father might not take those jobs now knowing that his son thinks they are beneath him. Your father is still a young man at 58- I hope you have lots of money in your savings account. By the way, no such thing as being OVEREDUCATED.
From Monroe, WI, 11/05/2009
A couple of questions: 1.Does he speak English? That would help. 2.Is he loyal to America or Mexico? 3.Has he sent money back to Mexicans? If so, ask them for a job or money too.
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