Mexicans Labor

Four hundred years ago, buccaneers roamed the Spanish Main, plundering galleons heavy with silver spewed out by the mines of Mexico's Guanajuato state. But now Guanajuato exports something entirely different: men. Over the last three decades, hundreds of men from one small village alone--El Maguey--have taken the 1,300-mile road north from central Mexico. Nearly every one finds the same job: Nailing up drywall for Southern California's housing industry. Many of them are related.

Antonio Nuño Gonzalez stood in line in Mexico and waited for his papers to come to the United States. Eventually he was packed into a cattle car with other men for the trip north. After crossing the border, he was sprayed with DDT and stripped naked for a physical examination so thorough he's still making ribald jokes about it more than 50 years later. It was all worth it for the chance to do back-breaking work ? picking cotton, strawberries, lettuce and other California crops, from the desert heat of Brawley to the verdant coastal valley of Watsonville.

Mexico's labor secretary on Tuesday defended his government's decision to send federal police officers to remove striking workers from a historically symbolic copper mine in northern Mexico. But miners insisted that their ejection was violent and protested what they called a crackdown on organized labor. About 50 workers plus families camped out at the Cananea mine were removed Sunday, ending a strike that had dragged on for three years. The government said no injuries were reported, but miners union officials said their members were met with tear gas and aggressive riot police.

Mexico's labor secretary on Tuesday defended his government's decision to send federal police officers to remove striking workers from a historically symbolic copper mine in northern Mexico. But miners insisted that their ejection was violent and protested what they called a crackdown on organized labor. About 50 workers plus families camped out at the Cananea mine were removed Sunday, ending a strike that had dragged on for three years. The government said no injuries were reported, but miners union officials said their members were met with tear gas and aggressive riot police.

Mexico's largest labor union on Monday named a temporary successor to Fidel Velazquez, the longtime labor boss who died over the weekend. The Federation of Mexican Workers picked Leonardo Rodriguez Alcaine, substitute secretary-general of the labor organization. The Federation of Mexican Workers, which claims 5 1/2 million members, said Rodriguez Alcaine, 78, will serve until a workers congress in February. The congress will either vote to extend his term or choose another leader.

We're all trying to get our lives back to normal six months after Sept. 11. Maybe that explains why President Bush is focusing on the region of the world he knows best--Latin America--even as the war in Afghanistan winds down, another war in the Middle East rages on and policymakers in Washington debate the possibility of a new war against Iraq. Normally, Latin Americans applaud whenever a U.S.

Racial tensions over an encampment of Mexican day laborers here boiled over Thursday night when at least six Anglos wielding baseball bats stampeded through the camp, seriously injuring three men. The attack was believed to be meant as retaliation for the rape of a white woman near the encampment last week, a sheriff's deputy said. No suspects were in custody in connection with the alleged rape and it may not be linked to the camp, law enforcement officials say.

Leonardo Rodriguez Alcaine, 86, the leader of Mexico's largest and most politically influential labor organization, died Saturday at a hospital in Mexico City of a heart illness, union officials said. Rodriguez Alcaine served as secretary-general of the Mexican Workers' Confederation since the death in 1997 of Fidel Vazquez, who had dominated Mexico's union movement since the late 1930s.

He shuffles with an old man's frailty, his face glistening with drool, his clothes dusted with a confetti of cigar ash. But don't try telling Fidel Velazquez that he should give up his half-century-long reign over Mexican unions. "Every part of me is working fine--including the one you're thinking about," the ribald 95-year-old declared to journalists recently. "And don't ask me about my heart," he growled. "I don't have one."

Agapito Gonzalez, who for decades has controlled the maquiladora unions in the Mexican border town of Matamoros, is being forced from power by national leaders of the Mexican Workers Federation. Fidel Velazquez, the 90-year-old patriarch of the federation, known by the initials CTM, accused Gonzalez of corruption and dismissed him as president of the federation's Matamoros branch a week ago.

Leonardo Rodriguez Alcaine, 86, the leader of Mexico's largest and most politically influential labor organization, died Saturday at a hospital in Mexico City of a heart illness, union officials said. Rodriguez Alcaine served as secretary-general of the Mexican Workers' Confederation since the death in 1997 of Fidel Vazquez, who had dominated Mexico's union movement since the late 1930s.

We're all trying to get our lives back to normal six months after Sept. 11. Maybe that explains why President Bush is focusing on the region of the world he knows best--Latin America--even as the war in Afghanistan winds down, another war in the Middle East rages on and policymakers in Washington debate the possibility of a new war against Iraq. Normally, Latin Americans applaud whenever a U.S.

An alleged white supremacist was convicted Wednesday of trying to kill two Mexican laborers in an attack that inflamed racial tensions in several Long Island communities. Ryan Wagner, 20, was found guilty of two counts each of attempted murder and assault. He faces up to 50 years in prison when he is sentenced Jan. 9. "Ryan, I love you!" his sobbing mother, Arlene, shouted as her son was led from the courtroom. Several jurors cried as the verdict was read.

The towns of Jackson and San Simeon appear to have little in common: One is a ski town where the average home is $1.25 million; the other is a village in central Mexico where indoor plumbing is a luxury. But their economies have been linked, some say inextricably, since residents of San Simeon and neighboring Hueyotlipan began coming to Jackson about 10 years ago to fill the surfeit of hotel and restaurant jobs.

Msgr. John Brenkle opened the door at the rectory here one recent morning to pick up the newspaper and almost tripped over a man sleeping on the doorstep with the welcome mat pulled over his shoulders for warmth. Brenkle suggested that the Mexican farmhand go around to the back of the church where the others were sleeping. Maybe you can find a blanket, the priest said. This time of year the grapes hang heavy in Napa Valley, and the Mexicans come to pick them.

A man accused in an incident allegedly fueled by ethnic hatred was found guilty Thursday of attempted murder for severely beating two Mexican day laborers. Wearing a suit, an American flag tie and a long-sleeved shirt that covered his many skinhead and swastika tattoos, Christopher Slavin, 29, was convicted on two counts each of attempted murder and assault. Slavin showed no emotion as the verdict was read. A second suspect, Robert Wagner, 19, will be tried later on the same charges.

One person died and at least 21 were injured after two rival labor groups clashed in a posh Mexico City hotel, sparking a gunfight that sent guests fleeing to their rooms and left the lobby's walls riddled with bullet holes, authorities said Friday. Police and Red Cross officials said six of the injured remained hospitalized following the shoot-out Thursday night at the five-star Hotel Presidente Chapultepec.

Jose Antonio Martinez remembers clearly that it was a Thursday--a payday at the Mexican factory where for seven years he labored alongside his uncle--when despair jarred something inside him. The 15-year-old, worn out by factory life and so poor he had never owned new clothing, feared he might remain an impoverished laborer for the rest of his life. So, on that Thursday four years ago, he picked up his $15 paycheck to head for the border and a country where he knew no one.

Breakaway union leaders on Friday inaugurated an independent labor federation claiming more than 1.5 million members, infusing yet another pillar of Mexican society with an unaccustomed spirit of democracy.

The formation last week of a breakaway coalition of Mexican unions signals the profound changes here assailing organized labor, which up to now has been a monolithic but docile pillar of the nation's ruling party.